If you enjoyed this video, please "Like" and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😀TIMESTAMPS for convenience: TABLE OF CONTENTS 0:00 Intro To Curing And Storing Sweet Potatoes 0:42 How Long Do Sweet Potatoes Take To Grow? 2:53 How To Harvest Sweet Potatoes And Repair Soil 5:32 How To Cure Sweet Potatoes (Warm & Cool Method) 7:59 My Sweet Potato Curing Life Hack! 11:44 How To Store Sweet Potatoes 13:27 How Do You Know When Sweet Potatoes Are Cured? 14:17 Sweet Potato Taste Test 16:32 Adventures With Dale
Your channel should be at least as big as Epic Gardening, but as good as they are, you are in a class of your own! You consistently deliver interesting, well researched and concise info that any gardener (regardless of their skill level) can learn from. You have a gift for teaching and manage to make even complex topics easier to understand because you don't overcomplicate or get bogged down in jargon, plus you identify what someone may be having trouble grasping, all of which makes you relatable. You keep a tight focus, have excellent preparation and delivery, while still showing your sense of humor and personality. I never feel the need to skip sections when watching your videos and I always know my time was well spent. I especially love that you are conscientious about follow-up on topics that span days or seasons. You clearly spend a huge amount of time devoted to your channel and I am so glad you are providing all of this for free, thank you!
Thank you! I think Kevin has the largest gardening channel on all of RU-vid, at least in the USA, so that really means a lot. I hope one day I can grow this channel to that size. I'm happy to hear the videos are helpful. I'm an engineer by trade, so I'm always trying to build a better mousetrap. Experimenting in the garden is fun for me, and I love sharing the results with everyone.
It's also good to have a gardener in a different wetter climate giving advice. I can't reliably grow some of the stuff Kevin does due to climate or too much pest pressure. Damn lubber grasshoppers...
I live in Wilmington too, so I think we go to the same Asian store. The purple yams are not treated by chemicals, instead they were treated by Gamma. That way the farmers don't "share" the slips with amateur gardeners. I suspect those purple yams are so easy to grow, if they did not do this, then anybody can grow them, would never have to buy their crops again!
I used a couple of seedling starting mats and a plastic tote. I put a towel under the potatoes so they weren't directly against any heat and I hung a clean damp rag near the lid to add humidity. It worked great! The other thing I've heard from many is just store them at room temp inside for 3-4 weeks and it works just fine, too.
The towel is a good idea. I bet a layer of cardboard would work, too. I'm sure room temperature is better than nothing, but the curing chamber will work better. It also comes in handy for starting seedlings all winter, too, as well as cuttings if you're into rooting cuttings, so it's a good investment.
Yes, they will make a fine house plant over winter next to a sunny window. They won't grow much, but they just need to be kept alive. Then, once it gets warm again in March/April, hit them with a fertilizer higher in nitrogen and put them outside in the warmth and they'll make new slips.
Wildly useful, from beginning to end. This covered the whole process, without blathering needlessly. I feel like I can tackle sweet potatoes with an actual plan!
I can't tell you how pumped I am to try this! I eat at least 3 sweet potatoes a week. I have grown them before, it worked out well. I never knew you had to cure them, but I didn't produce enough to necessitate that. They were yummy anyway- I ate them right away. But now that I know I can make them last I will be growing so many and using your curing guides as my Bible! Thanks so much, your channel has been so great so far. I'm not the same zone so I have to adjust some of the info, but you have great content and extremely amazing ingenuity!! You come up with a lot of useful tricks, thanks again😃👍
Thanks so much! I cured my sweet potatoes last November and they lasted into April. They weren't quite as perfect in April as they were in November, but they were still fine. They can store a long time if you have the right conditions.
Brilliant idea‼️. I had no idea the curing process took so long but very glad I was online when your newest video of planting sweet potatoes came on👍🏼. Thank you for all of the information about fertilizer 🍠🍠🍠
Oh wow! I am so grateful that you linked this video to your new grow bag potato video. We are first timers and have sweet potatoes to harvest. We were trying to figure out the best way to cure them now that the weather is cooler without having to heat an entire space. We're going to order the items needed before we harvest so we're ready to move straight into the curing process. Your hard work and sharing of this information is so helpful! Many thanks for creating a stress free way for us to move forward with our curing process!! My husband and I appreciate you and I adore that beautiful, sweet Dale!! Blessings 🙏🙏🙏
I'm happy I can help. I'm doing this now as we speak. My potatoes are 10 days into curing. I expect to pull them and move them into garage storage on Sunday.
