Here’s one of the main differences between sweet potatoes and yams

Dec 27, 2024, 7:00 AM

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Producer

SALT LAKE CITY — People often mistake yams for sweet potatoes and vice versa. Can’t tell the difference? Here’s how KSL Greenhouse Host Taun Beddes settled it.

“If you’ve been to the tropics, you’ve probably had yams. But if you’re in the United States, whatever is called yams are not. They’re all sweet potatoes,” said Beddes.

Why do people get them confused?

There are two groups of sweet potatoes: hard and soft.

The soft sweet potatoes are the ones with the orange skin. They sweeten up when you cook them, and they taste similar to the winter squash.

The hard sweet potatoes are similar to the traditional Irish potatoes. You can turn them into baked potatoes or fries.

The soft sweet potatoes cooked very similarly to yams, making them popular in Africa.

“Unfortunately, they were fed to slaves because they were cheap, and the slaves started calling them yams because that’s what they were familiar with in Africa,” Beddes said. “As the European population also adopted them, the sweet potatoes were just called yams.”

Planting sweet potatoes in Utah

According to Beddes, sweet potatoes grow just fine in Utah, especially the short-season varieties. The two varieties he recommended were the Georgia Jet and the Beauregard.

“You’d need about 100 frost-free days. They even would grow up in Logan and you could get a decent harvest.”

Beddes said the best time to start planting them is sometime in late May to early June because they need heat.

“You plant them from what are called slips, and they’re basically just a piece of vine with a leaf or two attached that you stick in the ground. They wilt down a little bit, but all of a sudden they start regrowing.”

Once you do that, they will look similar to ornamental sweet potato vines.

You can find sweet potato slips at some local garden centers, but you can also order them online.

“Most of the companies that you would order from will ship them at the appropriate time for you to plant them so you’re not sitting on them.”

If you end up getting the slips before you can plant them, you can keep them in water. Because they are quite durable, they will hold until you can start planting them.