How to grow sweet potatoes to get high yield?

Sweet potatoes generally prefer warm and well-lit growing conditions, and their entire growth cycle depends on abundant sunlight. Therefore, growers should choose well-drained sandy soil and pay attention to applying sufficient phosphorus and potassium fertilizers to meet the nutritional needs of sweet potato growth. Let’s learn how to grow sweet potatoes to achieve high yields.

1. Cultivate healthy and strong seedlings

The quality of sweet potato seedlings has a direct impact on yield. Strong potato seedlings can take root and produce potatoes faster, and have stronger resistance to adversity and growth rate. Therefore, cultivating healthy and strong seedlings is one of the key technologies to achieve high yields of sweet potatoes. Choose a place that is sheltered from the wind, facing the sun, with convenient drainage and irrigation, and easy to manage as the seedbed. In the seedbed management, tasks such as pruning seedlings, transplanting and fertilizing are necessary. The goal is to cultivate healthy and strong seedlings with thick stems, short nodes, no diseases and insects, neat top leaves, and thick and green leaves.

1. Seed arrangement

Choose potato tubers that are moderate in size (single potato weight is preferably 200-300 grams), uniform in shape, free of pests, diseases, wounds, and cold damage as seed potatoes. The width of the seedling bed is 1-1.2 meters, and the length can be adjusted according to needs. Usually, every 50 kilograms of seed potatoes can provide 9,000-15,000 seedlings, which is enough for planting 3-4 acres. The average seed amount per acre of field is about 10-25 kilograms, and the seeding period is controlled about 100 days before planting.

2. Seedling cultivation

When the seedlings grow to 25-30 cm in length, they are transplanted to propagate the seedlings. When the number of nodes of the transplanted seedlings reaches 6-10, they are topped to promote branching.

3. Fertilization promotes strong seedlings

During the planned seedling collection period (5-8 days before planting), apply an appropriate amount of quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer to cultivate tender and strong seedlings, and collect and plant the seedlings in time when the potato seedlings grow to 25-30 cm.

2. Site selection, land preparation and ridge preparation

1. Site selection

For sweet potato planting, sandy loam or loam with medium or above fertility and convenient drainage and irrigation should be selected. High-yield sweet potatoes require suitable soil, which is characterized by loose soil, deep soil layer, sufficient nutrients and strong air permeability.

2. Scientific fertilization

(1) For cultivated land with medium or higher soil fertility: apply 25-30 kg of urea, 30-50 kg of phosphorus, and 30-40 kg of potassium sulfate per mu;

(2) For cultivated land with average soil fertility: apply 30-45 kg of urea, 35-55 kg of general phosphorus, and 40-50 kg of potassium sulfate per mu. It is best to use farmyard manure for sweet potato planting, and follow the fertilization principles of "farmyard manure as the main, chemical fertilizer as the auxiliary, base fertilizer as the main, topdressing as the auxiliary".

3. Ridge making

Planting in raised beds is beneficial for drainage during the rainy season and decomposition of organic matter, raising ground temperature and increasing the temperature difference between day and night, which is beneficial to the growth of sweet potatoes and the accumulation of nutrients in the root system. Combined with deep plowing and ridge planting, the physical and chemical properties of the soil can be improved to achieve high yields. When making ridges, the furrows should be narrow and deep, without a "hard center". The bed spacing is generally 1.1-1.3 meters, the bed height is 0.3-0.4 meters, and it runs east-west to improve the light exposure and light energy utilization rate of sweet potatoes.

3. Planting

1. Choose top seedlings for planting

The apical seedlings have thick stems, large leaves, heavy seedlings, strong growth, apical dominance, well-developed nutritional organs, strong resistance to adversity, fast greening after planting, early rooting, large swell and high yield. Experiments have shown that planting top-strength seedlings generally increases yields by 10% compared to cutting seedlings in a hotbed or using other seedlings.

