A Detailed Guide to the Latest Methods for Harvesting and Storing Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes planted in spring can be harvested before long. Harvesting sweet potatoes requires digging them out of the ground, so some issues need attention. After harvesting, if the quantity is small, they can be stored short-term in a dry place for use as animal feed, but if you want to keep seed potatoes, they need to be stored over winter. Let's take a look at how they should generally be stored.
1. Harvesting Methods
When digging sweet potatoes, you must not cause wounds or cuts from the digging. Nor should the fine roots at the tail end be broken off. Either way, the sweet potato will immediately ooze juice, making it prone to rot and poor for storage. Dug sweet potatoes should not be washed before storage, as they spoil easily. For short-term placement, the location should be dry and well ventilated. When harvesting and transporting, handle them gently and do not bump or bruise them into wounds. Fully mature sweet potatoes should not be left in the ground all the time, as they rot easily.
2. Selection and Treatment
For storage, select large, good sweet potatoes as seed potatoes, and remove any with broken skin, digging wounds, bruises, insect damage, or existing decay. Then spray with a carbendazim solution of a certain concentration for sterilization, or soak the sweet potatoes one by one in a 1000-fold carbendazim solution, take them out and let them dry, then store them. This way they carry no bacteria and do not rot easily.
3. Cellar Storage
In the south, cellars are built to store sweet potatoes. In a cool, dry place, a cellar is dug; half is fully underground, with entry and exit directly through an opening at ground level. Open the entrance, let it air out for a few days before going in to clean, and avoid oxygen deficiency when going down. After cleaning it thoroughly, spray carbendazim, then put the sweet potatoes in, laying them flat and not overlapping.
4. Precautions
Generally, after a period of time you can go down to check. A fully underground cellar is prone to oxygen deficiency, so before going down, take a good candle to test it; if the flame goes out, there is no oxygen. Do not rashly go down. There is also a cave-type storage room. But it needs to be dug in a place with plenty of sand, and in a place with somewhat higher terrain. Generally there is no oxygen deficiency. However, small animals can easily get in, so attention is needed.
When harvesting and digging sweet potatoes, be careful with the digging so the sweet potatoes come out directly without causing wounds. After storage treatment they keep better, and when using a cellar, pay attention to safety.