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How to grow sweet potatoes at home


How to Grow Sweet Potatoes In Your Backyard

There's no denying the beauty of a sweet potato plant, whether it's placed on a trellis, in a garden, or a simple container. And the positives don't end there. When it comes to health benefits, sweet potatoes are worth considering as part of your diet. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients that can bolster your mind and body.

If you're curious about growing them on your own, keep in mind that they do best in a sunny vegetable garden even though they can also thrive in other areas of your outdoor space. They can even act as a temporary groundcover or function as a trailing houseplant. In a patio planter, a sweet potato vine will form a gorgeous foliage plant that you can harvest roots from in the fall.

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This warm-weather crop grows worldwide, from tropical regions to temperate climates. The flesh is classified as either moist or dry. Moist, deep orange types (sometimes called yams) are more popular with home gardeners, especially the varieties Centennial and Georgia Jet.

Sweet potatoes are also remarkably nutritious and versatile; each fleshy root is rich in vitamins A and C, along with many important minerals. Use them raw, boiled, or baked, in soups, casseroles, desserts, breads, or stir-fries — and don't forget to try some homemade sweet potato fries! Here's everything you need to know to grow your own sweet potatoes.

How to planting sweet potatoes:

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Sweet potatoes will grow in poor soil, but deformed roots may develop in heavy clay or long and stringy in sandy dirt. To create the perfect environment, create long, wide, 10-inch-high ridges spaced 3½ feet apart. (A 10-foot row will produce 8 to 10 pounds of potatoes.)

Work in plenty of compost, avoiding nitrogen-rich fertilizers that produce lush vines and stunted tubes. In the North, cover the raised rows with black plastic to keep the soil warm and promote strong growth.

It's best to plant root sprouts, called slips, available from nurseries and mail-order suppliers. (Store-bought sweet potatoes are often waxed to prevent sprouting). Save a few roots from your crop for planting next year.

About six weeks before it's time to plant sweet potatoes outdoors in your area, place the roots in a box of moist sand, sawdust, or chopped leaves in a warm spot (75 to 80 degrees). Shoots will sprout, and when they reach 6 to 9 inches long, cut them off the root. Remove and dispose of the bottom inch from each slip, as that portion sometimes harbors disease organisms.

Sweet potatoes mature in 90 to 170 days and they're extremely frost sensitive. Plant in full sun three to four weeks after the last frost when the soil has warmed. Make holes 6 inches deep and 12 inches apart. Bury slips up to the top leaves, press the soil down gently but firmly, and water well.

How to grow sweet potatoes:

Ezra Bailey

If you're not using black plastic, mulch the vines two weeks after planting to smother weeds, conserve moisture, and keep the soil loose for root development. Occasionally lift longer vines to keep them from rooting at the joints, or they will put their energy into forming many undersized tubers at each rooted area rather than ripening the main crop at the base of the plant. Otherwise, handle plants as little as possible to prevent wounds that vulnerable disease spores.

If the weather is dry, provide 1 inch of water a week until two weeks before harvesting, then let the soil dry out a bit. Don't overwater, or the plants — which can withstand dry spells better than rainy ones — may rot.

How to avoid pests:

Mila Usmanova

Southern gardeners are more likely to encounter pest problems than gardeners in Northern areas.

Sweet potato weevils — ¼-inch-long insects with dark blue heads and wings and red-orange bodies — puncture stems and tubers to lay their eggs. Developing larvae tunnel and feed on the fleshy roots, while adults generally attack vines and leaves. They also spread foot rot, which creates enlarging brown to black areas on stems near the soil and at stem ends. Since weevils multiply quickly and prove hard to eliminate, use certified disease-resistant slips and practice a four-year crop rotation. Destroy infected plants and their roots, or place in sealed containers and dispose of them with household trash.

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Fungal diseases include black rot, which results in circular, dark depressions on tubers. Discard infected potatoes, and cure the undamaged roots from the same crop carefully. Don't confuse this disease with less-serious scurf, which creates small, round, dark spots on tuber surfaces but doesn't affect eating quality.

Stem rot, or wilt, is a fungus that enters plants injured by insects, careless cultivation, or wind. Even if this disease doesn't kill the plants, the harvest will be poor. Minimize the chances of disease by planting only healthy slips; avoid black and stem rot by planting resistant cultivars. Reduce the incidence of dry rot, which mummifies stored potatoes, by keeping the fleshy roots at 55 to 60 degrees.

