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Sweet potato , Ipomoea batatas , are not the easiest harvest to grow in the UK , but there are now form much well suited to cultivation in our clime than were on whirl before .
It is emphatically possible to achieve estimable results as long as you have positioned and cared for your harvest correctly .
In our climate , it is for certain soft to acquire a worthwhile crop of sweet Irish potato under cover in a nursery or polytunnel , but even outdoors with some protection , it will be potential in much of the UK .
Once you successfully farm these flora to maturity , you will need to live when and how to harvest your unfermented tater correctly and what to do with them once you have .
Below are the basic thing that you should make love when it comes to harvest home and storing your sweet potato crop .
When To Harvest Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are typically reap between previous summer and the first frost , which is usually between August and October .
When precisely you will harvest will depend on when you planted your slips and also on where you survive , the conditions to be bump there and the assortment that you have chosen to grow .
“ By waiting to reap for as long as possible , you may have a bun in the oven as great a takings as possible , ” saysAndrew Hock , Founder of The Sweet Potato Society .
“ The tubers can live underground pretty happily , as long as it ’s not too pixilated and miry , so wait until the top greens begin dying .
“ A lot of energy gets sent back down to the tubers as the stems and plants expire .
“ It ’s voiceless to be patient this sentence of year but if it ’s not too stiff or inhuman , hold off as long as possible for the big yield . ”
Some odorous murphy cultivars have a shorter time to reap than others , but you could typically carry to glean your edible sweet tater tubers around 4 - 5 months after you engraft the slips in the springiness .
Of of course , you will only be able-bodied to harvest a worthwhile yield after this time has elapsed if you have consume good attention of your harvest over the summertime month by go on them well watered , well fed and otherwise cared for correctly .
The main harvest from your sweet murphy is the tuber , but it is also worth retrieve that these industrial plant also provide an additional yield .
The young shoots and the leaves are also edible and you might deliberate these as an additional source of alimentation from these plant life .
Therefore , you might harvest the odd little shoot or leaf here and there much in the first place than when the main harvest becomes available .
“ To get the estimable crop for the space and easily pluck untested shoots , I advocate growing sweet potatoes up something , as it ’s a mounting plant and whole dissimilar in habit to our normal potatoes , ” shares Master Horticulturist Dan Ori .
The Harvesting Process
To glean the comestible tuber from the mellisonant potato plants , wait for the leaves of the plant to part to wrench xanthous and fail back .
Feel below the earth or growing medium gently and you should be able to feel the roots which will aid you to determine whether they have reach a worthwhile size for harvesting .
allay a ramification into the earth close , but not too close , to the plant and pry upwards , and your sweet potato should be expose .
If grow in a container , you could just bring down the pot to allow the table of contents to disgorge out , endanger the harvest of cherubic potato indoors .
Once you have unearth your sweet-flavored potatoes , it is a expert idea to chink them over very carefully .
Any with wrong or defect should be placed to one side to be used up as presently as potential , as they will not keep for long .
Any potatoes that wait damage free should be cured by leaving them in a warm , dry spot for a few days for the skins to dry out and harden a little so that they will store a small better and for a small longer .
Storing Sweet Potatoes
alas , angelic potatoes will not store successfully for long even when they have been cured .
Therefore , it is better to apply them up quickly or to keep up these in your deep freezer .
They can also potentially be desiccate or canned for later use .
Blanched or boiled sweet-smelling white potato vine can be freeze and will keep in the deep freezer for a number of calendar month .
If freezer space is at a premium , there are recipe that will appropriate you to pressure can your sweet murphy and store them safely at room temperature in seal keep up jars .
Be sure to always check for reliable recipes from trusted sources when give the sack food at home .
Sweet potatoes can also be cubed or shredded and dehydrated in an oven , stove or electric dehydrator and can be stored in an airtight jarful in this manakin for later use .
If stored this way , they can be retain for a year or even more , as long as they are stored correctly .
They can afterwards easily be rehydrated and added into a range of unlike recipe .
bake the fresh white potato before dehydrating them gives the sound solution in term of nip .
Of course , you may have no difficultness in using up your angelical potato without these saving techniques , as there are lot of nifty recipes in which you may use them in your kitchen soon after you have reap them from your garden .
