Divisi
When to plant Sweet potato in Gabon
Sweet potato is a trailing vine you grow from vine cuttings (slips), not from seed and not by planting the root.
| Measure | Rain-fed | With irrigation |
|---|---|---|
| Fit | Favourable | |
| When to plant | 1 May 2027 – 10 Jun 2027 opens in 30 weeks | 11 Apr 2027 – 9 Aug 2027 |
| Expected harvest | about 20.7 t/ha | about 29.0 t/ha |
| Harvest | From 30 Jul 2027 to 7 Nov 2027, depending on the planting date | |
| Ready to harvest | 90–150 days after planting | |
| Work it takes | 70–148 days per hectare, by hand | |
Rain-fed. These dates are worked out from each place's own rainfall, for a field watered by the season — with irrigation a window can open earlier, close later, or come round more than once a year. Check your own field under What grows, or get the Divisi app for a calendar dated to your farm.
If you only get one chance to plant, aim for around 10 Jun 2027. That is the point in the window where the rains are most reliably established.
This season's rainfall outlook for Gabon leans dry, so these dates sit later than the long-run average. Planting on the date you are used to risks germinating into a false start and having to replant.
Planting after 10 Jun 2027 leaves the crop short of season: it runs into the dry months before it has finished filling.
What decides this in Gabon
| Rain and temperature | 96% |
|---|---|
| The soil | 76% |
| The lie of the land | 60% |
For sweet potato in Gabon, the lie of the land is the tightest of the three at 60%. You cannot flatten it, but you can farm it: plant along the contour rather than up and down, ridge or tie ridges to hold water on the slope, and expect shallower rooting than the crop would manage on flat ground.
The 2025/26 season in Gabon
| When the rains are expected | September 2025 to July 2026 |
|---|---|
| Rain in a typical year | About 1,522 mm in a typical farming district |
| Across its districts | From about 1,509 mm in the driest of 48 districts to about 2,756 mm in the wettest |
| This season's rain | Leaning dry — January, February, September, October, November and December look short of rain. Plant at the early end of the window, favour quicker and more drought-tolerant crops, and keep moisture in the soil: mulch, and weed early. |
| This season's heat | Hotter than usual — about +1.0 °C over the growing months. Heat makes the same rain do less, so a dry spell bites sooner: do not plant late, and shade or mulch what you can. |
| What that supports | enough rain for a long crop, or two in a year, warm all year, so nothing but rain ends the season |
| Ground this covers | One kind of ground throughout. |
last updated 18 September 2026 · from all 48 areas within it
What sweet potato needs to grow here
| Soil it likes | well-drained sandy, sandy loam or loam soil |
|---|---|
| Soil sourness (pH) | Happiest between pH 5.0 and 6.5 |
| Rain it needs | About 750–1,000 mm across the season |
| Spacing | 100 cm between rows, 30 cm between plants |
| Feed it most with | potassium and nitrogen |
What it takes to grow sweet potato in Gabon
| Planting material | About 33,000 plants per hectare |
|---|---|
| Nitrogen (N) | About 83 kg per hectare |
| Phosphate (P₂O₅) | About 31 kg per hectare |
| Potash (K₂O) | About 166 kg per hectare |
| In the shops | A basal compound at planting — Compound D, or an NPK blend — covers the phosphate and potash. A nitrogen top dressing — urea or AN — goes on once the crop is established. |
| Hand work | 70–148 days per hectare, by hand |
These are the nutrients a sweet potato crop of that size carries off the field. What you actually apply depends on what your soil already holds — which is what a soil test, or the app's field records, tell you.
What to watch for
Grow Sweet potato with a plan, not a guess
Everything above describes Gabon as a whole — your own soil, slope and rainfall will shift the dates. The Divisi app works them out for your field, and dates each job that follows.
Sweet potato in nearby districts
This calendar moves
Planting windows shift with the forecast. Leave your email and we'll send what changed, and a note when planting time nears — a couple of emails a month at most.
Frequently asked questions
Will sweet potato grow well in Gabon?
Gabon rates as favourable for sweet potato.
When should I plant sweet potato in Gabon?
Typically 1 May 2027 to 10 Jun 2027, forecast-adjusted.
Is this exact for my own field?
No — these are readings taken across Gabon, not on your field. Soil, slope and rainfall change from one farm to the next. Check your own location to see your own numbers.