Harvesting sweet potatoes:

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You can harvest as soon as leaves start to yellow, but the longer a crop is left in the ground, the higher the yield and vitamin content. Once frost blackens the vines, however, tubers can quickly rot.

Use a spading fork to dig tubers on a sunny day when the soil is dry. Remember that tubers can grow a foot or more from the plant, and that any nicks on their tender skins will encourage spoilage. Dry tubers in the sun for several hours, then move them to a well-ventilated spot and keep at 85 to 90 degrees for 10 to 15 days. After they are cured, store at around 55 degrees, with a humidity of 75 to 80%. Properly cured and stored sweet potatoes will keep for several months.

Must-Have Supplies to Grow Sweet Potatoes
True Temper Bedding Fork

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Miracle-Gro Garden Soil

$8 at Home Depot

Soil Blend Super Compost

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Frost King Plastic Sheeting

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How to Grow Sweet Potatoes

The first step in learning how to grow sweet potatoes is discovering that they are not related to regular potatoes and are not developed the same way. 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. In three to four months, you should have some sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are always planted in the spring. They are slow-growing and require warm temperatures to develop full-size tubers. You can usually get three to five tubers per plant and more if you're in a warmer climate. Sweet potato plants come back every year if you live in a warmer growing zone (USDA zones 8 through 11). The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are the most familiar, but sweet potatoes can be white, yellow, and even purple. If you have a smaller garden, you can grow bush varieties.

Learn How to Grow Sweet Potatoes

Common Name Sweet potato
Botanical Name Ipomoea batatas
Family Convolvulaceae
Plant Type Herbaceous, perennial, annual
Mature Size 2-20 ft. long
Sun Exposure Full sun, part shade
Soil Type Well-drained, sandy
Soil pH Acidic
Bloom Time Summer
Hardiness Zones 8-11 (USDA)
Native Areas North America, South America

What are the Differences Between Yams and Sweet Potatoes?

​The Spruce / K. Dave  The Spruce / K. Dave ​The Spruce / K. Dave  ​The Spruce / K. Dave 

How to Plant Sweet Potatoes

When to Plant

These plants are tropical in origin, so wait until the soil has warmed up fully in spring before planting.

To give them a head start, sweet potatoes are often planted in raised rows, about 8 inches high. This helps the soil warm faster and keeps them well-drained. If you are gardening in a cooler climate, spreading black plastic on the soil will also help it warm faster.

Selecting a Planting Site

Sweet potatoes will generally thrive in any average well-drained soil in a sunny location. If your soil is too dense or rocky, consider planting sweet potatoes in raised beds filled with sandy but rich potting soil.

Spacing, Depth, and Support

Plant slips about 12 to 18 inches apart with 3 to 4 feet between rows. The vines will spread and fill in, so give them plenty of room.

Sweet Potato Care

Light

Be sure to plant your sweet potatoes in full sun to part shade. They generally prefer full sun but appreciate some afternoon shade in hot, dry regions.

Soil

Sweet potatoes prefer soil that is well-drained but high in organic matter. Sandier soil is preferable to dense, clay soil.

Water

Once established, sweet potatoes will tolerate growing in dry soil. It's best to keep it evenly moist with 1 inch of water given once a week. Don't water your sweet potatoes during the final three to four weeks prior to harvest to prevent the mature tubers from splitting. Keep the plants moist, especially during dry spells.

Temperature and Humidity

Sweet potatoes should not be planted outdoors until the temperature of the soil has warmed to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. They need soil growing temperatures between 60 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit and an air growing temperature of 65 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Choose short-season varieties if you live in the northern part of the country.

Fertilizer

Sweet potatoes are not heavy feeders, but it's important to give them balanced nutrition, typically with proper soil preparation. Overfeeding tends to promote growth of foliage rather than tubers. The best approach is to add compost to the beds before planting the sweet potatoes. Alternatively, you can apply an organic liquid fertilizer to the soil prior to planting.

