Growing Sweet Potatoes, From Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are easy to grow, free to low-cost to start and can be stored for months. Now to how to get started-

Try to get organic sweet potatoes. Go to farmers markets or organic grocery stores and pick a few you personally like.

Start growing your slips right now! They need SEVERAL WEEKS in the moist warm soil to start slips. Here in Zone 6, you should have enough time to get slips grown and in the ground for an autumn harvest.

Put them into shallow bins in garden soil but only bury the sweet potato half-way in the soil. Keep them moist, in a sunny and warm location. Sweet potatoes need heat to start slips. We set ours on a heated, waterproof mat.

Sweet potatoes set half-way in soil. We use shoe boxes and lettuce containers to start the potatoes and keep them in a larger bin on a heated, waterproof mat.

Once slips are 6-12” long, pop them off and put them in a glass of water in a warm, sunny location such as a window. Once you have roots and it is warm enough outside, you’re ready to plant.

New slips starting to grow. Once these are large enough we will remove them and put them in a glass of water in the kitchen window. They will continue to produce new slips as long as they are in this soil.

Long slip in a glass of water in the kitchen window. When this slip grows visible roots we'll plant it in a small pot of soil until the overnight lows are above 50*.

MUST KNOW’s

-         Sweet potatoes are a root, whereas regular potatoes are a tuber (The two are not related). Sweet potatoes have tropical origins and can’t be planted until the overnight temperatures are staying above 50*.

-         If you plant the entire sweet potato, you’ll get a nice vine, but no potatoes.

-         You can grow them directly in the ground or in a garden bed or bag. We prefer a sandy, loamy bed, but grow them in both beds and the ground. You can also provide a trellis for the vine to grow up. If you don’t, it will grow out so make sure you have room for that.

-         Sweet potatoes are the one vegetable plant that actually doesn’t love good, composted soil. If you grow them in a high nitrogen soil, you will get long, tiny potatoes. Too much nitrogen causes the plant to put its energy into the vine instead of growing potatoes. Some growers even add sand to the soil. If you add sand, you might need to fertilize with some phosphorus and potassium.

-         Sweet potatoes love heat and need to be well watered.

-         Don’t overgrow them. After three or four months dig in and find a potato, if it’s a good size, harvest them all. If they are overgrown (we learned this first-hand) they won’t have much flavor and will be fibrous.

-         If you get tiny potatoes, you can still use them for next year's starting slips. We also chop them up and add them to venison scraps when canning dog food.

-         Store your potatoes in your basement or in a cellar. If in the right conditions, you’ll be eating them until your next harvest. Again, be sure to save a few back to start slips next winter. They can also be canned.

Audrey L Elder

Fourteen Acre Wood