Great video, never tried to grow potatoes, if I would I know how, also the curing process is so smart!! But for dummies as I am I would add a section where you briefly explain how you will plant the same variety next season, the process of replanting your harvest 👍 thank you for what you are doing, you are awesome
This was a great idea! I used your idea to cure my sweet potatoes this year. I am still in the cold curing process. I love how the heating mat and temperature control have multiple uses. Thanks for another great video!
That $16 seedling heat mat thermostat was one of my best investments. It cures sweet potatoes, starts fig cuttings, and makes it easy to start any seedling from hot peppers that need lots of heat to legumes that like a gentle warmth. It's worth every penny x10.
Just stumbled upon this video and so glad I did. I just harvested all my sweet potatoes this morning. And tonight they’re tucked in plastic boxes on a seeding mat with water. This is so cool and can’t wait to see how they turn out when the curing finishes. Thank you for such an informative tutorial!
I cured my sweets last year in my laundry/ furnace room, in a comforter bag. Sweetest I've tasted. But we don't have a furnace anymore so this is a great idea!! I was going to do this so this is confirmation.
I've done it two years in a row with fantastic results. Last year, my sweet potatoes cured this way stored in my garage into late April/early May and were still edible. It works!
Thank you so much for this information. I tried it and the results were fantastic! I live in a very small house, so this really was a game changer for me.
That's wonderful! I'm really happy to hear it worked well for you. I have about 40 lbs of sweet potatoes curing in my office right now using the same method.
Thanks for this great video. I grew regular sweet potato's this year for the first time, and I so appreciate you educating me on how to cure completely and store them. I used your Amazon link and ordered the last seedling heat mat with the thermostat but could not get it in the 48-inch size as they were sold out. I got the next smaller size, which will work fine for the plastic container I plan to use as the chamber container as the measurements were very similar. Happy Gardening and Harvesting.
Hi, thanks for the awesome tips. Tried curing using the seedmat and container method but found that the humidity created a pool of water which started mould on one potato. I placed a rack inside and put the potatoes on that. All is well now and the potatoes are now ready to move to my garage.
I would guess either the water vessel you're using is too large/has too much surface area for the container you're using and it's evaporating too quickly, or you aren't venting the lid enough. Using a narrower water vessel will reduce the evaporation rate, and venting the lid more will reduce the relative humidity.
@@TheMillennialGardener you are absolutely right. I've probably not vented enough due to the type of container. Thanks for replying. Really appreciate your channel
Thanks, that looks so much easier! Just be careful giving Dale sweet potatoes, we used to give them to our dog when she couldn't poop! They are a great natural laxative! LOL!
Is there a chance of mold with all that moisture ? I too got my slips off etsy for okinawans. Waiting to see! I'm in 7b and growing them inside a plastic half barrel.
Dale was so cute in that hat.😆 He was seriously waiting for dad to say he could take it off.😆 Great method you came up with. Sure makes curing the potatoes easier. I saw a farmer who said he simply lays his out on a trap in the sun for 5 to 7 days. I tried that one year and it worked. One simy pulls the tarp over the potatos for the night. This year I saw a master garden who puts hers in a plastic shopping bag in the warmest area in the house...for 14 days. I did this method with the potatoes I harvested last this yesr. Any opinion on these methods? I love you scientific explanation for things.🙂
The poor guy. I put it on his head and asked him to "Stay" and "Wait" so I could film. By the time I got the camera app up, he was no longer amused, but he stood still because I asked him to. I don't know what we did to deserve such a good boy. He's too good for us! You can cure your sweet potatoes that way if you still harvest them when it's hot out. My problem is I have nowhere to store them. If I pulled them in September so I could warm cure them that way, I'd have to eat them right away, because my garage is way too hot for storage and we don't have basements here. If you have a root cellar, you can do that, assuming the tubers are large enough while it's still warm out. If you live in the tropics, this can be done. When I lived in PA, I lived in an an old apartment that had steam heat. You could definitely stick a bag full of sweet potatoes next to one of those radiators. Sure. But now, I just have a heat pump HVAC system, so I can't do that. It doesn't really matter how you cure them as long as you give them the proper temperature and humidity. This was the easiest way for me to develop an automated process in the corner of my office that anyone can do with little effort, and I try to develop methods that anyone can rig up anywhere in the world for cheap.
