How and When to Harvest Sweet Potatoes
Make the most of your homegrown crop by knowing when to harvest sweet potatoes, plus how to cure and store them.
Sweet potatoes are easy to grow and delicious to eat. But before you can cook with your homegrown bounty, you need to know how and when to harvest sweet potatoes, and how to cure the flavorful roots. They actually become tastier and sweeter in storage as their starches convert to sugar. This guide will help you harvest and cure sweet potatoes so you can enjoy them throughout the fall and winter months.
When are sweet potatoes ready to harvest?
As the growing season ends, reduce watering sweet potatoes to prevent cracking, which can cause problems in storage. Sweet potatoes gain most of their size and weight late in the season—even after the leaves begin to yellow, so don’t harvest them too soon. The ideal time for harvesting is in the fall when the weather begins to turn cool, and the vines start to wither. Aim to harvest before the first fall frost—a light frost won’t usually damage the roots, but a hard frost might injure roots near the soil surface.
Marty Baldwin
Sweet Potato Harvesting Tips
Sweet potatoes bruise easily, so handle them gently. It helps to cut and remove the vines two or three days before you harvest. This will encourage the thin skins to toughen up a bit.
Use a garden fork to loosen the soil about 18 inches around the crown of each plant to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. Lift the sweet potatoes gently. Most will be close to the crown where the stems emerge from the ground, but some may be deeper or several inches away, so sift through the soil carefully to ensure you don’t miss any.
It’s easy to skewer a root with your garden fork while digging. Separate out damaged roots for immediate use (just cut out and discard the damaged area). For undamaged sweet potatoes, brush off as much loose soil as you can; don’t wash them with water. Wait for a day or two after harvest to let the soil dry—it’s easier to brush off then—and use a pair of garden gloves to gently wipe off the soil. Don’t rub hard, or you might scrape off the skin. Cleaning each sweet potato gives you a chance to examine each one for damage—minor scratches are fine, but separate any that have been cut or scraped deeply for immediate use.
Related: The 10 Best Gardening Gloves, According to Testing
Curing Sweet Potatoes
Now that the sweet potatoes are out of the ground and cleaned, it’s time to cure them. Curing heals small scratches and starts the conversion of starches to sugars, which improves the flavor. Sweet potatoes cure best in a warm room (about 80°F–85°F) with high humidity for seven to 10 days. If this is difficult to achieve, you can cure them at 70°F–75°F for two to three weeks, covering them with paper or cloth to help maintain high humidity.
If the weather cooperates, you can cure them outdoors in a shady spot. If the weather is not suitable, an attic or shed might provide appropriate conditions. However, you may need to boost the humidity with a humidifier or add warmth with a space heater.
Related: The 10 Best Humidifiers for Plants of 2023
Storing Sweet Potatoes
After the sweet potatoes are properly cured, they will last six to nine months (although you might use them up before that!). Place them in boxes and store them in a dark space where temperatures stay between 50°F and 60°F. A basement or cool closet often provides ideal conditions. Do not store them in the refrigerator. Check the sweet potatoes regularly and remove any that show signs of rot.
If your harvest was a good one, and you take the time to cure and store them properly, you can enjoy this year’s sweet potatoes right up until it’s time to plant sweet potato slips for next year’s crop—three or four weeks after the last frost in spring.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you leave sweet potatoes in the ground too long?
Sweet potatoes left in the ground after the vines have died back may rot in wet weather. So it's best to harvest before it rains, and always harvest before a hard frost. Freezing temperatures will damage the roots and significantly reduce your harvest.
How can you tell if a sweet potato has cured enough?
The skin of fully cured sweet potatoes becomes more firm and small scrapes dry and heal over. It usually takes one to three weeks to cure sweet potatoes, depending on your exact conditions.
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