Sweet Potato Varieties Compared: 8 Types for Flavor, Yield, and How Long They Actually Store

The sweet potato variety you plant decides more than flavor — it decides whether your harvest keeps for two months or six. Moist, orange-fleshed types like Beauregard taste sweeter fresh out of the ground but break down faster in storage; firmer, drier types like Murasaki hold for months but need longer to mature. Picking the right one starts with three questions: how long is your growing season, how much space do you have, and how long do you actually need the harvest to keep?

How to Choose the Right Sweet Potato Variety for Your Garden

Match a variety to your growing season length first — it eliminates more bad choices than flavor preference does. Sweet potatoes need 85 to 120 warm days from slip to harvest, and roots need to be dug before the first fall frost or they rot in the ground within days^[3]. Gardeners in short-season zones (5 and 6) need a variety that finishes at the fast end of that range; a look at what it actually takes to grow sweet potatoes in zone 5 covers the season-extension tricks that make the difference.

Garden space is the second filter. Most sweet potato vines sprawl 10 to 20 feet, which rules them out for small beds unless you choose a compact, bush-type cultivar or grow in a container — our guide to growing sweet potatoes in containers has the pot-size specifics for exactly this situation.

Storage need is the filter most gardeners skip, and it’s the one that causes the most regret in February. If you’re eating your harvest within a month or two, a moist, ultra-sweet variety is the better bet. If you want potatoes lasting into spring, choose a firmer-fleshed type and budget time to cure it properly — the mechanism behind that difference is below.

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8 Sweet Potato Varieties Compared

The single biggest split among these eight is flesh type: moist, orange-fleshed varieties (Beauregard, Covington, Jewel, Centennial, Georgia Jet, Excel) cook up sweet and soft, while firmer types like Murasaki hold their shape and store longer^[3][4].

Every variety here is orange-fleshed and moist except Murasaki, and that single difference explains most of the table: the drier, firmer texture that makes Murasaki less spoon-soft when baked is the same trait that lets it sit in storage longer than the others^[3][4].

Beauregard is the variety most home gardeners meet first, mostly because it’s the fastest to bulk up roots — 90 to 100 days from slip to harvest, with smooth, light rose skin and orange flesh that cooks very sweet^[1]. It has weaker resistance to root-knot nematodes and rot than the varieties bred after it, so it’s a better fit for clean, rotated soil than for a bed with a nematode history^[1].

Covington is the variety that quietly took over American sweet potato production: released around 2005 by North Carolina State University and named for plant breeder Henry M. Covington, it now accounts for roughly 90% of North Carolina’s crop and about 60% of the US total, and has generated close to $5 billion in farm-gate revenue over two decades^[2]. That dominance isn’t marketing — it’s resistance to Southern root-knot nematode, Fusarium wilt, and Streptomyces soil rot, combined with uniform roots and storage life that beats Beauregard’s^[1][2]. In my own raised beds, Covington was the only variety from a mixed planting that was still firm and sweet when I opened the last box in March.

Jewel needs the longest season of this group — 120 to 135 days — but rewards the wait with deep copper skin, low-fiber flesh, and reliable storage, plus resistance to Fusarium wilt, root-knot nematodes, and internal cork^[1].

Centennial and Georgia Jet are both moist-fleshed cultivars derived from the older ‘Porto Rico’ line and are the varieties most often sold simply as “yams” at nurseries, even though true yams are a botanically unrelated crop^[3]. Georgia Jet is the faster of the two, which makes it the common pick for gardeners in cooler regions who need roots to finish well before the first frost^[3].

Vardaman stands apart structurally rather than in flavor — it grows as a compact bush instead of a sprawling vine, and its roots cluster tightly enough at the base of the plant to separate easily at harvest, which makes it the practical choice for containers and small beds where a 15-foot vine isn’t an option^[1].

Excel is the yield specialist: Clemson Cooperative Extension credits it with roughly 15% higher yield than Jewel, alongside resistance to Southern root-knot nematode, stem rot, and internal cork, making it a strong pick if pounds per plant matters more than any other single trait^[1].

