How to Cure Sweet Potatoes & the Correct Temperature

Sweet potatoes last for months in dry storage.

Sweet potatoes are rich in vitamins and minerals but a freshly dug sweet potato takes time to develop its sugars. These tubers thrive in warm to hot weather but do not do well in cold weather. Frost and freezing destroy the vines and the potatoes stop maturing in the ground. The skin on sweet potatoes in the ground is delicate, so take care not damage it when harvesting them; that introduces bacteria inside the potato and quickens decay. Since sweet potatoes require warm temperatures and moisture to cure, the bacteria also flourish, resulting in inedible produce.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Container
• Newspaper
• Plastic bag

Instructions

1. Dig the potatoes from the ground carefully using a shovel. Once the soil is loose around the potatoes, lift them carefully and put in a basket or box that has newspaper lining, towels, old blankets or other soft cloth along the sides and the bottom.

2. Do not wash the sweet potatoes since the skins need to toughen during the curing process. Handle the potatoes as little as possible to keep the skins intact.

3. Find or create a warm space that stays between 80 and 85 degrees with humidity between 85 to 90 percent. Poke holes in plastic bags to maintain the humidity and place the vegetables carefully inside the bags. Under the ideal temperature conditions, the potatoes cure in approximately 10 days. If the temperatures hover between 65 and 75 degrees, the potatoes take approximately 2 or 3 weeks to cure.

Tips & Warnings

• Thoroughly wash the cured sweet potatoes before peeling them.

• Place the peeled vegetables in water if you are not cooking them right away since the potatoes darken when exposed to air.

References

• Purdue University: Dig Those Sweet Potatoes
• Alabama Cooperative Extension System: Harvesting and Curing Sweet Potatoes