We planted sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) this quarter. This carbohydrate-rich tuber has provided the food needs for many generations of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines. Also, because of the strong rains and typhoons, we choose the crop because it can withstand adverse weather conditions while we wait for better weather.
The humble sweet potato... so much loved before but unfortunately young folks are shunning it because of junk fast foods.
The sweet potatop is versatile and full of vitamins, but above all, it's a very easy crop to grow.
The leafy, trailing plant will produce tubers all year round in tropical areas. It also grows well in cool, frost-free climates. Now is the perfect time to get a start, because sweet potato likes at least four to six months of warm weather to produce a good crop. By the end of the year, we expect to have about 4 tons in the one hecatre area we planted.
Firstly, we chose a warm, sunny spot and dug plenty of compost and old manure into the soil. We mounded the soil in narrow rows along the length of the beds bed. That will give the tubers a nice deep soil to develop.To get the first crop underway, we planted using cuttings from old plants and planted them just below the soil surface in the corner of the patches.
The plants were kept moist, and in a week or so, little sprouts began to appear. When they got to about 15cm long, these were snipped off and planted in mounds as cuttings about 50cm apart. In no time, roots formed and the sweet potatoes started to grow.
We did not use any commercial fertiliser. They tend to encourage too much leaf growth. Instead, we sprinkled a little sulphate of potash about every so often. It was that easy, and they're fun to grow them
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