When And How: Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

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Are you a sweet potato lover? It doesn’t have as many fans as potatoes, but those who love it know they can only eat it for a certain amount of time. Thus, learning about growing sweet potatoes will help you enjoy this food for longer (which will also be better if you take good care of it). In this read, we will see how Harvesting Sweet Potatoes really works

But how are sweet potatoes grown? What do you need to remember about this close relative of the potato? If you are already thinking about the delicacies to eat with sweet potatoes in your garden, take a look, because we will explain everything to you.

When and How to Plant Sweet Potatoes

The best time to plant sweet potatoes is undoubtedly spring and summer. Between April and June, the first, so to speak, “clutch” for planting occurs. And in August and September, it was possible to make a second clutch.

Yes, you need a place with a temperate and tropical climate (i.e. hot but humid). Plus a lot of light.

We would tell you that you can plant in winter too, but growing sweet potatoes does not tolerate low temperatures, so if you do not control this (for example, in a home greenhouse, you can grow them all year round.

Once planted, they should take four to six months to harvest the sweet potatoes. How do you know? It’s simple: the plant begins to turn yellow leaves, which means that its fruits are ripe and ready to be harvested.

Growing sweet potatoes in pots

While the desire to grow sweet potatoes in pots is not common, it is possible if the plant’s needs are met. And the fact is, it needs a fairly large depth (something like a potato) so that it can grow properly without having to replant it when it reaches height (30cm and 6-10 leaves).

Planting multiple sweet potato plants in one pot is not recommended. … Considering that on land there should be a distance of at least 80 cm between them, it will be very difficult to do this in a pot, unless you have a very long and tall one.

Sweet Potato Cultivation Care

Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

Next, we’ll talk with you about all the aspects that affect growing sweet potatoes, so it’s clear how you should proceed, especially if you dare to plant several.

Earth

Earlier we told you about its best place and that it loves heat, but we didn’t say anything about the land. Sweet potatoes need acidic soil with a pH of 4.5 to 7.5. Your ideal is 6.0, but in that order.

We recommend that it is grainy, coarse and loose in texture, crumbly and of course that it drains well.

Be careful with nitrogen in the soil as it can affect the tubers.

Semilla

One of the easiest ways to grow sweet potatoes is to get seeds. It can be tricky though, because you need sweet potatoes. If you get it, you need to wash it very well and cut it in half.

Then fill a bowl with water and place the sliced ​​sweet potato with the cut side down. To give you an idea, the water should be 2.5–5 cm above the ground. Bring the fountain to the window and let it breathe in air and sunlight. This means that you will have to replace the evaporated water every day (or even several times a day).

La Split sweet potatoes will take 2-4 weeks to show signs of development. And you will notice that the pieces begin to grow roots, just like the stem. You need to wait until it becomes something big, especially if you have a lot of white roots to separate this plant from the sweetest potatoes. Before planting them in the ground, you will have to leave them in a vase of water, also submerging the stem for at least 48 hours. This will help the roots to multiply and strengthen. It will now be ready to land.

Irrigation

As with any plant, watering the sweet potato is one of the keys to successful cultivation. As we said earlier, sweet potatoes love moisture. And that’s what he loves to be in an 85% humidity environment. Therefore, when watering, it is necessary to moisten the soil abundantly, but without the formation of puddles, as this will be harmful and lead to decay of the roots.

A little trick that, while requiring more awareness, will help you distribute watering throughout the day. That is, water instead of one, two or three, with less, but thus allows you to constantly see the wet earth without overdoing it.

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Experts recommend fertilizing the plant during cultivation is impractical. This is usually done first when it is about to be planted, as the soil is enriched so that the plant has all the nutrients it needs to grow.

But beyond that, you just need to check that the soil is rich in potassium and poor in nitrogen so that the sweet potatoes get fat well.

Plague and disease

Unfortunately, growing sweet potatoes is challenging due to common pests and diseases. In the case of pests, it can be attacked by wireworm or bream, as well as a black bagel.

Diseases that sweet potatoes can suffer from are virus, sweet potato mummification, Fusarium oxysporum, or Sweet potato Backrot.

How sweet potatoes are harvested

Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

After a few months (4 to 6), the plant will be ready to harvest. It is important that, 15 days before this, cut off the branches to prevent his strength and energy from moving to the branches and focusing them on these “fruits”. Once this time is up, you can take out the plant and start collecting the sweet potatoes. Depending on how much it grew, where you grew it, etc. this will give you more or less.

As you can see, growing sweet potatoes is very easy to obtain. Do you dare to plant?

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I am Jessica Moretti, mother of 1 boy and 2 beautiful twin angels, and live in on Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia. I started this blog to discuss issues on parenting, motherhood and to explore my own experiences as a parent. I hope to help you and inspire you through simple ideas for happier family life!

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