Learn how to grow sweet potatoes. A root vegetable with deep orange flesh, delicious sweet potatoes are commonly grown in southern regions as they require four months of warm weather; northern regions can have success with select varieties. Here’s how to plant, care for, and harvest sweet potatoes!
A large, naturally sweet-tasting root of the morning glory family (not related to potatoes), sweet potatoes are a very undemanding crop to grow as long as you have sun and warm soil; this is a tropical plant. Sweet potatoes are drought- and heat-tolerant and have few pests or diseases.
Though traditionally more of a Southern crop, there are many short-season varieties of sweet potato today which will grow in the North (even parts of Canada!) when grown in raised beds that are mulched with black plastic.
The sweet potato is also very nutritious, a top source of beta-carotene, and relatively low in calories. Just a few plants can produce a generous harvest of this orange-fleshed vegetable, which can be stored even longer than winter squash.
Sweet Potatoes vs. Yams
Sweet potatoes are sometimes called yams, even in grocery stores. Technically, they are NOT a true yam which is a giant dry tuber from Africa, sometimes found in specialty shops. The sweet potato that we grow in the U.S. has a deep orange flesh and copper skin. So whatever you or a grocery store may wish to call it, we’re growing what you see in the photo below!
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Tips for growing sweet potatoes in pots
This will be the first year growing sweet potatoes for me. I plan on growing some in large fabric pots and some in beds. Sweet potatoes need plenty of room in the soil to produce roots, so a larger pot that is at least 12” deep is ideal. Plant the rooted slips (lengths of the vine with roots at one end, pruning off all leaves except the top few opposite the rooted end) a few inches below the surface of the soil, leaving the leafy crown above the soil. There are plenty of great how to videos on YouTube to see how this is done, and other helpful tips to ensure a good harvest of roots, instead of lots of leaves.
Grow your own food, collect your own water, make your own heat, and make something to enable your family to survive that can’t be shut off like a faucet, or easily taken away. Plant fruit, and nut trees, and other perennial crops that reliably produce food every year with minimal effort.
TATOES AGAIN, THIS YEAR..FROM POTS
Weather here ideal for growing and I have been careful not to overwater...but there were lots of roots in the soil but not one potato...Any extra advice would be very much appreciated...from a jobless Lady, who is trying to be as self sufficient as possible...
I have planted sweet potatoes since April 2020 and as at yesterday 13th October, no good tubers were seen but roots that have not developed. Only one or two tubers harvested on a ridge. So, I begin to wonder of the harvest time.
No Sweet potatoes Again, this year..from pots
Hi, from the Canary Islands, Last year I planted sweet potatoes in pots, (presuming that sweet potatoes grew from sweet potatoes) obviously not the case, and sadly I threw away all the vines, as I had not researched the eating of sweet potatoes leaves, (which I have eaten on salads and in tortillas ever since I knew the leaves were edible. Sadly once again I have had lots of leaves, after planting the rooted vines that I took off sweet potatoes , they all had great roots, but after more than 120 days, the leaves have turned yellow (sadly cannot eat these) but normally this means the harvest is ready, well I was hoping....But no...Nothing, not one potatoes ..So I have resigned myself to keep purchasing the potatoes but grow lots of leaves, and enjoy them...Maybe one day ...I shall find a Potato...
Weather here ideal for growing and I have been careful not to overwater...but there were lots of roots in the soil but not one potato...Any extra advice would be very much appreciated...from a jobless Lady, who is trying to be as self sufficient as possible...
starting a sweet potato from slips
Hi Alicat, You can indeed grow a sweet potato from the slips of another sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are not grown from seeds like most vegetables. They are grown from “slips” which are the root sprouts. However, store-bought sweet potatoes are often waxed to prevent sprouting. It’s best to plant root sprouts, called slips, from nurseries and mail-order suppliers. Do you have a friend who grows garden sweet potatoes? Or, you could reach out to a gardening group to find a gardener who grows sweet potatoes. If not, you need to go to your local nursery and inquire. And yes, the leaves are edible! They contain high dietary fiber, too.
Here’s how it’s done: About six weeks before it’s time to plant sweet potatoes outdoors, place the roots in a box of moist sand, sawdust, or chopped leaves in a warm spot (75 to 80 degrees). Shoots will sprout, and when they reach 6 to 9 inches long, cut them off the root. Remove and dispose of the bottom inch from each slip, as that portion sometimes harbors disease organisms. Plant in full sun three to four weeks after the last frost when the soil has warmed. Make holes 6 inches deep and 12 inches apart. Bury slips up to the top leaves, press the soil down gently but firmly, and water well.