Types of Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes vs. Sweet Potato Vines

Sweet potatoes may be associated with growing only in the southern United States, but they will actually grow in just about any garden anywhere. The part we eat is the tuberous root of this warm-weather perennial vining plant. Edible sweet potatoes are closely related to morning glories (Ipomoea tricolor) and are the same species as the sweet potato vining plants commonly grown as ornamentals. The edible and ornamental types are different cultivars of Ipomoea batatas.

Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

Three to four months after planting, the tubers should be ready to harvest for eating, depending on the cultivar. If you like to eat the leaves as greens, you can do so in moderation throughout the season. Be sure to leave enough leaves to keep the plant growing.

You can dig up your tubers once the foliage starts to yellow. If the foliage is hit by a frost, the tubers are probably still fine. Just don’t let them sit in the ground too long after the tops die back or they could start to rot. Be gentle when digging. Sweet potato tubers grow close to the surface. Their skins are tender and can be damaged and bruised easily.

How to Grow Sweet Potatoes in Containers

If you want to experiment with growing edible sweet potatoes, try starting them off in containers. Sweet potatoes are easy to grow in containers. Start small plants you purchase in the spring or grow slips in pots. Loosely fill a large container of any material with lots of drainage holes with high-quality potting soil. A half-whiskey barrel is a good size. Make a hole large enough to cover the roots of your plant or slip. Water it thoroughly, and put the pot in a sunny spot. Water it thoroughly at least once a week unless it rains.

You can try to grow sweet potatoes indoors, but it is challenging. The yield is often small after a four-month wait. They require a lot of sun, heat, and water, which is harder to replicate indoors.

Pruning

Sweet potato vines will grow in a rambling fashion, but they should not be trimmed because they are important to help feed the potatoes. If your vines are wandering out of control, use your hands to turn the vines back toward the garden.

Propagating Sweet Potatoes

Propagate sweet potatoes with slips or by saving tubers for replanting. If you put a sweet potato in water, you won't get more potatoes, but it will develop slips that you can plant that will develop sweet potatoes. If your winters are longer than a couple of months, you can propagate sweet potatoes by saving tubers over the winter and planting them the following spring. If you live in an area with short winters, you can begin new slips from vine cuttings or whole potatoes.

Propagate with saved tubers using these steps:

  1. Use a shovel to carefully dig up the tubers before the first frost in the fall. Gently brush the soil off the tubers to prepare them for storage.
  2. Store them over the winter in a sturdy cardboard box filled with peat, vermiculite, sand, or other dry material. Make sure the tubers are not touching each other in the box.
  3. Keep the box in a cool, dry place without light (such as a basement or root cellar). Make sure the tubers in the box won't freeze. Place a blanket over the box to ensure warmth.
  4. In spring, the tubers will start to sprout. Divide them into pieces, making sure that each piece has at least one eye.
  5. Plant them in the garden after the threat of frost has passed and the soil temperature is at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Propagate by creating slips from vines using these steps:

  1. Use a sterile, sharp cutting tool to snip off about 6 inches from the tips of healthy vines, before the first frost.
  2. Place the cuttings in a jar with room temperature water.
  3. Once they develop roots, plant them in pots filled with good-quality potting soil.
  4. Keep them in a sunny location until it’s time to plant them outdoors.

Propagate by creating slips from full-grown whole sweet potatoes using these steps:

  1. Use a sterile, sharp knife to cut a full sweet potato in half lengthwise.
  2. Place each half on a bed of damp potting soil using a deep tray.
  3. Cover the pieces with a few inches of soil.
  4. Keep the pieces moist and warm.
  5. Small roots should develop within a few days, followed by leaves.
  6. They are ready to be lifted and planted in containers once they’re between 4 and 8 inches tall (about six weeks). Keep them in a sunny location until it's time to plant them outdoors or in larger containers.

Overwintering

Overwintering sweet potatoes is the same as propagating them for the next growing season. Before the first fall frost, cut the vines to the ground. Carefully dig up tubers with a shovel and gently brush the soil from the tubers. Then store them in a box filled with dry material, make sure the tubers are not touching, and place the box in a cool, dry place where the tubers won't freeze. Cover the box with a blanket to make sure no light reaches the tubers.

Common Pests and Plant Diseases

Wireworms and root-knot nematodes are the biggest problems when growing sweet potatoes in home gardens. Damage is lessened if you rotate your crop each year. Many diseases can be avoided by choosing disease-resistant varieties and using certified disease-free sweet potato slips. Mice can also be a problem, so be on the lookout.

