Taste of Home. When it comes to pithy sweet potatoes , as long as the inside of the potato has only a few holes here and there, it should be perfectly safe to eat. Fold over ends of the foil to completely seal the sweet potato. Find all kinds of savory ways to eat sweet potatoes. Then you’ll need to poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes before placing them in that single layer within the bag. ), and when I peel them and slice them I’ve seen what appears to be a small trail or print running through them. Storage root infection and vine infections often occur independent of each other. After you have rinsed, scrubbed, and poked holes into the sweet potatoes, it’s time to get them ready for the oven. Infected areas inside potatoes are light brown and watery . Common sweet potato growing problems with cures and controls: • Transplanted slips or … Not checking if the potato is actually cooked. Sweet potato vine is one one the plants they like to eat. You may have flea beetles. Pricking small holes in the skins with a fork is an easy way to let that steam escape. Is a sweet potato bad if it has holes? The original holes are usually less than 1/4 inch deep, but may be considerably deepened by later growth of the sweet potato root. What is that brown mark inside potatoes, and is it harmful? Set sweet potato starts into the garden about the same time you set out tomato transplants in spring. If the holes are all over the place, throw it away to be safe. The life cycle varies from species with two generations per year to species with life cycles lasting two to three years. 1 Response. Next, you’ll close the bag and place it in front of a warm window, in a sunroom, or any other area where the sweet potatoes will get enough warmth. 8 / 10. For sweet potato growing tips see Sweet Potato Growing Success Tips at the bottom of this post. Miami County Ohio. What are they and what do I do to get rid of them. External damage is relatively easy to see and understand, but sweet potatoes are also prone to another, more mysterious form of blemish. Cut a large enough piece of aluminum foil to wrap each potato at least twice. I have them planted with Bridal vale . Sometimes a sweet potato that appears perfectly fine before you cook it will come out of the pot or oven with large blackened areas inside. One of our readers submitted a question: “I’ve bought russett potatoes (that’s what I use for mashed, baked, etc. Roll each sweet potato in aluminum foil. I have little holes in my sweet potato vine and I see little flying bugs the size of long nats. The pressure inside a sweet (or regular) potato can build up in a hot oven. ... Once the most important sweet potato disease, black rot … Plants show dark brown to black lesions on stems with dark streaking in the vascular tissue .