staple
Sweet potato
Loves our hot summers. A box of cured sweets lasts until April.
Calories plus vitamin A on clay that potatoes sometimes rot in.
- When to sow
- Sprout slips in a tray of wet sand on a warm fridge or water heater in April. Plant slips June 1 once nights stay above 55°F.
- Spacing
- 12–18 in on ridges, 3 ft between ridges.
- Days
- 90–110 (Beauregard, Centennial)
- Harvest
- Before the first frost blackens vines — usually early October. Dig, don’t stab.
- Store
- Cure 10 days at 80–85°F and high humidity (a closed bathroom with a space heater if you must). Then 55–60°F. Never fridge.
- Save seed
- Keep a few perfect roots to sprout next April. They are clones.
- Companions
- Little — they carpet the bed. Give them their own row.
- Pests
- Deer browse vines. A fence. Vols eat roots — clean tillage helps.
- Uncured sweets taste starchy and rot. The cure is not optional.