How to Save and Store Your Sweet Potato Vine Tubers for Next Year

Candy potato vines are versatile and easy-growing. They fill the summer season backyard with lush leaves. Some cultivars have yellow leaves, whereas others are inexperienced, purple, crimson, or near-black! 

Candy potatoes are usually not winter-hardy. They require particular care to overwinter. Storing the tubers is one method to preserve them, although there are a number of methods you possibly can guarantee they survive the chilly months.

To save lots of candy potato vine tubers, begin the storage course of in late summer season and early fall, when the climate cools and days shorten in size. Achieve this earlier than a light-weight frost, as repeat frosts can harm the tubers and have an effect on the overwintering course of. 

Irrespective of for those who’re making an attempt to maintain edible or decorative tubers, these strategies will guarantee you could have vines for subsequent yr. Why throw the crops out for those who don’t should? Save and retailer your candy potato vine tubers as a substitute. 

Retailer Tubers

In-ground crops and people rising in raised beds will develop tuberous roots, whereas container-grown crops will wrestle to. Save candy potato vine tubers from mature specimens that put out vital progress in the course of the heat seasons. 

Dig Up Tubers

To save lots of candy potato vine tubers, the method begins with digging. You’ll need to safely harvest the tubers with out slicing into them or puncturing their pores and skin. Take away them equally to the way you’d take away potatoes, with a broadfork or pitchfork.

Begin by pruning the leafy vines off the tubers, then dig close to the roots. Put the fork into the soil across the roots, and carry upwards. When you loosen the soil across the crops, start digging to brush the roots freed from soil. 

Don’t wash the roots! This may trigger rots and mushiness. Brush them together with your arms or a brush, and set them apart to remedy. 

Candy potato vines don’t really develop tubers by the botanical definition—the tuberous roots are enlarged roots, whereas tubers are enlarged stems. To make issues straightforward, we’ll name them tubers on this information as a result of they resemble them. 

Remedy Tubers

The curing course of hardens the tubers’ skins, which helps them retailer properly over the winter. It additionally offers the roots time to heal wounds or cuts from harvesting. 

Use a brush to remove many of the filth from their skins to arrange them for curing. They want heat temperatures and humidity throughout this course of.

Give them what they want by protecting them in an enclosed area that traps humidity. Use a plastic bag poked with holes, or a container with the lid partially open. Place the tubers beneath partial shade with some solar to make sure they keep heat in the course of the course of.

After every week or two, the roots ought to really feel agency. They shouldn’t be comfortable or mushy. If they’re, allow them to remedy longer beneath heat temperatures and excessive humidity till they’re agency to the contact. 

Retailer Lengthy Time period

After curing, candy potato vine tubers are prepared for long-term storage. Correctly cured roots will final till planting time subsequent yr, round springtime. They want cool temperatures, darkness, and humidity in the course of the dormant part.

Hold the tubers in a crate or field lined with paper or straw. Set them inside in a single layer, and keep away from stacking them. They want good airflow in the course of the curing part. After packing, set the crates in a darkish and moist space. 

Use a pantry, storage, or basement for storage. Don’t use the fridge, because it’ll kill the tubers. Shoot for temperatures between 55-60°F (13-16°C).

If the realm is just too dry, the crops will shrivel earlier than subsequent yr. Set a humidifier on low to spice up the humidity, or place a pot with water close by to evaporate. Intention for humidity round 85%. 

Take Cuttings

For those who don’t need to save candy potato vine tubers, it’s possible you’ll take cuttings to avoid wasting your favourite candy potato vine varieties. Cuttings want gentle, heat, and water to develop. They’ll overwinter properly on a heat windowsill, beneath develop lights, or in a greenhouse. 

Take Cuttings

First, you’ll want some vines to propagate! For those who’ve been rising all of them summer season, it’s straightforward to search out them. For those who simply have tubers, you possibly can set their decrease ends in water to encourage them to sprout. 

Vines will sprout all alongside the skins. Allow them to develop and flourish beneath direct daylight. Then, reduce 4 to six-inch parts of the stems. Take away their decrease leaves, and go away some remaining on the higher parts. Set every slicing in water in the interim.

After you acquire all of your cuttings, you could have two choices: proceed sprouting them in water or root them in soil. Water is the simpler choice, although it’s possible you’ll attempt whichever technique you’d wish to. 

Encourage Roots

It’s simpler to root the cuttings in water than in soil. The cuttings might rot within the filth, and so they’ll wrestle to type roots earlier than wilting. With water, you possibly can see the roots forming in the course of the propagation course of.

To start out, set the cuttings in jars of water. Be certain their tops are outdoors of the water. Set the jars beneath vibrant gentle, like from a windowsill or develop lights. Roots will develop over the subsequent few weeks.

The method is analogous for soil propagation. Set the decrease ends of the stems in pots of soil, and water them properly. Cowl their tops with a humidity dome to maintain them perky and moist whereas they type roots. 

Transplant Cuttings

Transplant well-rooted cuttings earlier than they outgrow their jars of water. Set them in pots with soil, and canopy the roots with filth. Water them properly, then allow them to set up new roots inside their pots. 

Hold the cuttings in heat temperatures, beneath vibrant lights, and in humid situations. Set them on a vibrant window, or arrange develop lights over their tops. They’ll love rising in a well-lit lavatory. 

Deal with Vines Like Houseplants

This technique works properly for potted specimens. As a substitute of taking cuttings or storing the tubers, you possibly can deal with your candy potato vine like a houseplant. You might also do that with in-ground specimens, although you’ll must dig them up and pot them earlier than bringing them inside. 

Reduce Vines Again

Begin by slicing the vines again. They’ll have grown further lengthy over the summer season, and trimming them makes the crops simpler to maneuver indoors. 

Reduce the stems again in order that they’re between six and twelve inches lengthy. It’s possible you’ll trim the vines to an extended size when you’ve got a number of area in your house. 

The stems want gentle to develop properly, and so they’ll take up area indoors. Make sure you reduce them to a size that’ll match in your house. Use the trimmed vines for cuttings, or compost them. 

Retailer Candy Potato Crops

The crops want heat and daylight to develop indoors over the winter. They’ll thrive beneath a west or south-facing window. Place them near the window, however preserve them a number of inches from the pane. Window panes can develop extraordinarily chilly over the winter.

For those who lack pure gentle in your house, use develop lights. They mimic the solar’s rays and assist your vines develop properly in the course of the dormant season. 

Water your crops recurrently so their soil is moist, however not soggy. Let the floor dry earlier than watering once more, and also you’ll keep away from root rot or fungal situations.

Transfer the crops again outdoors within the spring after the final common frost date. Transfer them to bigger pots, or plant them within the floor to encourage extra tubers for subsequent yr.