| 00:00 | 00:42 | Introduction |
| 00:43 | 01:22 | Land assessment is the first thing you have to do check on the soil pH, the slope, and the fertility level. This is followed by clearing, then ploughing which is the first land preparation method then you do harrowing to break the soil then you do the ridges. |
| 01:23 | 02:53 | Though fertilization mostly alters pH but you can get virgin soil that the pH is not within the range of your crop so no matter the status of your land pH is important. Soil pH is a major chemical feature that affects crop yield at a range of 5.8-6.5 the fertility available in the soil is present for plant uptake, the lower the pH the lower the availability of nutrients for uptake |
| 02:54 | 04:07 | Watering the soil before planting can be done if the soil is not moist enough for planting. The farmer can choose to plant immediately after preparation or plant after one or two weeks. |
| 04:08 | 05:38 | Leaving it for a week or two mostly after it had rained weeds will grow and you can get rid of them by using glafocade to reduce the weed population the weeds will emerge again after a month hence reducing the workload. Also you can opt to plant immediately after land preparation and when the weeds come you start weeding. |
| 05:39 | 07:08 | Practice crop rotation mostly along different plant families to break the pest and disease cycle. This is because the pests and diseases that affect one family rarely affect the other and when you starve the disease organisms they die making it safe for when you bring the same crop again. |
| 07:09 | 08:39 | In between ridge can be about 1.3 meters, and the bed is 40-50cm high and 50cm wide. The ridge space is to provide room for the plant not to over-crowd and the height is for the roots depth that is about 30cm to provide soft soil for the plant to develop well and give good tubers. |
| 08:40 | 10:10 | Both manual and mechanized ways of planting can be used in sweet potato farming. In a bed of 70 cm, you can have about 233 plants. |
| 10:11 | 11:40 | For sweet potatoes, you can do both nursery and multiplication the parent material is the first multiplication which gives the first generation where you now multiply them. When you cut from this multiplication the yield will be different from just cutting vines from anywhere this is because the material could be diseased hence reducing the yield. |
| 11:41 | 13:10 | Plant your sweet potatoes in batches always have some to harvest. This plan will help you to always sustain the market that you have. |
| 13:11 | 14:31 | Once you have the parent material you have to multiply it for it to cover a large portion of land. To get a clean healthy planting material for commercial production do your multiplication in a green house for it is a covered area with controlled environment where you will limit or completely do away with pests and diseases |
| 14:32 | 16:02 | Depending on the variety and on your agronomical practices the multiplication takes as short as 4 weeks. Sweet potatoes does well in sandy loam soil with a pH between 5.8 -6.5 and you can adjust it by using gypsum or organic fertilizer for acidic soil and sulphate of ammonia to bring the pH down. |
| 16:03 | 17:32 | You can plant your sweet potatoes by cutting a slip between 4-6 nodes and planting 2 or 3 into the soil. How you plant the plant communicates to them how they should do, the number of potatoes you can get, the more the nodes beneath the soil the better the performance. |
| 17:33 | 19:03 | The more you open up the ridges the bigger the sweet potatoes and they become hard to sell hence advisable to space at 1.3 meters and even closer for some varieties. Depending on the variety the sweet potato can be ready for harvesting after 4 months. |
| 19:04 | 20:34 | The soil characteristics that you know through soil analyses will determine what fertilization and amount you will use. Also, you can use the split application method especially when it is raining to avoid leaching if you apply fertilizer once for the growing cycle. |
| 20:35 | 22:04 | Flowers start developing after 30 days and sweet potatoes are harvested just once. the most common/ stubborn pest is the sweet potato weevil which feeds on both the leaves and the tubers, the more they fed on the leaves the less they are able to photosynthesis hence the yield goes down thus the need to control the pests. |
| 22:05 | 23:24 | Sweet potatoes are warm climate plants and in the case of a temperate environment, you can use plastic containers to cover them to improve temperatures to the optimum level. They can be cultivated all year round using both rain and irrigation on off rain seasons. |
| 23:25 | 24:46 | Once you go a week or so without rain it is wise to set up the irrigation because water is key in the yield.Weeds compete with the crop for nutrients, depending on the weed density on your farm you can have 2 times of weeding then the third one will be hand picking to avoid cutting the vines. |
| 24:47 | 25:58 | The vines depending on the generation, health and its cleanliness you can re-plant and some stages when it cannot be replanted you just compost it. Yellow leaves are rarely a threat they are the new emerging leaves that have lacked chlorophy at their young age |
| 25:59 | 27:29 | If you want the storage root for sweet potatoes you have to do either beds or mounds but when multiplying you just plant it on flt land. Plant population could go in your favor or against you since losing a plant will lead to a reduction in production. |
| 27:30 | 28:52 | For sweet potato farming, both primary and secondary land preparation is involved that is ploughing and harrowing. It is a costly type of farming because the plant requires attention and if well taken care of it is rewarding. |
| 28:53 | 29:44 | Summary |