@@TheMillennialGardener What you share most certainly helps a lot of us! I can't begin to recount how many of your suggestions I have put in practice and plan to.😃 Thank you...for sharing and caring.👍
My 80+ great uncle sent me a red potato eye and a sweet potato slip, just the eye and slip, no potato at all. So I planted the eye in a 4 gallon pot and got 9 good red potatoes, and the sweet potato slip made 5 good sweet potatoes, plus the greens which were a great substitute for lettuce and spinach in the heat of summer. It’s amazing how little a potato needs to grow. Next time you peel a potato, plant the peels and see what you get.
I gave my father 6 sweet potato slips, and those 6 produced more sweet potatoes than my entire bed! Why? I gave him all Murasaki, and I dedicated a large part of my bed to the Okinawan's, which flopped on me. Those Mursaki's are phenomenal. It's important to note that potatoes and sweet potatoes share no family relations. White potatoes are Nightshades and sweet potatoes are Morning Glory's, so they grow entirely differently and require completely different conditions. White potatoes like cool, dry weather. Sweet potatoes like hot, humid, wet weather.
@@TheMillennialGardener Absolutely. That’s great for your dad. This next year I’m planning on trying 2-3 slips each in a couple 17gal laundry tubs and trellising the vines up an up cycled bed frame. And trying the Ruth stout method with hay or straw and different potatoes.
I uses your method for grow the slips, worked perfect. I then cut them and planted in cups to root them. They did root great but unfortunately I was way to late in the season and got multiple frost here in North East Texas. But looking forward to doing again next year and on time. Thanks for the video on growing slips...... Jeff
Okinawan Sweet Potatoes are easy to find here in Hawaii... They still take a while to sprout starts... look for a Hawaii source.. or I will send you a few...
Wish I’d seen this before I started sweet potatoes. But I got a great harvest. I eased sweet potatoes and now I’m trying to cure them in a plastic bag on a register. I think I’ll just put them in garage. Next year will be better But not happy about finding I will be growing sweet potatoes in same spot.
Thanks so much for your explanations on the items in your Amazon store. - SO HELPFUL! I didn't know about potash for bananas - I ordered some. Thanks again!!
Just pulled one box today. That cold weather is coming to Oak island also. Bought the mat and thermometer from your store. Looks like it will save a big pain of space use.
Should the condensation from the lid drop on the sweet potatoes? It seems as if they would rot. Should I allow more ventilation? This beats putting them in the cab of my farm truck and trying to adjust temperature with windows. Plus not enough sunny days....
I think you’re just MARVELOUS! Thank you for you!!! I have a question about perpetuating SWEET POTATOES…. I grew a lovely crop last season, and harvested the same silly potatoes that I grew all season except a few slender teeny tubulars… but I guess I thought that one planted sweet potato would give me more sweet potatoes and not the same one I planted. Yes, they grew marvelous vines, love them, but I want to make sure that sweet potatos would feed my family. ALSO, one more thing, am I not supposed to harvest them when winter comes? Should I be leaving the sweet potatoes in the ground all winter long? In the past, I’ve found mushy rotted ones by spring….. Help! I really would like the sweet potatos be our staple. Thank you so much for helping me out! (P.S. I’m in North Texas)
Probably not. That’s much too cool. You’ll have to get as close as you can. Whatever is the coolest spot of your garage is what you want. You don’t have to harvest them until it’s cool. 9b Florida gets plenty cool in January, so you don’t have to rush.
If I don't have space to do that curing chamber, would keeping them in my greenhouse work? My greenhouse has a heater and fan and because I'm still watering peppers in there the greenhouse ALWAYS has humidity and droplets inside on the roof and sides, but I do have space in my cool basement for 2nd curing.
hot cure: I use a regular size (a flat size) heat mat inside (no thermostat control) on the bottom. I monitor the inside with a combo thermometer and humidity desktop type thermometer. Open when needed!
I think the thermostat is worth the investment. They’re only $15-20 and they do a better job while being fully automated. Then, you can repurpose it for rooting cuttings and starting seeds. It is worth the tiny investment.
Yes Okinawan sp from Hawaii are sadly always sprayed. The only place i got Okinawan slips was RareSeeds but that depends on availability & most say u need volcanic soil so its hard to duplicate what Okinawan potatoes need. I miss them alot being from Hawaii.
I've found that the spraying sometimes fails, so if I investigate the bin, there's always a few that seem to have at least a couple nubs that may be growing buds, and some 1/3 will actually grow slips out of those. And you really only need 1-2 tubers that are still viable to make a bunch...
