Such a valuable food and fodder crop as sweet potato yam is grown in regions with a tropical and subtropical climate, but it can also grow in a warm temperate zone. Vegetables are used for cooking different dishes in cooked, baked, fried, dried form, from which sugar, flour, alcohol and molasses are prepared.
Potato grade potato
Most people have heard about sweet potato, but specifically, what kind of plant, many do not know. Sweet potatoes are tuberous vegetables with a taste similar to pumpkin, banana, pineapple, carrots depending on the variety. The potato contains starch, it is an excellent source of calcium and carotene. A characteristic taste is given to it by glucose, which is contained in pulp in large quantities. It is considered a strong antidepressant, cleans blood from cholesterol, promotes skin rejuvenation, relieves muscle pain when eating vegetables before exercise. Fiber improves the metabolism in the body.
Bathat - varieties
In the world there are different varieties of sweet potato. Outwardly they differ:
- form of tubers (round, ribbed, fusiform);
- shade of peel (from white to copper-orange);
- color flesh (white, yellow, carrot, purple, red).
The main varieties are divided into dessert, vegetable and fodder, characterized by the concentration of glucose, carotene and taste. The most popular varieties of sweet potato are sweet potatoes for eating:
- Victory 100. Early ripe dessert variety with orange flesh. When the tubers lie down, they taste like nuts and a banana.
- Beauregard. Resistant to diseases, high yield, does not crack. The rind is honey-colored with a damp orange pulp, rich in carotene.
- George's Red. The variety is adapted to the middle strip of the country. Tubers with a copper skin and light flesh in raw form from potatoes to taste are no different, after cooking become sweet.
How does sweet potato grow?
Sweet sweet potato is a long-winding liana-annual, whose stems are 1-5 m long, they spread along the soil and take root in the knots. The height of the bush is 15-18 cm, the leaves on the plant are petiolate, palchate-lobed or cordate. The lateral roots of sweet potato thicken strongly, form elongated tubers without ocelli with edible flesh, the color of which depends on the variety. The fruits of sweet potato have a mass of 200 g to 3 kg, the variety of the vegetables because of the different contents of glucose have a different taste - very sweet or not.
How does sweet potato?
In the axils of sweet potato leaves, funnel-shaped flowers develop in pink, white or pale lilac color, similar in shape to a large convolvulus. They form brushes of 3-7 buds. Pedicels have the same length as the petioles of leaves. Batat is a vegetable crop with cross pollination, which is performed primarily by bees. Most of the cultivars have lost their ability to reproduce sexually, many do not bloom at all, but some delight buds and even form seminal boxes, black or brown with a diameter of 3.5 - 4.5 mm.
How to plant sweet potato?
You can grow sweet potatoes of sweet potatoes with seeds or through seedlings, which are obtained after germination of tubers. The first method requires a lot of time and effort. Before planting sweet potatoes with seeds, it is important to find a good seed. Growing through seedlings is more common, it is possible to implement such a multiplication of a plant even for gardeners-beginners. Planting tubers in the ground immediately, like potatoes, is not recommended - the culture ripens for a long time and will not have time to form fruits before the onset of frost.
Planting sweet potato tubers
First of all, you need to buy tubers, for a small area they will need only a few pieces. Planting material is disinfected in a weak solution of copper sulfate. Sweet potatoes yam for germination are laid in winter in January - February, for this purpose a box of 15-20 cm in height is suitable. In its bottom holes are drilled, a vessel is placed on a pallet and placed on a window sill. Planting sweet potato with tubers:
- a substrate is prepared from the same parts of loose soil, humus and sand. The mixture should be baked for a while in the oven;
- the third part of the box is filled with soil, the sand should be on top with a layer of 3 cm;
- disinfected tubers put on the soil, slightly pressed and poured sand into the layer 3-4 cm. They should be half deepened into the ground;
- the temperature for germination is needed within + 18-27 ° C, the substrate is regularly watered;
- Cuttings appear after 30 days, when they reach a height of 10 cm shoots are separated and put in water, so that roots appear, then they are placed in cups;
- shoots from tubers can be removed up to 7 times, every 10 days;
- in the open ground seedlings are planted in the spring, when the soil warms up to + 15 ° C, and the air temperature reaches + 25 ° C;
- on a site prepare holes in depth of 15 sm and water them;
- planting scheme: distance between plants 40 cm, between rows - 70 cm;
- seedlings deepen by 2 internodes, protected by plastic bottles or glass jars, which will help it to get better. After the appearance of new leaves, the shelter is removed.
