How to grow sweet potatoes well (simple methods to grow sweet potatoes with high yield and delicious taste)

Sweet potatoes are a delicacy in many people's minds. They can be steamed, baked, fried, etc., and they are all very delicious. In the market, you can often see sweet potatoes for sale. Some have smooth skin and large tubers, while others have insects on the skin and small tubers. The price is not cheap.

There are varieties of sweet potatoes with white flesh and red skin, red flesh and red skin, and yellow flesh and yellow skin. They have different tastes and characteristics. When planting sweet potatoes yourself, you should choose the variety you like and buy seedlings. If you plan to sell them, the variety you plant is not important.

In order for the sweet potatoes to have good appearance, sweet taste and high yield, they must be carefully managed from planting to the months before harvest.

My family's method of growing sweet potatoes was passed down from our ancestors. We don't grow many, and we mainly grow them for our own consumption. Therefore, the methods we use are relatively traditional, but the yield and quality of sweet potatoes are relatively good. Here I will share with you our high-yield method of growing sweet potatoes.

1. Land preparation method before planting sweet potatoes

The main harvest object of sweet potato is the tuber. The tuber grows in the soil and depends on the soil. Therefore, before planting sweet potato, the soil needs to be improved. The improvement methods are as follows.

After the last crop was planted and washed by rain many times, the soil will become hardened. Even if it is not hardened, the soil will be consumed and washed by rain for several months, and a large part of the nutrients in the soil will be lost. Some rare nutrients will be missing, so it is necessary to properly till the soil and apply base fertilizer.

Tilling is very simple, usually done by oxen pulling a plow. If you have the tools, you can do the tilling yourself. If you don't have land, you can ask a professional farmer in the village to do the tilling.

For general cultivated land, the soil is first plowed and ridges are made. When planting sweet potatoes, farmyard manure (wood ash must be added to farmyard manure) is sprinkled in the seed furrows as base fertilizer.

However, it is recommended to apply base fertilizer to the entire ground every two years, that is, before plowing, evenly spread fermented farmyard manure on the surface of the land.

At the same time, sprinkle some trace element fertilizers (such as iron, manganese, boron, etc.), then plow and make ridges. When planting, you also need to apply farmyard manure in the seed furrow as base fertilizer.

If it is found that the previous crop is seriously infested with insect pests, the land needs to be cooled for 2 months after the previous crop is harvested.

Allow the insect eggs in the soil to hatch, and then migrate away due to lack of food, and then plant sweet potatoes, thus minimizing insect pests.

2. Fertilization method for sweet potato planting

We apply fertilizer three times when growing sweet potatoes. The first time is the base fertilizer, which is what I mentioned above, so I won’t repeat it here.

The second time is to apply fertilizer to promote seedling growth , which means to start applying fertilizer on the tenth day after the seedlings have awakened (after the sweet potato seedlings have grown roots). The fertilizer at this time is configured like this.

Add 20% nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizer and 10% urea to the farmyard manure, mix well, then apply it to the pit at the root of the sweet potato seedlings and cover with soil.

The third time is the root strengthening fertilizer (the root here refers to the tuberous root) , which is applied about one and a half months after the sweet potatoes are planted. The fertilizer at this time is configured like this.

Add 30% nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizer to the farmyard manure, stir evenly and apply it to the pit at the root of the sweet potato seedlings, cover with soil, and then build up the soil to seal the ridges (the so-called sealing the ridges means that you don’t need to apply fertilizer, loosen the soil or build up the soil later).

3. Sweet potato planting method

There are different ways to plant sweet potatoes in the north and south. In the north, the vertical planting method is generally used , that is, first use the sweet potato tubers to grow seedlings. Then break off the seedlings growing on the tubers, dip the wound in plant ash, and then plant them vertically in the seed trench and cover them with soil.

We basically use the flat planting method here in the south , which is to cut a section of the sweet potato seedlings from the established sweet potato seedlings (usually leaving 10 long leaves and 5 eyes).

Then plant it flat in the planting ditch, leaving three or four leaves outside the soil when covering it. After planting, step on the roots of the sweet potato seedlings to compact the soil to prevent the sweet potato seedlings from withering in the sun, as shown in the figure below.

When planting sweet potatoes, ridges must be created. Generally, one row is planted in one ridge. The ridge width is about 50 cm and the ridge height is about 35 cm. The ridge height refers to the distance from the bottom of the ridge ditch to the top of the ridge; the bottom of the ridge is one-third wider than the top of the ridge.

4. Farmyard manure fermentation method

In the above, we always use farmyard manure as the main fertilizer. Maybe some friends will ask, where does so much farmyard manure come from? In fact, in rural areas, the source of farmyard manure is actually very simple, there are three ways.

The first one is the manure of poultry and livestock . This should be easy. Just raise more chickens and ducks, collect them, and pile them together for fermentation.

The second is wood ash fertilizer . In rural areas, people collect some miscellaneous garbage every day, such as dead branches and leaves, dead weeds, etc. These garbage are piled together and then burned, and then wood ash can be collected.

The third type is fermented fertilizer , which is the main source of farm manure. It is very important and easy to make. The most common things in rural areas are not people, but weeds, trees, and stems and vines of crops.

Apart from a portion of these being burned into ash, the rest will be wasted if not processed.

Therefore, these weeds, leaves, and stems of crops can be fermented. The fermentation method is very simple. The first step is to chop these things into pieces (the finer the better).

Then, put them all in a container or composting tank, add a fermentation agent (em bacteria), and the fermentation will be completed in about 5 days.

There is a saying that goes like this: one sweet potato and a handful of ash, and the sweet potatoes grow into a pile. This shows that plant ash is essential for the growth of sweet potatoes.

Therefore, when applying base fertilizer, be sure to add 30% of plant ash to the farmyard manure. The main component of plant ash is potassium, so when applying topdressing, add an appropriate amount of potassium fertilizer.