Warm and sweet! Grow potatoes fully charged with the power of the sun and the earth, and eat lots of them!
Misha: Come on! This time we’ll try growing sweet potatoes!
Hachibee: You look really happy, Misha. You’re probably looking forward to eating some baked sweet potatoes, aren’t you?
Misha: Oh, not at all.
Hachibee: But you’ve got a smile on your face!
Misha: You’ve been found out. It seems like a dream to be able to eat loads of fluffy, sweet, delicious sweet potatoes, but maybe you’ll enjoy them even more if you see how they grow? Well then, let’s get started!
Sweet potato “almost weekly” cultivation report
4/21 Potato vine planting
Misha: Sweet potatoes aren’t grown from seeds or bulbs; they’re grown by planting cuttings from the roots.
Hachibee: So you plant it in the soil with the leaves still attached? It’s just like taking cuttings, but should I call it a “vine cutting”?
4/28 Wait for the roots to take hold
Hachibee: The leaves are so soft and it looks like it might wither at any moment! Is this ok? Will it really take root in the soil?
5/5 Roots take hold and leaves begin to grow
Hachibee: Oh! The leaves have come back to life!
Misha: It looks like the roots have taken hold in the soil. Sweet potatoes have a lot of vitality.
5/12 The leaves start to grow
Hachibee: Particularly dark green, powerful-looking leaves are starting to appear!
5/19 Leaves begin to grow
Hachibee: The leaves have gotten bigger! And the stems have gotten thicker. The color of the stems is the same as that of sweet potatoes.
5/26 More leaves
Hachibee: They’re increasing in number!
6/2 More leaves growing
Hachibee: It seems like the leaves are growing at a faster and faster rate!
6/9 The buds grow larger and increase in number.
Hachibee: It’s spreading out quite a bit!
6/16 The leaves are growing
Hachibee: How many sweet potato leaves are growing? They’re starting to cover the ground!
Misha: It doesn’t grow upwards, but spreads out sideways. It’s like a green carpet.
6/23 Leaves begin to cover the ground
Hachibee: I didn’t notice, but the leaves have grown so much!
Misha: These leaves are sending the sun’s energy to the sweet potatoes.
6/30 The vines grow
Hachibee: There are many thick, whip-like sweet potato vines crawling around on the ground!
7/7 Green leaves spread out in all directions
Hachibee: Once the vines grow, leaves appear quickly and it’s as if the earth is being swallowed up by the sweet potato leaves!
7/14 Leaves cover the whole surface
Hachibee: Wow!
Misha: That’s an incredible number of leaves. Each and every leaf sends solar energy to the sweet potato. It’s like a natural mega solar power plant.
7/21 Vine Return
Hachibee: Oh? What’s this doing?
Misha: This is called turning the vine. Sweet potatoes grow roots not only from the roots, but also from the vines that grow. These roots make small tubers underground and use up excess nutrients, so the vines with roots are peeled off from the ground and placed on top of leaves or other places where roots do not grow.
7/28 The leaves grow thick and strong
Hachibee: Even after turning it over, its vitality hasn’t weakened at all; in fact it seems to have become even wilder.
8/18 Absorption of nutrients
Hachibee: Ugh, it’s hot! Sweet potatoes look fine even under the scorching midsummer sun.
Misha: Sweet potatoes are made by collecting and storing this scorching solar energy with all these leaves. They must be like a bundle of nutrition and power.
9/1 It’s almost time for the harvest
Hachibee: No, they’re still doing perfectly fine, but the leaves. Aren’t the leaves usually going to wither and fall off as the harvest approaches?
Misha: If you leave sweet potato leaves alone, they will stay green until the frost, but if you leave them that long, the tubers will split at the top. The best time to harvest sweet potatoes is about 120 to 150 days after planting, around September.
9/15 Trial digging begins
Hachibee: That said, without any signs like dead leaves, I’m a little worried about whether potatoes have really grown.
Misha: That’s right. So before you dig up the whole sweet potato crop at once, it’s a good idea to pick out one or two plants and test dig them up. Voila! You’ll already have some great sweet potatoes!
9/29 harvest
Hachibee: Wow! It’s huge! It’s packed with volume and energy!
Misha: This time we planted them in April and harvested them throughout September, and we got some really good sweet potatoes. These sweet potatoes are packed with the energy of the sun. Eating them is full of nutrition and gives you lots of energy.
~A word! Sweet potato cultivation points~
Difficulty of cultivation：★★☆☆☆
If you plant the potato vines in spring,
they will soak up the summer sunshine and
you can grow sweet potatoes in 120-150 days.
Don’t forget to fertilize and turn the vines when planting.
To judge the harvest,
try digging up one or two.
