Don’t put off harvesting for too long.
Sweet potato is also known as an ornamental plant, but you can use it as a vegetable. Thanks to the latest varieties, you can grow them in the vegetable garden; their vegetation period has reduced to only 100 days.
You can recognize ‘Bonita’ by its yellow, potato-like color, ‘Burgundy’ by its typically orange tubers and ‘Murasaki’ by its white flesh.
When growing sweet potatoes, it is important to prevent long shoots from re-rooting, because then the plant can use less energy to grow tubers. Therefore, cover the soil around the plant with mulch or tie up the shoots. You can also help the shoots climb up a small frame, which can be 3 stakes that you stick into the ground like a tent tying their ends together. This way, you can even grow sweet potatoes in pots on your terrace or balcony. Sweet potato needs a sunny place, and nutrients only in moderation.
Make sure to harvest the crop after the first frosts. Damaged tubers rot quickly, so dig them up carefully. Tubers cleaned with water are best left to dry in the sun for a few hours. If you keep them in a warm room for about a week, after that they can be stored in a cool, dry place for months, wrapped in newspaper.
Sweet potatoes taste best after at least 2-3 weeks of storage. By this time, part of the starch in the tubers turns into sugar, which makes the tubers taste sweeter. Sweet potato didn’t get its name without reason; in Japan, for example, sweet potatoes are also served as a dessert.
