Who doesn’t love potatoes? Mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, delicious French fries, and many more dishes of tasty potatoes. What about sweet potatoes? They are tasty and nutritious veggie and easy to harvest, all in all. You might have the question “How many Sweet Potatoes Per Plant?” This read is for you if you are a gardener and want to grow your sweet potatoes.

This tuber veggie is popular among temperate regions for yearly summer production. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the sweet potato’s first harvest was during the second world war, 1939-45. Since then, this veggie is prevailing on the food chart due to its cheapness and easy-harvesting process.

But why this tuber grows mainly in summer? And how many you get out of each sweet potato plant is a thing to discover. So, are you up for a reveal about how many sweet potatoes can you get from each plant? Then without any further due, let’s get into the details. Common!

Varieties of Sweet Potatoes

Well, this nutritious and delicious veggie has different kinds, and you can plant them anywhere, either in a garden or open plot to harvest. The USA has nearly a hundred types of sweet potatoes. Bugs bunny, California gold, Georgia Jet, Centennial, Envy, Sumar, and many more. These varieties differ in terms of skin type, color, and size.

You can choose any of them based on your purpose or hobby, and most essentially, your garden type- planting time will also indicate which variety you should pick. However, the USA has a big production and popularity of sweet potatoes. And some states of the USA are front contributors to this Yum production system. I would like to take a closer look at them:

Planting and Harvesting the Sweet Potatoes

This cheap and perennial vine is easy to harvest. Many interlinked factors are responsible for determining your bumper production in sweet potatoes. Don’t worry simple tricks and influencing factors can help you to get as much as you want. Let’s see the essentials for sweet potatoes at a glance:

• Planting time: So, the first thing first. When to plant my sweet potatoes? We shall grow the sweet potatoes in late springs. The spring season occurs after the last frost of winter, generally from March to June. So, this is the best period to plant your “Yums” (another name for sweet potatoes).
• Climatic features: The production of these “carb-potatoes” changes with soil type, pH, rainfall, sunlight, and whatnot, so listing these features is essential. For a better understanding of how to grow sweet potatoes, you can go through the chart below:
  

  Soil Type	Sandy Loamy or silt loamy soil; well-drained
  Soil pH	5.8-6.8; best at 5.8-6
  Soil Moisture	3.81 cm of water must in every seven days.
  Sunlight	Exposure must be 8-10 hours
  Temperature	23-26°C
  Fertilizer type	Phosphorus

  If you follow the above condition, you might get much of sweet potatoes. So what about indoor or outdoor planting? You can plant the sweet potatoes in your indoor space or outdoor space as per your choice.

• Handling techniques: So, this is a crucial part. You have maintained all the conditions but didn’t collect the roots or sprouts correctly or didn’t maintain the spacing of seedlings accordingly can lead to your fewer sweet potatoes.How far apart to plant the sweet potatoes? Well, in a row-to-row space, you can maintain 12 inches gap between each plant. The rows will be three times more spacious means the distance between each row will be 36 or even more. Plot type, moisture, or spills per acre also influence the spacing and, ultimately, the potato roots and potatoes.Planting the accurate seed or roots of the sweet potato is another crucial thing. You will collect the seeds to get the optimum number of slips or vine cuts.
• Separating the Slips: Then gently wash it off with water and remove the specks of dirt from the ” Yums”; cut them in half. Remember you need to put these half-cut potatoes in a jar with water. The skin side will be on the top, and the “cut yellow flesh ” part will be in the water.Wait, you need to use toothpicks to tear the potatoes. And these will help to hold your potatoes in the jar. Otherwise, the half-cut sweet potato will dip in the water. What is the maximum number of sweet potatoes that will grow on a slip? You can get 3-4 tubers from a plant slip and is around 1-2 pounds of sweet potatoes.However, you can expect more or less 50 slip sprouts from each sweet potato. Keep the water jar in a place with wind flow and sunlight. Then the roots come out within a few weeks from the slips. Finally, plant the roots space-wise in your container or your open field to get your sweet potatoes.
• Harvesting Time: So, When are sweet potatoes ready to harvest? The best time for harvesting the sweet potatoes is 90-110 days after planting. When the leaves turn dull in color, most probably in late summer, you are ready to pick your sweet potatoes. Don’t keep the option of harvesting the sweet potatoes in winter because the frostbite will affect both the vines and tubers. Also, Ricky Bickling, a Texas gardener, suggested not to water the sweet potato plants just two weeks before harvesting. So, be alert to pick your potatoes before winter.

Plenty of Sweet potatoes to Eat

It is now time to move on to the most important portion of the discussion. How many pounds of sweet potatoes are produced per plant? ? According to Colorado State University Extension findings, a sweet potato plant can produce 2 pounds of sweet potato yield. And we can say one pound can hold up to 2-3 large sweet potatoes.

Moreover, you may do the hilling to get more sweet potatoes. What is hilling? You can expect “hilling” when your plants are 6-8 inches providing shade to the tubers with broad leaves. This hilling can produce more sweet potatoes in your backyard or plot.

You may ask, ” how many sweet potatoes can you get per square feet of your land”? Initially, commercial sweet potato harvesters estimate you will get 2.88 pounds per square foot. The yield depends on the spacing and gardening pattern.

Sometimes the per square foot of sweet potatoes can be more than 2.88 pounds. Backyard container or open garden, each can produce a generous amount of ” Yums” if you follow the steps of planting and harvesting accordingly.

You need to stock the sweet potatoes to enjoy them throughout the year. A cold, dark, and humid place are best to store them. But just after harvesting, dry them under the sun, remove all the dirt, then stock!

Protecting my Sweet Potatoes from Diseases

You shall protect your Yums from diseases during plantation, harvest, and stocking. Fungal contamination of sweet potatoes is common in general. Black rot, Rhizopus soft rot, scurf, and charcoal rot are common diseases. How to save your sweet potatoes from diseases?

• Check the healthy stems
• Cure roots after harvesting
• Take care of slips,
• Create a proper planting bed,
• And spread fungicides.

FAQ

Well, beginners are always curious about Yum production and how to get more sweet potatoes out of each plant. So, we can look at the below FAQ.

How to grow sweet potatoes in a container?

Cheap and easy-going procedure. You can use fabric bags or plastic containers. In a container with four inches of soil, add the slips. Then add more than three inches of soil. And you are off to growing the sweet potatoes, simple.

How deep do sweet Potatoes grow?

So, your sweet veggie can grow under 15-20 cm deep. But it depends on your garden type or indoor- container. If you dig space deeper, it is good for the sweet potatoes.

How apart to plant your sweet potatoes?

12 to 18 inches distance is okay between each sweet potato plant. Moreover, the three 3 feet distances in rows are essential for harmony growth of vines.

What should I not plant near a sweet potato plant?

You follow every step to grow your sweet potatoes, but you fail. Then the hybrid planting is the reason. If you plant tomatoes, squash, and sunflowers beside your Yum garden, the Yums will be in trouble. So, these three are not friendly for sweet potatoes.

Conclusion

Sweet potatoes are the favorite veggie for all. No matter what, on every occasion from Ester to Halloween, sweet potato dishes are always on demand.

So, the sweet potato production per plant is a significant matter. The proper experiment and research can increase the yield. Moreover, if the horticultural experiments are easy to access for mass people, production will be booming. Two pounds of sweet potatoes from each plant? You can also grow your Yums in the garden or open plot.

In the upcoming Thanksgiving, you can use your sweet potatoes. So, before the spring leaves, plant your Yums now!