Watch Now: What are the Differences Between Yams and Sweet Potatoes?

Article Sources

The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

  1. Sweet Potato Production and Pest Management in Georgia. University of Georgia Extension.

How to Grow Sweet Potatoes in the Garden - Tips for Those Who Want to Experiment with Sweet Potatoes - AgroXXI

Although the sweet potato is called the sweet potato, it actually belongs to the Convolvulaceae family of the genus Ipomoea. You will see this for yourself when you see sweet potato plants during flowering and learn about the agricultural technology of growing

Sweet potatoes are a heat-loving summer crop. It is not suitable for cool or cold climates, nor for a short growing season. In a number of Russian regions, we deal with both factors. But that doesn't mean growing sweet potatoes in your backyard is bound to fail!

Cold hardy and early maturing varieties of sweet potato are not well represented on the market (although it is written on the Internet that there are supposedly “many” such varieties), in fact, only Covington, an improved early variety, is widely known from those sold abroad, which will ripen in short seasonal zones with proper care. The tubers of this variety have bright orange flesh with a beautiful, dark pink skin.

If you can't get seed early ripe yam, you can experiment with growing store-bought sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes reproduce differently than regular potatoes. You will need to get a shoot so that a vine can already grow from it.

It is necessary to start the experiment at least 3 months before planting. End of January - beginning of February is the right time if you want to get seedlings at the end of May.

Our growing season is very short, the only way to extend it is through seedlings.

So, wash the tuber and place it halfway in a container of water, securing it with toothpicks. Like this.

Now place the jar in a sunny, warm, draught-free window and allow the potatoes to firm up for about a week after being on the store counter.

Transfer the potatoes to a tray filled with soil. Drain holes do not need to be punched, as sweet potatoes prefer moist soil, not overdried soil, therefore, water regularly.

Once the leaves have grown, peel them off and place them in your own water jar. Do not be alarmed if at first it seems to you that the roots are too small, they will go into intensive growth after transplanting into the soil.

Container growing sweet potatoes in the garden

If you really want to be successful in a short growing season, plant rooted cuttings in a large container. A small pot won't work. Depth must be at least 30 cm and width 40 cm.

Pre-harden by opening a window on warm days. Transplanting to the final location will occur approximately 4 weeks after the last frost.

The container can be placed in the greenhouse next to the tomatoes, peppers or in a sunny area. The advantage of the container is that the soil warms up better.

Sweet potatoes like loose, well-drained soil with a pH of 5.0 to 6.5.

You can use store-bought potting mix with compost, or make your own by mixing 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss.

Seedlings should be spaced 30 cm apart. Cover the stem with about 1.5 cm of soil.

After planting, water your plants well and protect them from cold nights if the container is in an open area. Build a mini-greenhouse out of foil hoops or create a wind barrier out of old windows. Anything that gives the plants more warmth will work.

Mulching with clean straw at the root zone is important for container growing, as moisture evaporates faster than in the bed.

Sweet potatoes produce long stems. In the greenhouse, it makes sense to stretch the ropes to support the stems, in the open air - to make a lattice support.

Cut off growing points of vines that extend beyond 60 cm to encourage the development of side stems. Don't forget that you can eat these leaves, which taste like spinach and are just as healthy.

To fertilize sweet potatoes in the vegetable garden, spray with liquid foliar fertilizer Folirus Start.

Harvest

An early maturing variety, if you are lucky enough to get one, will ripen in about 90-100 days, but count on 150 days if you bought tubers in a store.

Harvest according to the color of the leaves. Sweet potatoes are ready to be harvested when the foliage begins to turn yellow. You can leave the potted plants in light frosts, but the tubers must be dug up before frost hits.

Remember that sweet potatoes break more easily than traditional ones, the skin is very thin during harvest. Dig them up carefully, and then store them in a warm place for 6-8 weeks to improve the taste.

The easiest solution is to take plastic grocery bags, punch a few holes in them, and fill them with enough sweet potatoes so that there is only one layer in each bag. Tie up the bags and place on the warmest and sunniest window sill for 10 days. If there is no sun, cover the bags with a towel or blanket.

