beet
dill
parsnip
bush bean
Photos
We've just harvested the kūmara. It needs a warm summer, and this was the first summer we've grown it in a raised garden bed instead of a bag.
At first, I thought it was a failure. I poked around the roots and found nothing. We pull o…
Last edited by shiny on November 06, 2026. View history
Kūmara
Also known as
kumara (en)
A variety of sweet potato
How to sow kūmara: Slips
Sun requirement for kūmara: Plant in Full Sun
The sweet potato is a large, starchy, tuberous root. The tuber is long and tapered and has yellow, orange, red, brown, purple, or beige skin. It's flesh can be white, red, pink, violet, yellow, orange, or purple. Sweet potato cultivars with white or pale yellow flesh are not as sweet and moist as those with red, pink or orange flesh. The heart-shaped leaves and vines are sometimes eaten as greens when the plants are young, but eating the leaves interferes with the growth of the tuber underground. The sweet potato is not related to the potato or the yam.
- 2
- plantings
- 4
- harvests
- 1
- seed packet
Kūmara facts
Lifespan
Annual
living and reproducing in a single year or less
25 weeks
median lifespan
First harvest expected
24
weeks after planting
Last harvest expected
25
weeks after planting
Grown for
tuber harvested 3 times
Optimal temperature
18–28 °C
Absolute temperature
10–38 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall
750–2000 mm/year
Absolute rainfall
350–5000 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH
5–7
Absolute soil pH
4–8.7
FAO EcoCrop
Crop cycle
80–170 days
FAO EcoCrop
Max altitude
2800 m
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal light
very bright
FAO EcoCrop
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For kūmara, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 10°C and a shortest growing cycle of 80 days at its best temperature, about 1040 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your kūmara will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing kūmara
- Start slips from a sprouting tuber 8 weeks before planting out
- Mound up the bed and add compost 2 weeks before planting out
- Water until established at planting out every week
- Mulch the bed 3 weeks after planting out
- Lift vines so they don't root along the stems 8 weeks after planting out every month
- Stop watering 2 weeks before first harvest
- Dig the tubers carefully at first harvest
- Cure the tubers somewhere warm 1 day after first harvest
How members grow kūmara
Sunniness
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Planted from
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Harvested for
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Plant kūmara with
Photos
Kūmara plantings
Kūmara harvests
Video
Where kūmara grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about kūmara
Taewa (Pre-european potato)
by shiny,
Generally, "Taewa" is the term used for potatoes that have been in New Zealand since before 1800, and cultivated by Maori people - but the word can be used for all potatoes.
The kūmara is a distant cousin of the potato. Both the ta…
kūmara
Whataroa taewa potato
urenika taewa potatoes
waiporoporo taewa potatoes
Te Māori taewa potatoes
Read more
Indigenous plants
by shiny,
I've been growing several indigenous plants recently. Theres a miro tree that will eventually have berries. I've added karaka tawa, and hīnau to the growstuff database too, as these were (and are) food sources for the people living here for c…
miro
tawa
hīnau
kūmara
harakekes
flax
kawakawa
New Zealand spinach
Read more
Who's planted kūmara
- shiny Front lawn 6 · Wellington, NZ
Kūmara harvests
-
shiny harvested not specified.
8 months ago
-
shiny harvested not specified.
over 1 year ago
-
shiny harvested not specified.
over 6 years ago
shiny harvested not specified.
Find kūmara seeds
View all kūmara seeds
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 80 to 170 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Solanales Convolvulaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 5 °C, rest: 1 °C |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
Learn more about kūmara
Resources outside Growstuff.
