National Gardening Association: Harvesting Sweet Potatoes, Harvest to Table: How to Grow Sweet Potatoes. Here are some key instructions on curing and storing sweet potatoes. Much below 55 degrees and sweet potatoes (similar to winter squash) will suffer chilling injury. Sweet potatoes should be side dressed with additional nitrogen fertilizer in early July for optimum vine growth and tuber sizing. If your sweet potatoes were grown in a container, simply dump your container into awheel barrow, cardboard on the ground or garbage bag this makes for easy cleanup. Store your sweet potatoes in a dry and cool environment (such as a garage or basement). It’s best to stop watering your sweet potatoes 3-4 weeks before harvest. Be careful to do this in a gentle manner, so that the potatoes do not become damaged by bruising or piercing the skin. Then the area is kept at about 90% humidity. Find solutions for sourcing organic sweet potato slips and fertilizing with naturally derived nutrients. Container grown sweet potatoes should be ready for harvest after 150 days and certainly just after a vine killing frost. Although you should have harvested them earlier, you can still salvage the crop. Keep greenhouse plants well watered, and feed every other week with a high-potassium liquid feed. © 2021 Discovery or its subsidiaries and affiliates. With southern gardens, try to keep your potatoes in until 120 days since typically cold nights and frost will not be a problem. To help increase their sweetness, place harvested sweet potatoes in a dark, warm room for at least two weeks before eating. Ideal conditions are the same as for winter squash—just slightly cool (55 to 60 degrees) and with a moderate relative humidity (60 to 75 percent). Because they have thin skins sweet potatoes are easily damaged during harvest so extra care should be taken. The longer you are able to keep the plants in the ground, the larger and more numerousyour harvest will be. Slips or Store Bought Potatoes. When the ground bulges, they are almost ready to harvest. Although you should have harvested them earlier, you can still salvage the crop. The sweet potato root has a delicate skin that is easily bruised at harvest. You can also harvest sweet potatoes earlier than this, when they are slightly immature. Sweet potato storage requires careful curing to prevent mildew and to trigger the formation of sugar producing enzymes. Browse a full list of topics found on the site, from accessories to mudrooms to wreaths. You’ll know when your sweet potatoes are ready to harvest when the leaves start to turn yellow. If you have enough warning, though, try draping a heavy-weight garden fabric over your sweet potato bed before the rain starts, and remove it once the downpour has let up. When you first harvest them sweet potatoes are not really sweet and the texture is not ideal. Sweet potatoes are the tuberous roots of a beautiful perennial vine. Or you can wait until just before your first frost and harvest them then. When to Harvest Sweet Potatoes When to harvest sweet potatoes depends largely on the seasonal growing. All rights reserved. We love to DIY. She has also written for various online publications. Most sweet potato varieties are ready to harvest 95 to 120 days after transplanting. Beauregard is one of the world’s most popular sweet potatoes. Learn when and how to harvest and cure sweet potatoes to enjoy during the winter months. About 4 months after planting sweet potato slips, you can dig up a few and see how large they’ve grown. Sweet potatoes are always a favorite on the holiday dinner table. After harvesting, store the sweet potatoes in a box in a warm room. Typically, most varieties will take about three to four months to mature – about 90 to 120 days, but there are some newer varieties that take less time and bred specifically for northern climates (such as Georgia Jet, Vardaman, Centennial). There are hundreds of different orange sweet potatoes to grow – here are the top five recommended by the experts. This is a good time for harvest. Watch the weather report and harvest your sweet potatoes when the night time temperatures start to dip into the 40s to 30s to ensure that none of your crop is lost to frost. It offers high-yield and disease-resistance. Keeping in mind that the longer you keep them in the ground the … Typically, sweet potatoes are grown from purchased slips, but it’s possible to root a store-bought sweet potato, as well. Sweet potatoes are versatile tubers that have fewer calories than traditional potatoes and are a perfect stand in for that starchy vegetable. Here, in Virginia, it’s best to harvest sweet potatoes just before the first frost. You'll be happy to know sweet potatoes can be grown in containers. It’s easy to tell when tomatoes and peppers are ripe, but those hidden wonders developing under the ground don’t scream "harvest time" like other vegetables do. Sweet potato varieties are ready to harvest 95 to 120 days after planting in the garden. Even dropping the potatoes into a harvest bucket will injure the skin. You can have homegrown tubers for months past the growing season if you know how to store sweet potatoes after harvest. Sweet potatoes can be harvested when roots are 1½ to 2 inches thick. Examine the ground for bulges about 90 to 100 days after planting sweet potatoes. When to Harvest Sweet Potatoes. Sometimes, you can’t do much about this if Mother Nature is the culprit. When the leaves turn slightly yellow they are usually ready to harvest. If you have a shorter growing season, your potatoes may be smaller in size, but will still have the same wonderful taste as larger spuds. The mystery of the sweet potato origins continues with each hemisphere arguing that this delicious food crop belongs to them. For home gardeners, the best time to harvest sweet potatoes is immediately before or just after the first fall frost. When to harvest sweet potatoes will depend on the cultivar that you purchased. When receiving your slips, it is important to read the packing. Sweet potatoes will continue to grow and produce until frost or freeze stops them. Since the roots spread 4 to 6 inches deep in the soil, a spade fork is useful when digging up the potatoes. Digging your sweet potatoes up is extremely easy, but will take some heavy lifting and back muscle. Gardeners in North Carolina, the biggest sweet potato-producing state, time their plantings so the roots will mature by late September and early October. Sweet potatoes are easy to grow but they do need a few things to grow really well. 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