Sweet potatoes: benefits and harms, cultivation and care with photo

Sweet Potato is the second common name for Sweet Potato. An annual, climbing plant from South America, it is popular in Indonesia, it is grown in India, and in China it is considered a fruit for longevity.

Description

Stem up to 17 cm high covered with heart-shaped leaves. The plant is perennial at home, we grow it as an annual, it blooms with lilac or white flowers. The shape of the flowers is funnel-shaped. The formation of tubers in a plant occurs in the forks of lateral roots.

Sweet potato tubers can reach large sizes, weighing more than 3 kg. The shape of the fruit can be different (round, oblong, ribbed), depending on the variety.The color of the pulp and peel of the tubers depends on the variety and species. There are varieties with tubers of orange, purple, red, yellow and white. Sweet potato pulp tastes sweet, due to the glucose it contains.

You can buy Sweet Potato on sale:

stern;
vegetable;
dessert.

There is less glucose in fodder varieties, they are used as a substitute for potatoes. Vegetable species are also eaten instead of potatoes, but dessert varieties have a taste closer to carrot, pumpkin, banana, and the color of the pulp is bright, orange.

Popular dessert varieties include sweet potato varieties:

Georgia red;
Beauregard.

How a variety is planted as a replacement for potatoes:

Purple;
Japanese;
White.

What is the benefit of Sweet Potato?

Sweet potato Sweet potato is not very popular in our country. Such a plant is thermophilic, and our climate cannot be called mild. Interest in the tropical crop is growing thanks to the popularization of its new varieties adapted to the conditions of our summer and information about the usefulness of its fruits.

The taste of the sweet potato tuber is vaguely reminiscent of the taste of frozen potatoes. This similarity explains the second name of the plant. It is the substances contained in the root that explain the benefits and harms of Sweet Potato. The composition of the pulp, its benefits largely depend on the variety, as well as on the growth conditions.

Core hearts are advised to use varieties in which the flesh of the tubers is colored purple. They found a high content of anthocyanins, they improve heart function, their consumption reduces the risk of eye and vascular diseases.

Orange sweet potato tuber improves vision, keeps eyes youthful thanks to vitamin A, it is more in the pulp compared to other vegetables. Orange tuber dishes are especially useful for the elderly and people with weight problems.

For older women who have entered the menopause (menopause), Sweet Potato fruits help maintain the level of female hormones in the body. In young women, it increases libido. People who regularly eat tubers are less likely to get cancer and nervous disorders.

Next to the beneficial properties of sweet potato, there are contraindications. Not everyone benefits from sweet potatoes. People with various pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract can feel harm to he alth. It is not recommended to include it in the diet of pregnant and breastfeeding women.

How to plant and propagate?

In order to have time to grow Sweet Potato in our climate in the summer, you need to learn how to grow its seedlings.Planting tubers immediately in the garden will not bring success. For the formation of full-fledged fruits in the open field, our short summer will not be enough. First you need to study the varieties that are on sale. Choose the variety, the description of which is more suitable for a particular area.

Mature Sweet Potato tubers are needed to get seedlings. Large tubers can be divided into several parts with a clean and sharp knife. The resulting parts must be half immersed in containers with water. Sprout tubers on a sunny windowsill or under a phytolamp. The first sprouts on the tubers will hatch in 2-3 weeks.

When the sweet potato tuber is covered with shoots, carefully separate (cut off) them and put them in water until the roots appear. A 10-centimeter process is considered good. From one division, you can get up to 7 batches of sprouts. It takes about 10 days to form sprouts. Roots appear in three days.When the height of the sprouts with roots is about 20 cm, they can be planted in the soil.

Site selection and soil preparation

When choosing a location, consider the following requirements:

well lit during daylight hours;
located behind the wind;
groundwater not closer than 2 m.

Prepare a bed for Sweet Potatoes from autumn. Determine the acidity of the soil, if acidic, then deoxidize with lime. In autumn, apply most of the fertilizer. Sprinkle 3 kg of humus on each square meter of soil, scatter fertilizers: superphosphate (20 g) and potassium sulfate (15 g). In the spring, 5 days before planting seedlings, dig up the soil for the last time, adding 80gsm m. ammonium nitrate.

Form holes for seedlings according to the scheme 3050 cm, 15 cm deep. Plant Sweet Potato in warm ground, leave most of the internodes on top. There are three common planting patterns for Sweet Potatoes:

vertical;
horizontal;
V-shaped.

Gently crush the soil around the seedlings, water the holes. When the plants are planted, cover them with a covering material to protect them from the sun and the night chill.

Date of planting

The weather in different regions of the country can vary greatly, so the timing of forcing seedlings and transplanting them into the soil is different. For example, in the Krasnodar Territory, the forcing of sprouts begins in the first decade of April, and seedlings are brought into the garden to be planted when flowers bloom on the acacia.

Yam is not a very familiar culture for Belarus, but its lovers have appeared there too. The plant is grown in seedlings, planted under a film in the second and third decade of May. Warm weather in Belarus is already in early June, so after the 10th, the film is removed from the ridges. In mid-September, the collection of tubers begins.

In the suburbs, they are waiting for stable warm weather from 15 ° C and above to set in the street. Sweet potato seedlings are planted under a film, covering material or cut plastic bottles. Growing sweet potatoes in the middle lane is no different from growing plants in other regions of the Russian Federation.

You can grow a heat-loving crop in Siberia. To obtain full-fledged tubers, two summer months are enough with a daily temperature of at least 20 ° C. Some Siberian vegetable growers prefer to grow he althy tubers in a greenhouse.

How to Grow Sweet Potatoes

Growing sweet potatoes will require some effort, especially in the first month. Plants need a lot of moisture, they will have to be watered daily. After a month, if the seedlings look he althy, watering can be gradually reduced - first their frequency, and then the volume.

For the formation of large tubers Sweet potatoes need a lot of nutrients, a growing plant intensively absorbs them from the soil all season, especially in need of potassium. Fertilize the soil around the plants in August, apply potash fertilizers or ash. An infusion is prepared from the ashes. Withstand the infusion for at least two weeks. Plant fertilization is carried out at least once a week.

Watering plants finish two weeks before harvest. In order for the fruits to be stored better, they must be dry during digging. A sign of ripening, readiness of fruits for harvesting - dry leaves of the plant. Finish harvesting tubers before the first frost. There should be no rain on the day of harvest. Store the collected tubers at a positive temperature (10 ° C). Before storing the fruits for storage, they are dried in the sun.

Advice from experienced gardeners

Those who decide to master a new culture will be helped by the advice of lovers, in whose gardens Sweet Potato has been growing for a long time:

When planting sweet potato seedlings in the soil, forget about choppers and rakes, their use is prohibited. Pull weeds out of the soil with your hands so as not to damage the weak roots of the plant. Soil care is minimal.
Dry the dug up sweet potatoes in the sun for at least 7 days. The longer the tubers of the plant bask in the sun, the better their taste.
The skin on the tubers is thin, so do not throw them away during harvesting and storage.

Growing a new crop can become a hobby. A he althy vegetable will add variety to the diet, increase its nutritional value.