There was no indication where my Okinawan's came from. I guess they weren't from the Lower 48. They were a bit of a flop, but now I have some organic tubers to start slips from next year. My Murasaki must've made about 1,000 slips last year, so if I can get some Okinawan's going, I'll likely try to share them with folks on this channel. It NEEDS to be grown more widely. It's too good to be so unknown.
Volcanic stones are sometimes sold for gas powered BBQ stoves to spread out the heat from the flame. If such stones were purchased and crushed into powder then mix with the soil that you use to grow the potatoes, it might be enough to simulate volcanic soil.
Great video, I enjoy all of your videos. You’re very thorough at explaining everything. If I heard you correctly, you harvested okinawan potato. Im interested in purchasing, if you save the slips. Please let me know. Thank you
Thank you! The Okinawan potatoes are very frustrating, because they're a fantastic sweet potato, but so few people in the US grow them or have even heard of them. It seems the store-bought potatoes are all imported and treated, so they can't be used to make slips. I plan on holding onto a few organic potatoes I raised so I can start some slips and share them this spring. This is a sweet potato people need to grow, and I hope to make some available if I'm able to start the slips early enough.
Great information! I had a bumper crop of sweet potatoes a couple of years ago but they tasted like crap so I didn’t grow anymore. I already have all the equipment I need so I will try growing them again!! Have you ever tried eating the sweet potato leaves? I’ve heard they taste good and are very nutrient dense.
That may be a result of not curing correctly, or maybe it was a bad variety for the environment. I tried eating the leaves, and I did not like them. They will be an acquired taste, I think 😆
Thanks. for the info. I have been harvesting my sweet potatoes as I need them and cook and eat them same day. They are delicious and the skin is perfect so I eat that too for the nutrition. Am I supposed to "cure" them before eating them?? lol.
The curing process increases the sweetness and increases their shelf life. If you're happy with their sweetness right out of the ground, and if you aren't looking to store them, then no, you don't need to cure them. If you want them to become sweeter and you want to store them for longterm food storage, curing is important.
I am using this now. Do you need to rotate them? I have a bin about 1/2 way full, bc some are just enormous. Want to make sure not to get mold like one user posted.
I am loving your content and look forward to "Adventures with Dale" . I grew sweet potatoes for the first time this year and I did not read about the 85 degree humid curing process. I harvested about 1 month ago, do you think I can still do this step now?? Or is it just too late for this years crop??
Thank you! The warm curing process is something you do right away. If that wasn't done shortly after harvest, it'll be too late. If the sweet potatoes are sweet enough for you, it should be fine. The warm cure enhances the sweetness, but if you're happy with the taste as-is, then there isn't a problem. Next year, remember to perform the warm cure and the sweet potatoes may taste even better.
Just south of you in Myrtle Beach. We just harvested and got 321 pounds growing the Stokes purple, Murasaki and the white O-Henry's from our backyard garden. We got some nice lunkers! Tried the Okinawans last year and had very poor results. I gave up on them for this area.
WOO!! That's outstanding! I'm upset I dedicated so much space to the Okinawan's. They seem to lack vigor, which is probably why they're so small and so outrageously expensive at the grocery store. I am going to try a different strategy for them next year. The Murasaki's and Stokes Purple's are much more productive...though nothing comes close to a plain ol' Beauregard in the Carolinas.
@@TheMillennialGardener The O'Henry's are a natural mutation of the Beauregard with white skin and white flesh. They produce well, and we really like them for flavor better than the orange variety. Carolina Ruby's are a very productive hybrid from NCSU for another orange variety. We also love the Murasaki's the best!
I was scrolling through trying to find this same question! Would it be beneficial to layer any cardboard between the layers or just straight on top of each other? I have no clue how many pounds I’ll actually get. I’m planning to fertilize this week after watching another sweet potato video of yours. I planted 49 slips in June here in zone 8b Hope Mills, NC area
Yes, if you want the potatoes to taste the best and store the longest. Without the warm cure, they will not be as sweet and they will not store as long.
How were they stored? Sweet potatoes must be stored in open air in a cool, dry place. I put mine in a cardboard box in a cold garage. If you put them in a warm and humid place, or in a plastic storage bin with a lid, they’ll rot.
Is condensation on the underside of the lid, dripping on the potatoes, an issue? Will this cause mold? I’m dealing with this now on day 2. I also forgot to put in the jar of water… but if there’s this much condensation, is it even needed?
