How to Grow Sweet Potato Leaves? A Step-by-Step Guide to the Planting Method

Sweet potato leaves are a healthy green food, and more and more people enjoy eating them nowadays, so how do you grow sweet potato leaves?

1. How to grow sweet potato leaves?

1. Prepare a suitable seedbed

Choose a leeward, sunny spot with good drainage, a low water table, flat terrain, loose and fertile, disease-free sandy loam soil as the seedbed;

2. Sow at a suitable temperature

Generally, sowing can be done when the soil temperature (at a depth of 10cm) steadily passes 16°C;

3. Check for and fill gaps in the seedlings promptly after emergence

After the seed potatoes sprout, promptly check for and fill gaps in the seedlings, and replant promptly where there are gaps; at the same time, pay attention to removing rotten potatoes, diseased seedlings and weeds. Transplanting can be done after the seedlings emerge, but only when small white roots appear on the sweet potato seedlings can transplanting be carried out;

4. Field management

After transplanting is complete, water and fertilize reasonably, and weed promptly.

Sweet potato is drought-tolerant and highly adaptable, and the soil water-holding capacity should be kept at 60-70%. Apply the seedling-promoting fertilizer about 15 days after planting; apply the tuber-setting fertilizer during the branching and tuber-setting stage, generally within one month after planting combined with the second intertillage, mainly with nitrogen fertilizer together with phosphorus and potassium fertilizer.

2. Ways to cook sweet potato leaves

1. Stir-fried plain

Pick the sweet potato leaves, wash them clean, heat oil in a wok, then add the chopped garlic. After the garlic releases its fragrance, turn the heat to high, add the washed sweet potato leaves and stir-fry. Stir-fry over high heat until the sweet potato leaves are soft and cooked, then add salt and light soy sauce to season and serve.

2. Make pancakes

Wash the sweet potato leaves and blanch them in boiling water for later use. Put the blanched sweet potato leaves into cold water briefly, squeeze out the water and chop them finely. Take a large bowl, add white flour, cornmeal, eggs, baking soda and salt, add a little water and stir into a batter for later use. After preheating a griddle, brush it with sesame oil, pour the batter onto the griddle with a spoon and fry until both sides are golden brown.