After that, store the harvest at a temperature of about 12-15 ° C without access to light, wrapping the tubers individually with newspaper or simply spreading them on a paper backing.

After the curing period, the potatoes will become sweeter and their skins will harden for storage for a long time.

Is the sweet potato worth the effort? Considering its reputation as a superfood, it is. Tubers contain only 90 kcal per 100 g and are saturated with vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium and fiber. Baked with sour cream, sweet potato is a delicious dish!

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Sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes) planting and care - BashAgroPlast

Sweet potato is a crop that has been gaining more and more popularity lately. In a nutshell, the taste of its tubers can be described as sweet potatoes.

Externally, the plants look like real creepers, their length reaches 1-5 meters. Growing, they spread along the ground and take root. Bushes grow about 15 cm in height. Plant roots thicken into the ground and form tubers. Their weight ranges from 300 grams to 3 kg. The flesh of the tubers is sweet, pink, white, yellow, purple or reddish in color.

Delicious, healthy, and most importantly, easy to grow in your garden. Let's try to figure out how to plant a sweet potato? But first, let's find out. ..

Useful properties of sweet potato

The product is used for food in fried, stewed, baked and dried form. For baking, varieties with purple and creamy flesh are considered the most suitable.

Each variety has a specific taste. Some are associated with the taste of melon, pumpkin, zucchini, others - walnut, banana, third varieties have a completely different taste. From certain species, sweet flour, molasses and sugar are produced.

Sweet potato has a higher nutritional value than potatoes. It also contains twice as much sugar and starch. Contains vitamins of group B, as well as C, A, PP. Orange-fleshed tubers surpass even carrots in beta-carotene content. Of the macronutrients, a high content of phosphorus, potassium and calcium can be noted.

Despite its high calorie content and starchy content, small amounts of sweet potato can be easily afforded, even if you watch your weight, because the product improves metabolism.

Eating sweet potatoes is believed to be extremely beneficial for women's health, as the tubers contain progesterone and other hormones.

A very useful product for people suffering from diseases of the cardiovascular system. It has a beneficial effect on blood vessels, heart muscle and blood pressure. Also, the high content of potassium strengthens the nervous system, helps with insomnia and chronic fatigue.

The plant also has a beneficial effect on the digestive system, since it contains dietary fiber and fiber, which is softer and more gentle on the intestines than other root crops. The only thing you should refrain from using the product, people suffering from peptic ulcer.

Recent research has revealed the effect of sweet potato on cancer cells.

Of course, the useful properties of tubers depend on the growing conditions. Therefore, consider how to grow sweet potatoes in the country!

Site preparation

When choosing a site, keep in mind that the culture is thermophilic, so the place should be well warmed up by the sun. The soil can be loamy or sandy. It is desirable to prepare it in the fall. Digging up to a depth of 20 cm and add humus or mature compost, approximately 5-6 kg per 1 sq.m. If you bring in rotted manure, then it will need 2-3 kg per 1 sq.m. Then, you can apply mineral fertilizers.

In cold climates, given the thermophilic nature of the crop, the preparation of the beds will be slightly different. It is very convenient and effective to use raised, warm beds. This technology allows you to grow a crop even under adverse climatic conditions. Due to the combustion process, the soil in the beds does not freeze and keeps the temperature higher than usual. Now consider how to build it and how it happens.

To build a warm bed: dig a trench to a depth of 60-70 cm, 50-60 cm wide. Install a box of boards or slate along the edges of the trench so that in the future the bed will keep its shape and the soil will not crumble. Lay the bottom with cardboard. This will keep weeds from growing and keep the top layer from freezing. Cardboard can be replaced with small dry branches of fruit trees. Next, lay the green leftovers, if any. It can be: nettles, tomato leaves, dandelions and other healthy herbs. If there is no greenery yet, then use hay and sawdust. Lay a layer of mature compost on top, then, with humus and top, return a layer of soil. For each square meter of the plot, 1 glass of wood ash must be added. The bed turns out to be raised. Pour hot water over it and cover with an opaque film for 1-2 days. Yes, it will burn out faster. After 3-4 weeks, measure the temperature of the soil, if it has returned to normal, then feel free to start planting. Sochi prostitutes on the site https://sochi-sex.com Save so as not to lose The same bed can be organized in the fall, and in the spring add humus, mineral dressing and loosen it.