If you're getting too much condensation, crack the lid ever so slightly. Mine never accumulates enough condensation to drip. There is just a light fog. I recommend adding the jar, because eventually you're going to run out of moisture. When you dig potatoes, they're going to be somewhat moist from the ground, so they'll initially generate their own moisture. However, they'll dry out quickly, hence the extra water bottle.
@@TheMillennialGardener I want to just wanted to come back and give an update. I put the jar in there and continued to leave the lid cracked about an inch. One of the potatoes on top started molding, and almost every large potato on the bottom of the tote molded horribly. I had to throw away about 15lbs of sweet potatoes. I followed all the instructions and bought all the recommended supplies, so it was very disappointing. I’m not sure how to avoid this in the future. My theory is between the condensation and the heat, it was too much and when condensation likely collected on the bottom, it started rotting the potatoes. In the future I may try placing cooling racks along the bottom to see if that makes a difference.
I tried this method this year. But mine actually molded for some reason 😢. I used a smaller water container, but most of the water still there after the first week. Maybe i will crack a bigger hole next year.
I place mine on my upstairs carpet. The mat will get much warmer placed on carpet than on a hard surface, so it's important to have a thermostat if you use carpet or it can get too warm. Carpet is an insulator.
Where I'm at in Northeast Texas, I have to pay close attention to the growing time. If I leave them in the ground until the vines die back the fire ants will have damaged a large portion of my crop.
I've been successful at eliminating fire ants from my property through cultural practices. When I moved here back in 2018, my lot was clear-cut and sandy soil, so there were literally millions of fire ants. It was horrible. You couldn't wear flip flops in the yard without being bitten by something. Now, they're all gone, and I did it by years of heavy composting and mulching the perimeter of my yard around the fruit trees and garden. Ants build their colonies in sandy soil, because it's light and holds shape. If you can add organic matter to your yard over the years, the ants can't build in that. It won't hold shape, so my yard is no longer desirable for them. For the front yard where I have to maintain a lawn, I spread bifenthrin granules 2-3 times a season with a spreader and target the odd ant hill here and there with that Andro ant bait and it kills the mound overnight. If those tips aren't realistic, have you considered growing your sweet potatoes in large grow bags? That works well. I gave my dad 6 lousy slips and they must've produced 50 lbs of potatoes for him.
It's much easier ridding a fire ant problem in an urban setting, that in a rural setting surrounded by hundreds of unmanaged acres. I have them built in the middle of my no-dig compost beds. Being grow organic, and never know where I might put in the next crop, I have to stay away from those harmful pesticides.
They also like low quality dirt. Too much compost stunts them. They like bone meal on the bottom for the roots and a small amount of compost on top for leaves
I’ve been growing sweet potatoes for a few years and have had pitiful results. Last year I grew the slips earlier and planted them in a mound of compost and they just took off.
Sweet potatoes are heavy feeders. The key to success was probably the rich organic matter in the compost. Supplementing them with fertilizer will help.
I did this last week. Except. I used the cooler and I close the lid all the way the next day. My sweet potatoes were ruined, mushy. It had gotten so hot in the cooler. It literally cooked them. See about well so upset, but lesson learned
Temps don't need to be that cool. Our basement stays between about 58 in the Winter to a high of about 73 in the dead of Aug when it's 100 degrees (F) outside. Most Sweet Potato varieties last about 16 full months down there. Our Purples go almost 2 full years. I'm still eating some of those from NOT last October, but a full year before that. They sprout slips, but you just break them off and carry on. They don't generally rot or spoil. They just start drying up into big Raisins and eventually fully dessicate and petrify.
We warm cure in an unused bathroom in the basement. Bins stacked floor to ceiling. Space heater. Hot shower run for 3 minutes, twice a day to steam up the room and keep humidity high. Cost about a buck-twenty a day to cure between 500 and 800 pounds (depending on how good our season was). We run 'em in there for 12 days. About $15 bucks cost.
Just for kicks, you should try doing the cold cure first and then the warm cure after, then a final cold storage. Just to see what the results would be.
I think the warm cure has to happen immediately after harvest to get the results. The immediate warm cure after harvest can translate some starch into sugars, so you need to hit that window.
Food from another country are always radated to kill any bugs or disease. It also kills the food. That's why your grocery store potatoes would not sprout
I'm looking for Evangeline sweet potatoes for next year. Danny from Deepsouthhomestead grew hundreds of slips and the Evangeline were amazing even through the drought his went through. Nice big potatoes with smooth skin
