Sweet Potato Planting Techniques and Management: This Is How to Grow Them for High Yields

SummaryPlanting time: April-May in spring. Seed selection: choose disease-free sweet potato seed tubers. Planting: soak in the chemical solution and then remove, plant the seed tubers in the soil, spread a layer of withered grass and rotten wood, then cover with soil and press lightly; wait until the seedlings grow to 30-40 cm, then take cuttings. Fertilizing: apply fertilizers such as urea, compound fertilizer and potassium fertilizer. Vine training: clear up the sweet potato vines and let them grow in one direction. Pest and disease control: spray trichlorfon solution. Harvesting: the time is September-October.

I. Planting time

1. Sweet potatoes can only be harvested in autumn and winter, so their growing period is relatively long; generally they must go through seedling raising and then cuttings before they officially begin to grow.

2. The planting time for sweet potatoes is April-May in spring, and the best planting period is mid-May, because the temperature during this period is basically stable at around 15-20°C, and if planted then they can sprout quickly.

II. Seed selection

The planting method for sweet potatoes is relatively simple, but selecting good seeds is the key to a high yield, so when selecting seeds you need to observe whether the sweet potato seed tubers are robust and disease-free, and then choose varieties with a larger size and many bud points for planting.

III. Planting

1. Put the sweet potato seed tubers into a carbendazim solution and soak for about 10 minutes, then remove them and plant; when planting, you must distinguish the head from the tail, otherwise the seedlings that grow will be uneven.

2. If you really cannot tell them apart, you can also place them diagonally, and spread a layer of withered grass and rotten wood on top of the seed tubers, then cover with a small amount of soil.

3. During this period, if you are worried that the temperature does not meet the requirement, you can cover with a layer of plastic film to keep warm; wait until the sweet potato seedlings grow to 30-40 cm, then remove the plastic film, cut off the seedling stems and leaves, and then cut them into small sections with 3 leaves as one node for taking cuttings.

4. When taking cuttings, it is best to keep a spacing of about 30 cm between each plant.

IV. Fertilizing

1. After planting out, the first fertilizing is needed to promote the cutting-grown sweet potato seedlings to grow new roots; generally human excrement and urine water can be applied.

2. The second fertilizing is after the sweet potatoes have survived, applying an appropriate amount of urea to promote neat growth of the sweet potato seedlings.

3. The third is applying a seedling-promoting fertilizer, for which urea plus compound fertilizer can be used, and then there is the fruit-strengthening fertilizer, which is generally potassium fertilizer and boron fertilizer.

V. Vine training

1. To make later harvesting easier and to prevent excess branches and leaves from consuming nutrients, the sweet potato seedlings in the field need to be trained in time.

2. You can clear up the sweet potato vines and let them grow in one direction, which will also make harvesting much easier; while training the vines, you can also remove the excess branches and leaves.

VI. Pest and disease control

1. Sweet potato pests include leaf-roller worms, aphids, white grubs, and also damage by field mice; leaf-roller worms and aphids harm the sweet potato leaves and affect photosynthesis, while white grubs and field mice prefer to eat the sweet potatoes in the field, and they will bite and damage the sweet potatoes there.

2. For the pests that harm branches and leaves, trichlorfon solution can be sprayed to kill them, while for field mice you can place their favorite food in the field and then mix it with rodenticide to trap and kill them.

VII. Harvesting

The harvesting time is September-October; during this period you can cut off the sweet potato stems and leaves, then dig the sweet potatoes out of the field, and then put them into a cellar for storage to ensure that moisture is not easily lost.