🌧️ Why My Sweet Potato Harvest Failed After the Rainy Season | A Farmer Grandma’s Story

A heartfelt story from a 70-year-old Korean farmer grandma about her failed sweet-potato harvest.
Heavy rain, over-fertilization, and grub worms destroyed her crop — yet she found hope and lessons for next year.

 

This year’s sweet potato season broke my heart.
In spring, the sprouts came out evenly, the leaves turned bright green, and I thought,
“It’s going to be a great harvest this year!”

But then came the endless rainy season.
Heavy rain poured for days, flooding my entire field.
The soil turned into mud, and I thought everything was gone.

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🌱 The Vines Came Back to Life

A few weeks later, something amazing happened —
the sweet-potato vines that looked completely dead began turning green again.
It felt like a miracle.

 

[전라도 손맛] 아삭·쫄깃 여름 별미! 고구마줄기 김치 전통 레시피 공개 🍃

 

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🍠 The Harvest Day Shock

When harvest day finally came, I was so excited.
I dug the first row… no sweet potatoes.
The second row… nothing.
After digging almost the whole field,
I ended up with just one small basinful of potatoes.

Moments before the harvest — smiling with hope while cutting the sweet potato vines. The air was full of excitement and the promise of a good crop.

 

Only vines and empty soil left behind. So many leaves, yet nothing grew underground.

 

The entire harvest — one bowl of muddy sweet potatoes.

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🥀 Rotten Potatoes and Grub Damage

When I washed them, some were soft and rotten inside.
Others had tiny holes — eaten from within by grub worms.

 

grub-damaged sweet potatoes

 

My neighbor said,

“There are lots of grubs this year. Too much rain brings them out from the soil.”

He was right.

Because of the long wet season, the weakened roots became perfect food for grubs.

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🌧️ What Really Went Wrong (Cause Analysis)

1️⃣ Too Much Rain — Waterlogged Soil
Sweet potatoes hate standing water.
When the soil stays wet, oxygen disappears,
and the roots can’t breathe or grow properly.

2️⃣ Too Much Nitrogen Fertilizer
After the flood I added fertilizer, hoping to help the plants recover.
But nitrogen makes vines grow fast while suppressing root growth.
So the leaves looked healthy while the tubers stayed tiny.

3️⃣ Grub Worm Damage
The excess moisture helped grubs thrive underground.
They ate through the roots and hollowed out the tubers —
sometimes leaving the surface untouched, so I didn’t notice until harvest.

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🌾 Lessons Learned

Farming teaches something new every year.
Even in failure, there’s wisdom.

Next year I’ll dig deeper drainage ditches,
raise the ridges higher,
and use fertilizer made for root crops instead of leafy growth.
Before planting, I’ll also turn the soil well and check for grub worms.

The grubs may have eaten my sweet potatoes,
but they didn’t eat my hope.
Every failed crop plants a lesson for next season. 🍠