Twisted sweet potato

[Spiritofthewild]

I planted and harvested my first sweet potatos this year. I was pretty happy with the harvest but all of the big tubers came out looking like some grotesque model of the digestive system.

Any ideas why they were so twisted and misshapen? My best guess would be something about the soil being too hard maybe?

I can be... Very slack with my gardening, so I can't remember what I did exactly, so any help would be appreciated.

[imafan26]

Usually that happens when the ground is hard or rocky. Even then, some of them do grow kind of twisted anyway. If the tubers are not dug up in time they start to grow on top of each other so have to conform to the space that they have.

[Spiritofthewild]

Thanks. Its definitely not rocks but possible that the ground was just too hard. I remember that over fertilised carrots twist and go strange shapes, so asked just incase it may be a similar issue as if there is one thing my garden gets, it is sheep manure by the trailer load
Knowing me, I probably just dug a small hole and put the slip in unprepared ground so hard ground sounds legit

[jal_ut]

I am thinking soil moisture may have a part in it. if its wet then dry, wet, then dry.......... Grow then stop, grow then stop......

[Spiritofthewild]

Ok thanks. We have extremely hot summers her and this year suffered a full week of 45C temps (113F) which really really hurt the garden. I try to keep them damp but there is only so much you can do in those conditions while working 14+ hour days trying to keep dying sheep alive. It was a very hard summer on us all.
I never really considered that so I'll keep it in mind this year. Thanks

[Gary350]

Why harvest so soon you must live in Canada?

I let frost kill my plants before I harvest. I plant in April and harvest about Nov 1. I have 2 sweet potato plants this year and hope to have 150 lbs of potatoes again this year.

Sweet potatoes are weird sometimes they are long and skinny, sometimes short fat, some bent and twisted, some are very large and some even larger. One year I had a very large potato about 14 lbs it looked lumpy like a dozen potatoes all grown into 1 large potato. This weirdness can all come from the same plant.

Sweet potatoes love it hot, blistering hot full sun all day 115 degrees and don't seem to care how bad the soil is they still do good.

[Spiritofthewild]

Nah mate I live in Australia so I've gt opposite seasons.
I harvested them a few months ago, when the frosts hit them, but am looking into what might have caused it, so I can start planning for planting in a month or so

I did get a few straight ones so maybe it's a bit of everything... Soil too dense, letting them dry out every now and then and just plain old weird taters