The sweet potato is becoming more popular day by day. It is not only tasty, but also healthy. How can you grow this curiosity yourself in your garden? What needs to be considered in order to get the long-awaited harvest later? Everyone knows that sweet potatoes are native to tropical countries. He "loves" warmth and cannot stand the cold. Let's take this axiom as a rule and list, based on this, some of the features of planting and growing the "fruit of longevity," as the Chinese call it.
Read about the beneficial properties of sweet potatoes, harm and calorie content
For growing, choose an open, sunny location with fertile loamy and sandy loam soil. Dig it to a depth of 15–20 cm, but no more - so too thin and long roots will develop in the soil, which means that the yield will be an order of magnitude lower.
In autumn, during digging for 1 square meter, you will need:
- Compost (5–6 kg) or rotted manure (3 kg).
- Potassium sulfate (15 g).
- Superphosphate (20 g).
Many people are mistaken if they think that sweet potatoes are planted in the same way as potatoes. Despite the fact that the sweet potato is essentially a “sweet potato”, it is not planted with tubers! This culture has a long growing season, so the sweet potato simply does not have time to form full-fledged tubers. Its planting method is seedling.
Growing sweet potatoes: how to cook seedlings
Purchase some tubers (if you have a small plot). For germination, sweet potatoes are laid in winter (January-February). To do this, build a small box 15–20 cm high. Place it on a pallet and keep it on the windowsill. To remove excess moisture, it would be good to drill several holes in the bottom of the box.
The soil consists of 1 part of loose soil, as well as taken in equal amounts of humus and coarse sand. Stir everything and fill a half-box with this mixture, pour a layer of granular sand on top (about 3-5 cm).
It is useful to disinfect sweet potato tubers in a weak solution of copper sulfate before laying for germination. Then place them on the sand and lightly press them into the ground. Sprinkle on top with coarse sand (3 cm). The temperature level for germination ranges from 18-27 degrees. Don't forget to water regularly. If everything is done correctly, then the first seedlings will appear in a month. When you reach 4–6 internodes, separate the shoots from the tuber and transplant them into a pot with soil or a warm greenhouse. Shoot the tubers 5-6 times every 10 days.
How to plant in open ground
It is necessary to plant when the soil warms up well. For example, in the south, planting of sweet potatoes begins at the end of April and ends in the first decade of June.
You can plant with dived seedlings or unrooted cuttings from those plants that have developed from sprouts (you separated them from the tubers by early harvest). If you are planting cuttings, then remove all large leaves, leave short stalks. The planting material should contain 4–5 internodes. If there is enough moisture, the cuttings will quickly take root, and the roots will develop at the nodes that are submerged in the moist soil layer.
Depending on the characteristics of the variety (short-leafed and long-leafed), the ridges should be 70-120 cm wide, between the bushes - from 30 to 50 cm.
Watering the sweet potato
The sweet potato needs to be watered abundantly during the rooting of the cuttings, but in the second half of the growing season, this should not be done too often. Watering is stopped 20 days before harvesting.
When to Dig: Harvesting
Productivity 1–1, 5 kg / m2. The sweet potato should be dug out in dry, sunny weather at the end of October - this is the only way it will last for a long time (up to six months). Store at a temperature of 8-12 ° C, in a dry ventilated area. If you dig it up in rainy, damp weather or after the onset of frost, the sweet potato will quickly disappear. It is then processed or fed to pets.
