Learn how to harvest sweet potatoes and cure them by following the steps outlined in this post.
You’ve done the work of growing slips, keeping your sweet potato vines happy, and now you need to know one thing: how to harvest sweet potatoes!
(If you’re wondering how to grow your own slips and plant sweet potatoes, start with this post instead!)
When to Harvest Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are typically ready to harvest 100-120 days after being planted.
For me, growing in USDA zone 6a, I typically plant my sweet potatoes in the ground around Mother’s Day and harvest them around my first frost date, October 10.
Sweet potatoes need a long, warm growing season and consistent moisture to be at their best.
The best way to know if your sweet potatoes are ready for harvest is to dig them up!
Brush the soil away from the base of the plant and check the size of the tubers.
If they are big enough, pull them out! If not, bury them back up and let them grow longer.
Early Frost Warning
If you are going to get an early frost, you can wait until the frost kills the leafy tops before harvesting your sweet potatoes.
However, you must get the potatoes harvested right away or they will not store as well.
Cut all the dead foliage off if you aren’t able to harvest immediately as this will prevent disease from entering the tubers.
How to Dig Up Sweet Potatoes
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Wait for a dry day. You don’t want to dig up the tubers when the ground is soggy and wet or they will be muddy and hard to clean.
Pull up the vines and locate the base of the plant. Your sweet potatoes should be buried here.
Use a small spade, digging fork, or hori-hori knife to gently loosen the soil around the potatoes.
Try not to damage the tubers. The skin is very thin and easily damaged.
Also, don’t pull the tubers out or they could break. Broken sweet potatoes will not last as long in storage as whole ones.
Try to dig out the whole tuber instead.
Leave the dirt on the sweet potatoes until the curing process is complete.
How to Cure Sweet Potatoes
Curing is the most important step in the harvest.
It helps the tubers store longer and cuts on the tubers to heal and increase the longevity of the sweet potatoes.
It’s also what makes sweet potatoes sweeter!
There are two stages in the curing process: a warm cure and a cold cure.
Sweet potatoes need to cure in a warm, humid place for one to two weeks.
More specifically, according to the Alabama Cooperative Extension Services, you want to “hold them at 85 degrees F with 90 to 95 percent relative humidity.”
Totally doable, right?
Since I harvest in the fall and it is neither warm nor humid, I try to imitate this environment by putting the tubers in a plastic bin with the lid on.
I keep the bin in the closet in our home office. If the house is too cool, I put my grow mat under the plastic bin to boost the warmth.
Other ideas for the warm curing process include:
- Place the tubers in a trash bag or grocery bag, tie the ends, and keep the bag in a warm, sunny window.
- Cure the tubers in a climate-controlled greenhouse or indoor grow tent.
- Put a humidifier in a closet with your tubers.
The tubers should feel firm and moist at the end of the warm cure.
Once the two weeks are up, I move the sweet potatoes to a cool spot.
I leave them there for the rest of the season unless temperatures get below 45°F, then I move them into my basement so that they don’t freeze.
Allow the tubers to cold cure for about 6 weeks.
When Sweet Potatoes Are Ready to Eat
You can technically eat the sweet potatoes anytime, but they will be sweetest after the cold curing process is complete.
For me, that’s right around Thanksgiving!
If you eat the potatoes right away, they will be starchy but not very sweet.
This is because they need the curing process to turn the starches into sugars.
So have some patience, because it is worth the wait!
How to Store Sweet Potatoes Long-Term
Remember that your tubers are alive.
They can regrow if temperatures stay above 60°F. They will also get mushy and go bad if exposed to freezing temperatures.
So, for long-term storage, keep sweet potatoes in a single layer in a cool, dark, slightly humid (65% relative humidity) place with plenty of airflow.
Do not keep them in a refrigerator.
Check the potatoes often and if any show signs of mold, decay, rot, or if they get soft, toss them out.
When properly cured and stored, sweet potatoes should stay good for up to 8 months.
Be sure to save one of your sweet potatoes to replant next spring!
Thanks for reading this post, and I hope with this curing method, you are able to enjoy your sweet potatoes for months to come.