When is the best time to plant sweet potatoes?

When is the best time to plant sweet potatoes

It is best to plant sweet potatoes in spring every year. If you want to raise seedlings in early spring and harvest sweet potatoes in advance, you can raise seedlings in a hotbed or in a small plastic arch shed, and then transplant them when the sweet potato seedlings grow two true leaves.

Second, how to grow sweet potatoes

1. Soil preparation and fertilization

Sweet potato likes to grow in sandy loam with deep soil layer and good drainage. During the period of plant root growth and expansion, appropriate nitrogen fertilizer and more phosphorus and potassium fertilizer are needed, and attention should not be paid to excessive fertilization, otherwise the soil is too fertile, it is easy to cause sweet potato stems and leaves to grow, but its fleshy root is not easy to expand. Usually, before planting, the soil can be turned deeply for 20-25cm, and barnyard manure 5000kg and compound fertilizer 25-50kg can be applied per mu.

2. Sowing and raising seedlings

Sweet potato seeds are relatively hard, in order to improve the germination rate of seeds, you can soak the seeds before sowing, soak the seeds in clean water for 10-12 hours, fish them out and put them in a wet paper towel until most of the seeds are white and sow. Usually before and after Grain Rain, the seeds are sown in the earth, with 1-2 seeds in each hole, with each sweet potato with a row spacing of 50-60cm and a plant spacing of 35cm.

3. Post-planting management

After the sweet potato is planted, it is necessary to interplant and replenish the seedlings with the growth of the sweet potato, to apply manure and water once after the sweet potato seedlings are complete, to carry out intermediate ploughing, weeding and soil cultivation when the soil is slightly dry, and to pick the heart when the main vine of the sweet potato grows to 18-24 leaves. during the growth period of the sweet potato, only the main vine can be removed, which can be harvested 5-6 months after sowing.