Murasaki is the outlier on this list in every dimension that matters for storage: bright purple skin, pale flesh, a flakier, drier texture, and a nutty flavor that reads as less sweet than the orange types, on vigorous vines that can run 20 feet^[1]. It’s the variety to plant if long storage and a different flavor profile matter more than maximum sweetness.

Why Some Varieties Store for 6 Months and Others Don’t

Storage life comes down to two things: how well the skin heals after harvest, and how much starch converts to sugar before the roots go into long-term storage — and both depend on curing, not luck^[1].

Digging bruises and nicks the skin no matter how careful you are, and every one of those wounds is an open door for rot organisms. Curing closes that door: held at roughly 85°F and 90% humidity for about a week, freshly dug roots form a new protective skin layer over the damaged spots while converting some of their starch to sugar, which is also why cured sweet potatoes taste noticeably sweeter than freshly dug ones^[1]. Home gardeners without a curing chamber can approximate this by setting roots in the warmest room in the house — the kitchen, typically — for about 14 days; below 70°F, curing essentially doesn’t happen^[1].

After curing, storage temperature does the rest of the work. Keep cured roots around 50-55°F and never refrigerate them — below 50°F, sweet potatoes develop off-flavors and are more prone to rot, which is the opposite of what cold storage does for most root vegetables^[1][4]. A properly cured, properly stored batch of a good-keeping variety like Covington or Murasaki can hold for six months or more; Beauregard’s weaker rot resistance means the same treatment on it still won’t match that storage life, regardless of how carefully it was cured^[1].

Matching a Variety to Your Zone, Garden Size, and Goal

Short season or zone 5-6: Georgia Jet or Beauregard, both of which can finish inside 90-100 days — combine with black plastic mulch and transplanting slips only after soil hits 65°F, as covered in the zone 5 growing guide^[3].

Small garden or containers: Vardaman’s compact bush habit is the clearest fit; see the container growing guide for pot size and depth requirements.

Maximum yield per plant: Excel or Covington, both bred and selected specifically for consistent, high-volume root sets.

Longest storage: Covington or Murasaki, planted with a firm plan to cure properly — skipping curing erases most of the storage advantage either variety offers.

Best flavor for baking: Jewel’s low fiber and deep orange color make it the standout for baking and canning; Beauregard is the sweeter, softer choice for the same use if you’re not holding roots past midwinter.

For the full planting-to-harvest process — slip selection, spacing, hilling, and when to dig — the sweet potato growing guide covers each stage in depth.

Sweet Potato Variety FAQ

Which sweet potato variety tastes the best?

Flavor is largely a moisture preference: Beauregard and Georgia Jet are the sweetest and softest when baked, while Jewel offers a similar sweetness with less fiber. Murasaki is the outlier — nuttier and less sweet, valued more for its texture and color than for pure sweetness.

Which sweet potato variety stores the longest?

Covington and Murasaki hold up best in long-term storage, commonly six months or more when properly cured and kept around 50-55°F. Beauregard’s thinner skin and higher moisture content make it a shorter-term keeper by comparison.

Can I grow sweet potatoes in a short growing season?

Yes, with the right variety. Georgia Jet and Beauregard both mature in roughly 90-100 days, fast enough for zone 5 and 6 gardens when paired with black plastic mulch to warm the soil and slips set out only after soil temperatures reach 65°F.

What’s the difference between orange and purple sweet potato varieties?

Orange-fleshed varieties like Beauregard, Covington, and Jewel are moist and cook up soft and sweet. Purple varieties like Murasaki have firmer, drier flesh with a nuttier, less sweet flavor — the same firmness that lets them store longer than most orange types.

Bottom Line

Don’t start from a list of favorites — start from your season length, your garden footprint, and how long you actually need the harvest to last. A gardener in zone 6 with a small bed and no root cellar has a different right answer than a gardener with a long season, raised beds, and a cool basement — and the variety table above is built to answer both.

Sources

1. Clemson Cooperative Extension. Sweetpotato. Home & Garden Information Center
2. NC State University. Future-Proof Covington Sweetpotato. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News
3. University of Maryland Extension. Growing Sweet Potatoes in a Home Garden
4. Utah State University Extension. How to Grow Sweet Potatoes in Your Garden