Generally speaking, you'll get between five and ten sweet potatoes per plant.
How many sweet potatoes do you get from one plant? Typically, you'll be able to harvest 3-5 tubers per sweet potato plant, which is about 1-2 pounds. But if you live in a warmer climate, you may harvest six or more tubers per plant.
A hill of sweet potatoes will yield about 2 pounds of marketable sweet potatoes and an average yield per acre of 400 bushels (50 pounds) is attainable.
From Tuber to Sweet Potato Vine
One sweet potato will produce between three and five slips. This process takes about six weeks, so there is no need to hurry.
Sweet potatoes will continue to grow and produce until frost or freeze stops them. Digging your sweet potatoes up is extremely easy, but will take some heavy lifting and back muscle. Wait for a day when the soil is dry.
Sweet potato plants ready to harvest at end of summer. Although some folks may be sad to see summer coming to a close, many gardeners are looking forward to harvesting their sweet potato treasures. Sweet potatoes are warm-season plants that are very sensitive to cold temperatures.
Sweet potato roots continue to grow until frost kills the vines. Roots can be left in the ground for a short while; however, an extremely hard frost can cause damage to roots near the surface.
Unlike regular potatoes, you can't just plant a whole sweet potato in the ground and expect a crop; it will rot underground. Sweet potatoes are grown from sweet potato slips. Slips are the stems and foliage that sprout from already grown sweet potatoes. Twist them off the potato, root them in water, then plant them.
They're also an easy vegetable to seed-save and grow again each year. It's fairly simple, with a bit of knowledge and work, to produce your own sweet potato slips (sweet potato vines) for transplanting. And if you sprout your own roots, you'll get 2-3 times more slips per sweet potato. That's a lot of extra taters.
Sweet potatoes, parsnips, swedes and turnips do count towards your 5 A Day because they're usually eaten in addition to the starchy food part of the meal. Potatoes play an important role in your diet, even if they don't count towards your 5 A Day. It's best to eat them without any added salt or fat.
Sweet potatoes need at least 1 inch of water per week to grow well. Watering is especially important during the transplant, establishment and root development period. Stop watering the sweet potatoes three to four weeks before harvest to prevent tubers from splitting.
Sweet potatoes produce best in a well-drained, light, sandy loam or silt loam. soil. Rich, heavy soils produce high yields of low-quality roots, and extremely poor, light sandy soils generally produce low yields of high-quality roots. Both surface and internal drainage are important in selecting a field.
Before ordering slips, make sure that you have a long enough growing season to actually grow sweet potatoes. Most varieties will take about 90 to 120 days to mature.
If you have a sweet potato sprouting in the cupboard, it might be too far gone for dinner. However, if you plant the sprouting section, called a slip, you can grow your own sweet potatoes in just a few months time. Store-bought sweet potatoes work perfectly well and growing them is simple.
Harvesting sweet potatoes
Harvest roots as soon as they reach eating size and before a frost. Sweet potatoes generally mature in 85 to 120 days. Check root size after 80 to 85 days because they don't stop growing and can start to split when overgrown. Digging is easier if you cut the vines off first.
The long vines of sweet potatoes can overrun a garden. In early to mid-September, feel free to cut them back by 25%. This simply makes the plants easier to deal with when digging. Sweet potatoes with edible tubers developing below the ground.
Plant your slips at least 2–3 inches deep (2 or more nodes) with at least 2 leaves above ground. Space 10–14 inches apart in rows at least 3 feet apart, to make room for the sprawling vines. Wide in-row spacing leads to larger tubers. In hot weather, transplant in the evening.
Growing Sprouting Sweet Potato Slips
Once you have the slip in hand, place it in a glass or jar of water for about two weeks, until fine roots have developed on the slip. Plant the rooted slips in the garden, burying them completely and spacing them 12 to 18 inches (31-46 cm.) apart.
As the stems grow upward, continue to add more soil mix until the level reaches the top of the container. Sweet potatoes are ready to harvest typically four to five months after planting.
Plant sweet potatoes about 12 to 18 inches apart, and allow 3 feet between rows so the vines will have plenty of room to run.
Sweetpotato leaves are cooked as a vegetable in many parts of the world. They are rich in vitamin B, ßcarotene, iron, calcium, zinc and protein, and the crop is more tolerant of diseases, pests and high moisture than many other leafy vegetables grown in the tropics.
Proper Storage
Ideal storage conditions include an ambient temperature of 55-60°F and relative humidity of 85-90%. Under these conditions, sweet potatoes remain viable for several months. A cellar, basement, or an outdoor storage house (when temperatures are cool) would be ideal.
During curing and storage, starches in the sweet potato are converted to sugars, improving flavor. It is recommended to wait at least three weeks after harvest before consuming sweet potatoes to permit the starches to convert to sugars for maximum eating quality.
How long sweet potatoes last in normal room temperature depends on many factors, and it's best to keep them in a pantry to last 3–5 weeks. You can also store sweet potatoes in the fridge for 2–3 months, or freeze them to last even longer.