Planting sweet potatoes into the soil with seeds
Cultivation of sweet potatoes with seeds begins in the second decade of February. To do this, prepare a mixture of loose earth, humus and coarse sand in equal parts. Seeds are disinfected in a solution of potassium permanganate and dried. Rules of landing:
- seedlings are filled with a nutrient substrate, the seeds are embedded in them for a depth of 1.5-2 cm;
- crops are covered with a film, put in a warm place, regularly watered;
- sprouts of sweet potato sweet potato are considered ready for planting in open ground when they reach a height of 15-20 cm;
- for a couple of weeks before transplanting the seedlings are hardened - they are taken out to fresh air for several hours every day.
Where does sweet potato grow?
When planning to cultivate sweet potatoes, special attention should be paid to the site where it will grow. Sweet sweet potato - conditions for successful growing:
- the playground must be protected from strong wind and well illuminated, the plant does not like even the slightest shading;
- the best soils are sandy, sandy loam, loams, with low acidity and a depth of groundwater more than 2 m;
- In the autumn, fertilizers are applied for digging - 3 kg of overgrown manure, 15 g of potassium sulfate and 20 g of super- phosphate per 1 m 2 . Acidic soil must be additionally lime. In spring, the soil is loosened and 80 g of nitrogen nitrate are added;
- sweet sweet potatoes of sweet potato develop well at temperatures above + 20 ° C, while decreasing to + 10 ° C, the plant stops growth, and at 0 ° C - dies.
How to grow sweet potato?
A plant is important not to get rooted in internodes, as this reduces its yield. Therefore, stems of sweet potatoes should be periodically raised from the ground during cultivation and prevent the formation of unnecessary rootlets. When cultivating it is important to systematically remove weeds, otherwise they thicken the planting and deplete the soil, and the plant becomes weak.
Harvesting is in mid-September. The potato is considered ripe when its foliage and stems become yellow and begin to fade. Fruits are excavated neatly in dry weather, laid out on a bed for drying. They can be eaten immediately. The tubers, intended for saving, are kept for a week at + 28-30 ° C, then laid out on boxes, they can be stored at + 10 ° C for several months.
Batat - care
Sweet potatoes are a drought-resistant culture, do not like waterlogging at all. Watering it should be plentiful at first, when the cuttings take root. In the beginning, they build up a lot of roots, and then weeds grow and drown in all directions. In the second half of the vegetation, watering is reduced to once in 10 days. When the rains go on regularly, you can not moisturize at all. Three weeks before harvesting, watering is stopped.
Since mid-August, during the harvesting and the formation of tubers sweet sweet potato needs additional fertilizing. To do this, use once a week potassium fertilizer, which is suitable for wood ashes. 1-2 glasses of powder should be stirred in 10 liters of water, to insist for two weeks, stirring occasionally. To make one liter of the composition for each bush.
Reproduction of potatoes
Sweet potatoes sweet potatoes reproduce shoots on tubers and cuttings. The fruit selected for breeding is stored at a temperature of + 10 ° C in a dark place. Brought into the light and in-depth by half in the substrate, they give out sprouts that are easily detached. Placed in a vessel with water rudiments after 3-7 days start roots and shoots are planted in pots. Later they start to release leaves.
Also, it is easy to give roots and pre-cut green lashes grown in the ground in the fall of sweet potato. Planted in a home pot, they will develop a beautiful plant and decorate the room during the winter, and in the spring they will become a source of new planting material. In the ground they plant cuttings of 15-20 cm cuttings, they can easily be formed into a full-fledged plant.
Pests of sweet potato
The plant is considered resistant to diseases and pests, but sometimes they can spoil the harvest. Potential problems when growing sweet sweet potato:
- Crusts or larvae of May beetles. Parasites hide in the ground and eat up tubers. Destroy the pests will help watering the beds with the drug Aktara, Aktofit, on the rows you need to lay out glue traps for adults in May beetles.
- Slugs. Especially annoy the sweet potato vegetable in rainy years. On a site it is necessary to place bowls with beer and after a while to collect pests.
- Spider mite. Affects leaves and stems, destroy the parasite will help spray the bush Fitoverm or onion husks, bleached, chemist's chamomile.
- Blackleg. Fungal disease, can affect seedlings, it rotates the stem. To avoid the disease, sow sweet potatoes only need to be decontaminated, the substrate must be shed beforehand with Phytosporin-M, so that it does not become acidic, an egg shell can be added to the ground.