About Sweet Potatoes

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Among insects, the sweet potato weevil, a quarter-inch-long bug with a dark blue head and wings and a red-orange body, can punture a plant's stem or even the tuber to lay its eggs. The developing larvae then tunnel through and feed on the vegetable, while the adult feeds on the vine and roots. The weevil also spreads foot rot that creates enlarging brown-to-black areas on stems near the soil line and at the stems' ends. This rapidly multiplying pest is nearly impossible to defeat, but can be avoided by using certified disease resistant seed sweet potatoes, planting in clean ground and practicing four-year crop rotation. If an infestation occurs, destroy all affected plants, then plow up and dispose of any roots left in the infested ground.

Aphids, on the other hand, are easily controlled with garlic sprays, diatomaceous earth, ladybugs or, simply, hard hose sprays. Don't neglect to discourage them, because—aside from the damage they do directly—aphids also transmit internal cork, a disease that mottles leaves and makes them yellowish along the veins and that results in hard, corky islands in sweet potato flesh.

Stunted vines, brown-spotted leaves, and roots with blemishes or poor color are symptoms of underground root-knot nematodes. Here, too, prevention in the form of organically rich soil and disease-resistant varieties is the best cure.

How to Harvest and Store

The longer sweet potatoes stay in the ground, the richer the yield and the higher the vitamin content. However, once the vines are blackened by frost, the tubers quickly become vulnerable to rot. Therefore, unless you can harvest immediately after the first cold spell, it's best to dig the potatoes soon after the leaves begin to yellow. Pick a sunny day when the soil is dry, because roots which are harvested when the ground is wet can shrink considerably when stored. Sweet potatoes can be found growing a foot or more from the plant, so use a potato or spading fork to start digging from the outside of the row, remembering that any cuts or nicks in the tender skins will encourage spoilage.

Leave the tubers on the ground for several hours—but no longer—after digging, then move them to a well-ventilated place with temperatures at around 85° to 90°F for 10 to 15 days. (Some people place them near hot water heaters.) Once cured, store the potatoes at around 55°F with a humidity of 75 to 80%. If cured and stored properly, they will keep for several months, particularly if handled as little as possible until they are ready to be used. In fact, during curing and storage, some of the sweet potato's carbohydrate changes from starch to sugar, causing the flavor to improve with age.

Sweet potatoes can also be frozen, canned or dried. To can them, cook washed potatoes in boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes until they're partially tender. Then slip off the skins and cut the flesh into uniform pieces. Pack these into jars, leaving an inch of head space, and cover them with boiling water. Process at 10 pounds of pressure for 55 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print