Germination
THE WHERE, WHEN AND HOW
Tubers can be planted at any time of the year in Karachi, in coastal regions and in much of the plains but only during spring in areas that experience severe winter cold.
Buy medium-sized tubers from the bazaar and plant them in ‘light’ soil — about three feet apart, four to six inches deep, in rows three feet to four feet apart. Keep them lightly watered and they will germinate in no time at all. Before you know it, the plant will have grown all over the place, at the speed of light. In places where soil is on the heavy side, plant your sweet potatoes on either mounds or in raised beds.
They can also be propagated from cuttings — better known as ‘slips’ — taken in very early spring. Slips, between one and two feet long, can be taken from existing plants or be specially produced by half burying a tuber (the upper half sticking out) in a pot of freely draining, sandy soil which is then watered, just once, sealed inside a plastic bag to maintain temperature and humidity. These will, quite quickly, send out a number of shoots that, when long enough, can be used as slips.
Slips are planted at the same distance apart as tubers: remove all except for three to four leaves at the tip of each slip, insert the cut base of a slip carefully (they are brittle) into the ground to a depth of three to four inches and then lay the remaining length of the slip on the soil surface. Pegging it — using bent pieces of wire is ideal — into the soil every two to three inches along its length and where there are lead nodes (those from which you removed leaves).
The slips will root at the cut base and then, all going well, from each leaf node too and then watch out. Jack and his beanstalk have nothing on the rate at which sweet potato vines can grow!
The hotter the weather, the faster these vines race, rooting as they go and, as tubers develop from roots; there should be lots and lots of tubers to come.
From planting — be this from tubers or slips — to harvesting, can take as little as four months over the summer and perhaps six months over the winter, all depending on the localised climate.
Sweet potatoes enjoy a drink during dry spells but do not need watering on a daily basis: too much water can cause the tubers to rot and we certainly don’t want that to happen!
The batata’s bitter and sweet sides
From personal experience, when harvesting sweet potatoes, there are always those that manage to hide and which, left to their own devices, will continue to grow and produce the next crop.