If, after planting crops, such a bed is also mulched, then you will bring the process of growing plants as close as possible to natural farming, which will have a beneficial effect on the quality and quantity of your crop. You will learn about the benefits and methods of mulching below.

How to prepare the seed

Before starting the preparation of the seed and planting, it is necessary to consider the possible ways of propagation of the sweet potato.

Contrary to popular misconception, the way to plant sweet potatoes will be different from planting potatoes. The culture is grown through seedlings. In order to get it, you will need several tubers, this amount is enough for a small area.

Take a box with a tray and make drainage holes in it to drain excess moisture. To prepare the soil mixture, you will need: 1 part of loose soil, 1 - coarse sand and 1 - humus. Mix all the ingredients, sift and pickle with a solution of potassium permanganate. It is advisable to pre-freeze the substrate in the freezer for 10-12 hours or process it in a double boiler for 1.5-2 hours.

Place the mix in the box and top with 2-3 cm of sand.

Sweet potato tubers should preferably be disinfected. To do this, you can take a weak solution of copper sulfate.

Relatively speaking, sweet potato tubers have a lower and an upper part. Place the sweet potato on the sand with a wider, lower part, pressing a little to the surface. From above, pour a layer of coarse sand 2-3 cm. In the future, the sand should be watered regularly. The room temperature during the germination period should be 18-25°C.

In a month, the first shoots will break through. Those that have reached 15-20 cm, place in water for 1-2 days, then transplant into open ground. Being in water, the shoots begin to form roots. Keeping the shoots in water should not be longer, since the development of additional root primordia will make it difficult to transplant them into the ground.

If the planting time has not yet come, then after separation from the tubers, plant the shoots in separate containers, with the same nutrient substrate. Cuttings will develop quite normally at home. When the weather stabilizes, they can be transplanted into the ground.

Planting sweet potatoes in the ground

The air temperature for growing sweet potatoes should be +25°C, preferably higher, but if the temperature drops below +20°C, this will affect the development of tubers. In the south, the planting period starts from the end of April and continues until the beginning of June. In regions that are located to the north, the first landing occurs much later. By the way, special cold-resistant varieties were bred for cold regions, you can find out about them in seed stores.

As you may have noticed, sweet potatoes can be planted with rooted seedlings or cuttings freshly picked from tubers. With the latter method, all large leaves must be removed from the shoots. Leave no more than 5 internodes. Under normal conditions, such as soil moisture and a suitable temperature, the cuttings take root fairly quickly.

When planting, keep a distance of 30 cm between plants. If the variety is long, then 50 cm. Leave wide aisles to make it easy to care for the plants.

Caring for sweet potatoes

In general, caring for the crop will not require any special effort from you.

Watering sweet potatoes is an important but irregular part of care. The main period of irrigation falls on the rooting phase of the cuttings. As for the second half of the growing season, here the number of waterings should be reduced significantly, and 2-3 weeks before harvesting should be completely stopped.

Culture, like potatoes, requires hilling. And to keep the soil moist and loose structure longer, use mulching technology. For these purposes, you can take organic materials - hay, straw, sawdust, or inorganic - gravel, non-woven covering material, light-tight film.

Why is mulch useful in sweet potato beds?

  • Retains moisture for a long time after watering, which reduces their frequency.

  • Minimizes the need for loosening.

  • Keeps the soil loose and breathable longer as the mulch prevents compaction and cracking.

  • Keeps the soil from overheating.

  • When planting crops early, mulch keeps the root system from sudden frosts.

  • Increases soil fertility by attracting earthworms. It should be clarified here that worms produce such a natural fertilizer as humus. According to the indicators of humus in the soil, its fertility is determined.

  • Mulching material inhibits weed growth.

  • From organic mulch, nutrients are washed into the soil, which is already a kind of top dressing.

  • Under a layer of mulch, the soil restores its microflora.

In general, by mulching the soil, you will save yourself from unnecessary worries and constant work in your garden. In particular, growing sweet potatoes will become an easy and relaxed process.

Another nice bonus when growing sweet potatoes is that the crop is not affected by the Colorado potato beetle. Those. there is no need to treat the plants with chemicals or collect the pest by hand.

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