Sweet Potatoes

[I am not a Nutritionist nor am I a Doctor, and nothing on this website should be taken as medical advice. All statements made are simply my opinion.]

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)

My top pick for root crops would have to be sweet potatoes. They are very healthy, easy to grow in abundance, incredibly easy to propagate, and store quite well if done correctly.

There are many different varieties of sweet potatoes. Typically the darker the sweet potato the more antioxidants it will contain, but the normal orange ones you can get from the store are plenty good for you, and are readily accessible to most people so we will focus on those. These same concepts will work for any variety you choose though.

Starting with a grocery store sweet potato is easy as long as they are not treated with sprout inhibitors. Those are apparently used by some stores, however I have never experienced this and all of the ones that I have tried to sprout have worked out just fine.

All you need to do is have the sweet potato partially submerged in water or moist soil and wait until it sprouts. This may take up to a couple weeks to get going but once it starts growing it will supply you with alot of vine sprouts, which are called slips.

You can get dozens of slips from each sweet potato which can grow into well over a hundred sweet potato plants. Everywhere there is a stem node is a place where it can also put down roots and produce a new plant. You can just let the slip grow until it is a foot long or so and either cut it off and bury it sideways under about half to one inch of soil or segment it down and plant each separately. You can also take a slip about 5 or 6 inches long and place it in a container of water covering at least two leaf nodes and wait for it to root in the water before planting. These plants truely are incredibly easy to propagate as long as you keep them moist and warm. Also do not just plant an entire sweet potato in the ground like you would do with a regular potato. It will grow alot of vines but will not produce any more tubers where it was planted, however anywhere the vine touches moist soil there is potential for new roots and tubers there.

Plant out your little beauties after ALL chance of frost is gone. Seriously, er on the side of caution here. They do not do well with frost. They also do best in full sun. Sweet potatoes love bright, hot, sunshiny days and will produce best for you where that is possible as long as they are kept well watered. The vines are also edible raw or cooked, are more nutritient dense than spinach, and make a great addition to salads all summer. You can harvest whenever you like but doing so early will obviously reduce your yeild. Harvesting in the fall, preferably after there has been a killing frost and the vines are dying back, is the best time. A good frost will convert some of the starches into sugars and make them tastier. Also waiting to eat them until at least a week or two after harvest will improve the flavor substantially.

If stored in a cool, dry, dark spot they will easily last several months and be ready to start the whole process over agian.

Nutrition facts:(per 100 grams)
Calories- 86
Protien- 1.6g
Fats- 0.1g
Carbs- 20.1g
Sugars- 4.2g
Fiber- 3g