How To Harvest And Cure Sweet Potatoes?

Don't eat your sweet potatoes right when you dig them up. They will not be tasty. You need to cure them. How do you know when to harvest your sweet potatoes? When do you harvest sweet potatoes? How do you cure them? We will find out.

[karenmcdaniel]

I lived in central Indiana most all of my life, zone 5a. The spring is very wet, almost monsoon like. It rains again in August usually, but then turns dry in September. As soon as the vines began to yellow a/o we had a frost we dug the potatoes. We just left them where they were i n the garden for a couple days - no longer - and they cured very well.
Our fave variety was Beauregard. Our swt potato plot got almost all day sun, esp. full afternoon sun til sunset. Never used plastic. I think the amended sandy soil heated up and retained heat better than other areas of our property. The soil was also very easy to dig in September.
The mice loved them in the garden (can't remember what my hubby did about that) as well as in our winter storage. The only thing that kept our sweet potatoes safe overwinter was an old metal cupboard-pantry on a cool porch. We typically filled it with 60+ lbs of sweet potatoes from our garden. The doors were not super tight so there was a bit of airflow, but they locked. The mice chewed their way in to everything else except the metal cupboard.

[JS-troo]

I am so grateful and thankful to your very educational videos.

[treelee]

I live in SW France where vole problems are v common. It's well known that any ground cover encourages voles to move and operate in total security - right up to the surface. Plastic, straw mulch, tyres, planks. They will eat any of the roots 'in the ground' - potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc and also beets and turnips from below. A larger squash fruit sitting flat is also vulnerable, I have been cruelly dissapointed at the moment of harvest - to overturn one which has been gnawed into from the underside, voles esp love the seeds !

[RealMac]

Thanks for taking the time to show your harvest. 👍🏽

[hermannpuntigam]

Interesting. Yes, makes sense that carbs, whole food carbs, is good.

[joachimgreisen]

Thanks a lot for the videos.
It could be interesting to see if sugar (refines sugar) infects the immune system and maybe for how long.
Have a blessed day!

[leslierusgrove]

I agree with you in that I do not like to buy, buy, buy just to have a garden. Black plastic is just something extra that you have to deal with on top of managing a garden. At the same time, there are some regions that are cool enough that people will struggle to grow sweet potatoes without plastic, but if they buy black plastic they may be able to do it.

[ThatBritishHomestead]

How much did you get from that bed? Just wondering. I’ve always heard that they produce lots of leaves and a disappointing crop but in one of your videos you said they were high yielding so I’m very interested!

[aleydalauria]

I put my fruits in the sun and I eat very sweet fruits that way

[dorisspeer]

When the sweet potato plants start really Vining out can you trim them Vines back so it puts more into the main part of the plant

[jamessteffens]

We have a large oven with a dough rising setting, can I use it with a tray of water.? Thanks jim80

[nunyabiznes]

It's hot and humid where I live so apparently there's no such thing as curing here, they just harvest them, maybe let them dry a bit, and then store.

[statutesofthelord]

Never even heard of curing sweet potatoes. Mostly just dig and eat in Japan.

[Mrbfgray]

I avoid plastic bc it's ugly and one way or another gets fragmented and turns up everywhere.