For sweet potatoes to grow well, they do need soil with plenty of organic matter for food. Work in plenty of compost (which you can make). Create long, wide, 10-inch-high ridges spaced 3½ feet apart. (A 10-foot row will produce 8 to 10 pounds of potatoes.)
Hope this helps.
Re-Planting sweet potatoes
I have planted sweet potatoes since April 2020 and as at yesterday 13th October, no good tubers were seen but roots that have not developed. Only one or two tubers harvested on a ridge. So, I begin to wonder of the harvest time. I did not see the leaves turn green. Could be soil be the issue becos I am not in the North, but planted at the half a plot of my residence. Grateful advuse
sour on sweets?
It’s difficult to know why your plants did not thrive. Soil? Maybe. They like a sunny spot with loamy, well-drained soil. Sweet potatoes aren’t too picky, but they do prefer soil on the sandier side, and need plenty of air space in the soil for roots to reach down. If your soil is clay, rocky, or compacted, consider raised beds. Read above and below for more possible reasons/explanations.
Sweet potato vines.
i just dug my sweet potatoes her in Va. I told my wife I'm going to try cutting some vines that still have roots on them and put them in a bag and freeze them for next year. I wonder if they'll grow ? What do you think ?
Sweet Potato Vines
Sweet potato vines are tropical plants, which means that they cannot withstand cold temperatures for long. Because of this, freezing the vines will kill them, unfortunately!
To transplant or not to transplant
It is early August in Northern Texas, and my sweet potato plant has large, healthy leaves and vines growing along the fence out of a small box in the backyard. However, I will be moving several hours South by car and will either have to transplant my plant in the car and replant it in our new home, or harvest them soon. Which is my best bet?
harvest or hold?
It sounds like the roots are in the “small box.” (You know the roots are the sweet potatoes and they are at the base of the vines under the soil, right? Just checking.) Can you take the plant with you, with the box and vines intact? If not, you can dig around in the box and see how big the roots are and decide then whether to take it altogether or harvest what you find.
Growing sweet potatoes
Although I haven't tried this yet, I've heard that you can plant regular potatoes in old tires, stacked atop one another & filled with dirt; to minimize space I would assume.
My question is, can sweet potatoes be planted this way as well?
old tires as containers
The idea of using old tires as planters is not something we can get behind (recommend), Sure, some sources suggest that they are safe short term (biodegradation being a long term process) and they are harmful if they have been burned or are shredded for use. It just seems that there are so many things that can be used as containers why get tires involved. In terms of growing habit, sweets do not grow like “regular” potatoes; it is not necessary to stack dirt up around sweets.
Growing potatoes etc in tires
I read that vulcanised rubber contains high levels of heavy metals and other toxic compounds. I don't know whether they would definitely leach into soil and plants but I would avoid using tires for growing anything.
Eaten sweet potato slips
We planted sweet potato slips and half of them were eaten, rabbits. A few of the nibbled vines still had a slight green slip poking out of the ground. Will the slips die or continue to grow?
afer rabbits...
Try to protect the remaining slip; cover them carefully with screening or something like (but closer woven than) chicken wire. The slips might make it. It’s still early in season.
What are these?
I've had this potato patch for over a year. I decided to dig it up today. March 30, 2019. They are really small, very hard and white. What are these?
Sweet Potato slips
I'm new at this. I halved a sweet potato and placed the exposed surface in a glass with water. They sprouted beautiful leafy green stems! The stems are bushy and maybe 6 inches long now. Did I wait too long to plant them in the soil? If I twist them off, I fear breaking the stem and roots. Can't I just carefully slice around each stem and try to not disturb the roots- planting the slip with a margin of original potato around it? Thanks!
Need help with Sweet Potato problems
I harvested my first crop of back yard sweet potatoes today, Houston area. Late harvest, I know. They have been in since May and it is been too wet. Some of the sweets looked like they have ridges, other look bit. I saw grubs in my bed and will take steps to treat them.
My question - what do I do with the damaged potatoes? If I can remove the portion of the potato with the damage, are they safe to eat or cure for slips for next year?
damaged sweets
If these were our sweets we would cut out the damaged area and proceed as normal—eating them or slipping them. BTW, you’re in good company: Did you know that Texas is the fifth largest producer of sweets in the United States?
It’s unfortunate that the grubs got to the sweets before you did. We looked for a solution and this Louisiana State U Ag Center site has some advice: https://www.lsuagcenter.com/portals/our_offices/research_stations/sweetp...
