Sweet potatoes are one of the most rewarding crops you can grow. Under the right conditions they give very high yields, and they cope with difficult weather better than many other crops.

This makes them a dependable choice for household food security. The key is to have enough healthy planting material ready when the rains begin.

Choose the Right Soil

Sweet potatoes grow in many soil types, but they do best in deep, moderately fertile, sandy loam soil. Such soil produces well-shaped, attractive storage roots that sell easily.

The roots also need plenty of air in the soil to start forming and to grow, so planting on raised mounds or ridges is the best way to get a higher yield.

Mounds, Ridges or Flat Beds?

You can plant sweet potatoes on mounds, ridges or flat beds.

Mounds and ridges are better for two reasons: they drain water well, and the mature roots are easier to dig out, especially when you harvest a little at a time.

The size of mounds, ridges and beds differs from place to place, so use whatever is most practical for farmers in your area.

• Ridges: usually preferred where tractors or ox-ploughs are available, but they can also be made by hand.

• Mounds: made by heaping soil by hand, with three vines planted on each mound.

• Flat beds: suitable for households with labour shortages, but they usually give lower yields than mounds or ridges.

Planting sweet potatoes on ridges. Photo credit: One Acre Fund

Prepare the Land

Land preparation is the most labour-intensive part of growing sweet potatoes.

Build your mounds, ridges or beds by heaping soil over the residues of previous crops or the vegetation left from a fallow period. 

As these decompose, they add fertility for the sweet potato crop. The heaping also loosens compacted soil that could hinder root formation.

Planting on mounds, ridges and flat beds. Photo credit: ResearchGate

Feed the Soil Well

• Potassium matters: as a root crop, sweet potato needs plenty of potassium. Ash is rich in potassium and can be mixed into the soil to boost root formation.

• Go easy on nitrogen: too much nitrogen in the soil produces plenty of leaves and vines but few roots.

• Use organic matter: farmyard manure, compost or green manure are very beneficial and are especially practical in kitchen and backyard gardens.

Rotate Your Crops

Do not plant sweet potatoes in the same spot season after season. Rotate them with other crops, or leave the land fallow for a while, to reduce the build-up of diseases such as viruses and pests such as weevils and nematodes.

Where possible, also keep new sweet potato fields away from recently harvested or existing ones, particularly in areas where weevils and viruses are a problem.

Prepare Your Vine Cuttings

Sweet potatoes are planted using vine cuttings or sprouts, not seeds. Choose cuttings with at least 3 nodes, about 20 to 30 cm long.

The distance between nodes differs by variety: in some, 3 nodes measure about 15 cm, and in others about 30 cm.

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Some farmers keep the cuttings in a cool, shady place for a day or two before planting to encourage roots to start forming. Removing the lower leaves before planting is optional and not necessary.

Spacing Guide

• On ridges: plant 25 to 30 cm apart along the ridge, with 60 to 100 cm between ridges. At 30 cm between plants and 1 m between ridges, you need about 33,333 cuttings per hectare.

• On mounds: plant 3 vines per mound, with some space between them. With mounds spaced 1 m by 1 m, you need about 30,000 cuttings per hectare.

• Trailing varieties: farmers usually plant these wider apart than varieties with semi-erect or erect vines. Many farmers also experiment with different spacings.

• Root size: closer spacing produces a greater proportion of small roots, which some markets prefer.

How to Plant, Step by Step

1. Make a hole: use a stick, machete or hoe to open a planting hole in the soil.                     
2. Place the cutting: put most of the vine into the hole, leaving only the tip exposed. At least two nodes must be under the soil to help the cutting establish and to increase the number of roots that form.                       
3. Firm the soil: press the soil into place so the nodes make good contact with it.              
4. On ridges: plant the cuttings vertically or at a slant along the top of the ridge, at the spacing above.                                                 
5. On mounds: plant three cuttings towards the top of the mound, equally spaced so they form a triangle when seen from above.            
6. Fill gaps: use one cutting per hole, then replace any that fail to establish. Many farmers traditionally plant two cuttings per hole, but this needs a lot of extra planting material, so agronomists recommend one.

When to Plant

Plant at the onset of the rains, once you have enough cuttings. Sweet potatoes are often planted after the priority cereal and cash crops, or once the rains have produced enough planting material. Some farmers, however, grow them as their main cash crop.

Harvest With Care

Be gentle when harvesting. Even a small dent or cut on a root can lead to spoilage.

Photo credit: Shutterstock/Alexander Knyazhinsk. Information: International Potato Center (CIP)

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