I can say how to cultivate sweet potatoes for all types is all the same technique, the difference is the speed of harvesting from the planting period. There are 4 important steps that you should consider for good and true sweet potato cultivation. These four methods are quite simple and must be a concern because they will have an impact on the harvest you get
- Selection of good and excellent seeds
You can buy good and superior seeds from the place where you can buy superior quality sweet potato seeds. The seedlings themselves are many varieties, especially from the shape, you can get purple sweet potato seeds superior varieties in stores that sell agricultural seeds that have gained the trust of the agricultural service
- Prepare a Good Planting Land
This land preparation must be carried out within a minimum period of 3 weeks before planting the seedlings. A good soil condition for sweet potato cultivation is sandy clay soil, loose and contains lots of nutrients and has good drainage. The ideal soil for sweet potato cultivation requires a degree of soil acidity of around 5.5-7.5 pH.
Cultivation of sweet potatoes in dry and cracked soil will reduce plant immunity, as a result the plant is susceptible to pests and diseases. Conversely, if it is planted in a muddy or wet place the result of the tuber will be stunted, high fiber content, easily decayed tubers and lump shape.
Sweet potato plants grow well on dry fields or former rice fields. On dry fields, sweet potato cultivation is suitable at the end of the rainy season. While for paddy fields is more suitable in the dry season. To prepare good land, the need for fertilizer to improve soil quality requires a lot of fertilizer, especially the former rice fields.
- Good and Right Sweet Potato Planting
Sweet potato growers are quite easy to do, but there are trivial things you should pay attention to for this planting so that sweet potatoes grow optimally with sufficient nutrients. Sweet potato seeds should be planted by immersing 2/3 of cuttings into the ground
- Sweet Potato Harvesting
The period of sweet potato ready to be harvested is when the sweet potato plant is 3.5-4.5 months old, depending on the sweet potato variety planted. A good harvester is done during the dry season, harvesting when the soil is loose and too wet will make the sweet potatoes wet and susceptible to decay.
If the harvest time coincides with the rainy season, the solution is to choose a day at least 7 days after the rain falls. If it is difficult to find a suitable day, after harvesting the harvested tubers must be dried from the remaining water, can be dried or dried so the tubers are drier.
Make sure after harvesting the tub is clean and dry. Successful cultivation of sweet potato plants is a plant that can produce at least 1 kg of each plant seed. Calculations for one hectare of land can produce 25-30 tons. In certain varieties such as borobudur and kalasan sweet potatoes can reach 30-40 harvests per hectare.