Because one of the most common problems is soil, we checked the Texas A&M site for soil advice specific to your state. You might find it helpful: https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/browse/featured-solutions/gardening-l...
Here’s to a better harvest next year!
Sweet potato slips
I cut a sweet potato from last year's crop and suspended both halves in a jar of water. Each half produced a number of slips; 50-75 in total. I planted the slips in our community garden and had a great harvest. The original potato halves were left outside in water throughout the summer. They made it through to the fall when one was eaten by a chipmunk. I took the second one inside, cut the bottom off of it, and placed it back in water. It immediately began producing roots and slips are starting to sprout.
Can I expect this potato to continue producing slips? Will they be of any value if they make it to the spring? They're doing all this in November as the days grow shorter.
slip upon slip
Jim, it sounds like you have found the eternal sweet potato. If a slip is a slip is a slip, those that your tuber is producing should be fine—if they make it to spring. That could be the challenge. To be on the safe side, get an organic sweet later in the year and start the process again for next season’s plants.
Sweet Potato
I live in California, Is it good to plant sweet potatoes here or not?
Also, i'm in the central valley.
Thanks, Thomas
sweets in Central Valley?
Assuming the conditions of soil, water, and weather are suitable you should have no problem.
Sweet potato problem
We had too much hard rain in south Texas that washed the soil off the top of my sweet potatoes. They're not ready to harvest yet. Should I cover them with soil for the next month? Thanks
Sweet Potatoes
Yes, get them covered again as soon as possible, then check back in on them when they’re due to be harvested!
Sweet Potatoe
We planted our sweet potatoes the 3rd of June, due to the rainy Iowa weather we could not harvest until Oct. 13th. The average size of each potatoe is approx. 6 lbs. and a lot of them are 10 lbs. each. They are way to huge, bit the flavor is good. Would they have been a lot less in size if harvested a month earlier? Thank you.
sweet potato seeds
I bought some sweet potato seeds from Amazon last year but when they arrived there were no instructions as to how to start seeds. Can you help me with instructions as it is time to get going this spring?
sweet potato slips
We are not familiar with starting sweet potatoes from seed and your purchase was unfortunate. In the same way that white (and blue and red, etc) potatoes are grown from seed potatoes (small spuds grown specifically to be planted for later harvest), most people grow sweet potatoes from small sweets, which are called “slips.” We are guessing that it could take a few years for seeds to develop (and maybe you want to try that) and recommend that you purchase slips to insure that you get a harvestable crop. These, like seed (white) potatoes, are set in the soil. See above for more specific growing information.
Curing and Few potatoes, but great vines question answered
For curing Sweet Potatoes, remember that 80 degrees with high humidity is the ideal, but not a exact requirement. In order to store them in the cool you need to time your harvest to that time of the year that is cooling off in your region. Otherwise your are trying to cure them in 90-100 degree weather or if too late in the year, 30-50 degree weather. I harvest mine when the weather is starting to change in October (NE Louisiana), when some days are in the low to mid 80s. After you have dug them up, DO NOT wash them. This removes healthy bacteria and opens them up to fungus decay. Let them dry outside under a shed (out of the sun and rain) for several days. This helps get them dry. Then transfer them to a storage room or a room in your house that stays around 80 degrees or fluctuates in the 60-90 degree range (I keep mine in an outside storage room spread out on racks or on the floor). If you mist stack them, try not to stack them more than two deep, as their skin contact slows the drying process and promotes fungus growth. For humidity I keep a couple of five gallon buckets of water with wet towels around the edge of them or hung up above them. Saturate the towels every day. The evaporation will add humidity to the room. The curing process may take ten days or it may take 30 depending on your situation. When the skins are no longer easily scraped off, they are cured. By then the weather will be cooler and I keep them in the same storage room (with NO water or wet towels). My winters here are mild, but the temperature in my storage room varies from 75-30 degrees throughout the winter, and mine store fine for 6-8 months. I have repeated this process for many years. Remember, our ancestors grew and stored these potatoes with very little temperature and humidity control, and they did fine. Regarding the question of having great looking vines but few potatoes, first I would get a good soil test done, but as they were grown in a raised bed, too much Nitrogen may be the problem, as excess N will tend to put more growth into the vines than the roots. Same thing goes for peas. I hope this helps. Happy gardening.
Growing slips
I put potatoes in glass jars supported by tooth picks,when slips get long enough I then break them off and put them in another jar to root.
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