Ok…I need help. I am guessing someone out there is just the person to help me. Here’s a picture from my sweet potato plants this spring…I planted them in the back corner of my garden.
They grew and grew and now I don’t know know what to do with them. Are the potatoes in rows under the plants or are they under the vines too?
Do I dig them after frost…before frost?
I heard someone say something about “curing” them….Help I am a newbie to sweet potatoes. Please leave a comment here and tell me how to proceed.
Today I am hooking up with Dandelion House.
No idea how to harvest or cure them, but I have a really good recipe for sweet potato pie if you need one.
You can google harvest sweet potatoes and there are lots of articles about how and when to dig them up.
I never have grow them, but … When I have gardening questions, I check Natl Gardening Asso. http://www.garden.org/foodguide/browse/veggie/potatoes_harvesting/581
Hi Jo. First, harvest before the killing frost. After frost they rot quickly. We harvest when the leaves begin to yellow. However if you want to eat the vines (kinda like spinach but not quite the same) harvest prior to yellowing. Sweet potatoes definitely need to be cured. It helps the potatoes keep longer. After letting them dry in the sun for the day, we just cure them on screens in the garage for about 2 weeks-they like it warm and dry but store cool and moist. Even with the dry weather this summer we had a bumper crop of sweet potatoes this year.
I have not grown them either, but you can find a lot of information about growing them by following this link:
http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetables/p/Sweet-Potatoes.htm