At least seven Swedish growers have worked on the cultivation of sweet potatoes in the last 12 months, and this number is expected to rise this year, reports news website ATL. The Swedish Agricultural University, SLU, has also initiated a cultivation project with HIR Skåne to introduce the crop to growers in Skåne.
One of the Swedish growers is Andreas Wiklund from Visby, who experimented with the cultivation of sweet potatoes on a quarter to a third hectare of his land. His experience is that the crop isn't resistant to frost and that the harvest has to be done by hand because they are very vulnerable. Wiklund harvests half the potatoes in mid September and stores them at a temperature of 29 degrees to dry out the peel properly. Then the temperature can be lowered to 12 to 14 degrees. "It's actually going very well, but before the sweet potatoes can be grown on a large scale, we have to find ways to mechanise the harvest or develop varieties that aren't as easily damaged," Wiklund believes.
The sweet potatoes do best on sandy soil, like in Skåne, and on Øland and Gotland.
Source: landbrugsavisen.dk