Problems that should be paid attention to in sweet potato harvest

Sweet potato is vegetative vegetative propagation, there is no obvious maturity standard and harvest period, but harvest early or late, sweet potato yield, seed retention, storage, processing and utilization and rotation have an impact. Harvest too early, will significantly reduce the yield of sweet potato; harvest too late, sweet potato is often affected by low temperature and cold damage, not resistant to storage, drying rate decreased.

Therefore, sweet potatoes must be harvested at the right time.

The harvest period of sweet potato should be determined according to climatic conditions, safe storage time and arrangement of next crop. When the ground temperature is about 18℃, the weight of sweet potato increases very little; when the ground temperature is about 15℃, sweet potato stops expanding; when the ground temperature is below 9℃ for a long time, chilling damage will occur. Therefore, generally in the ground temperature of 18℃ began to harvest planing sweet potato, in the frost before harvest planing completed. Spring sweet potatoes for drying or winter seeds are generally harvested before cold dew; summer sweet potatoes for seed are harvested before frost; sweet potatoes for storage are harvested later, but must be harvested before frost.

The soil is too dry or too wet, which is unfavorable for sweet potato harvest. Too dry, soil moisture content reduced, temperature changes, sweet potato susceptible to cold damage, and not easy to harvest planing. Too wet, soil moisture content is too much, sweet potato is not only difficult to harvest, but also has a large water content and is not resistant to storage after harvest. When the soil is too wet, the sweet potato stems should be cut off first, dried for a few days, and then harvested until the soil is slightly dry.

Summer sweet potatoes reserved for seed should be harvested in the morning of sunny days, dried in the field, and put into the cellar in the afternoon of the same day. Do not spend the night in the field to avoid cold damage.

After harvesting sweet potatoes, they can be selected in the field to remove diseased, residual and water-stained potato pieces, and stored separately according to different uses and varieties. From harvest to storage, we should minimize the number of tipping times, and pay attention to light handling, light transportation, so as not to bruise the potato skin.