2. Field planting

There are many ways to plant sweet potatoes, including straight planting, oblique planting, horizontal planting, hook planting, and improved horizontal planting, depending on the location of the land, groundwater, and rainfall during the planting season. The planting method has a direct impact on the rooting and survival of potato seedlings, and the formation and expansion of potato tubers. Therefore, it is necessary to control the planting depth so that all nodes of the potato seedlings are in a soil layer with loose soil, good air permeability, and a large temperature difference between day and night to grow and form potatoes. The top strong seedlings with a length of 20-25 cm generally have 7-8 leaves. When planting, leave about 3-4 leaves on the ground and insert the remaining 4-5 leaves into the soil. To prevent the leaves from drying up after planting, water the seedlings sufficiently during planting.

3. Reasonable density of planting

It is more reasonable to have 3,000 to 4,000 plants per mu, and 4,000 to 5,000 plants per mu for winter-planted sweet potatoes, and it should be flexibly controlled based on the characteristics of different varieties, soil fertility and seasons. High ridges and dense planting. Ridge planting can thicken the soil layer, increase the area of ​​soil receiving light, create a large temperature difference between day and night, and expand the range of root activity, which is beneficial to the absorption and accumulation and circulation of assimilated substances by the roots, as well as the rapid expansion of tubers to increase yield. Generally, the ridge height is 30-40cm, with two rows planted on each ridge. In summer and autumn, about 5,000 potatoes are planted per mu. The potato seedlings are planted obliquely or horizontally. The potato seedlings are inserted 3-5cm into the soil with 3 nodes. The soil should be compacted to increase the seedling rate.

4. Field Management

1. Management from the rooting and seedling stage to the branching and tuber formation stage

This period is the stage when sweet potatoes take root and turn green. They require little water and consume little nutrients. Therefore, the focus is on checking the seedlings, filling in the gaps and preserving the seedlings. Generally, check the seedlings and replant within 5 days after transplanting, and keep the soil moist to increase the survival rate of potato seedlings. About 15 days after transplanting, apply seedling fertilizer in time according to the growth trend (about 20% of the total amount of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers), and apply more fertilizer for the replanted seedlings.

2. Long-term management from the branching and tuber formation stage to the full growth of stems and leaves

This period is the stage of branching, seedling growth, root growth and tuber formation, and the focus is on controlling vines and promoting branching. Before 40-45 days after planting, the water requirement is not much, just keep the soil moist in the field. After the stems and leaves cover the ridges, the water demand is the highest, and the soil water holding capacity should be maintained at 70%-80% of the maximum water holding capacity; therefore, "running water" should be irrigated as appropriate.

3. Management from the period of full growth of stems and leaves to the period of tuber expansion

This period is an important time for tuber enlargement and sufficient accumulation of nutrients in the tubers. The key is to maintain a balanced growth period between the above-ground and lower parts of the sweet potato through water management to prevent excessive growth caused by excessive water. Therefore, we must pay attention to dredging ditches, draining water during floods and irrigating water during droughts, and pay attention to pest control.

4. Management from tuber expansion to harvest

This period is mainly an important period for the accumulation of starch in tubers. During the tuber's growing period, from the peak of stem and leaf growth until maturity, the growth of basal leaves gradually slows down, the leaf color becomes lighter, and then growth stops. The growth center turns to tuber growth. For fields where leaves are yellowing and aging prematurely, apply vine-growing fertilizer in time. Generally, 15 to 20 dan of manure water is applied, and the method is to pour it along the cracks on the top of the ridge. Or use 200 grams of potassium dihydrogen phosphate, 500 grams of urea and 40 kilograms of water for foliar spraying twice. At the same time, ditches should be cleared and waterlogged to prevent potato rot. Or around 90 days after planting, if the growth of the aboveground part is weak, use a small amount of nitrogen fertilizer (about 2 kg of urea) per mu by watering or spraying to prevent premature aging. At the same time, pay attention to timely irrigation during drought. Generally, no irrigation is applied 20-30 days before harvest to facilitate the harvest and storage of sweet potatoes.

5. Harvest at the right time

The critical temperature for the growth of sweet potato tubers is 15℃. Frost damage will occur below 9℃. It is advisable to start harvesting when the temperature drops to 15℃ to 12℃.

The above is an introduction to the key points of high-yield cultivation of sweet potatoes. As long as you pay attention to these points when cultivating sweet potatoes, the yield will basically not be low. If you have any other questions about sweet potato planting, you can continue to leave a message.