Sweet potatoes question

[GardenGeek]

Hello all!
Has anyone ever tried to grow sweet potatoes with a trellis so they don't take over the entire garden.
Please share the experience !

[Ozark Lady]

I want to know... what is the secret to having sweet potatoes that try to take over the garden...

I have raised them a few times... they are always well behaved, most years, I wish they would get busier...

But I use raised beds, and just give them their own bed... and they stay right there and do their own thing.

The flower pot of last years sweet potato failures, are growing, all the way down the fridge... Now it is being bad!! ha ha

[applestar]

That is an excellent idea that deserves some consideration.
I grew sweet potatoes for the first time last year, so I'm by no means an expert. But sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) is related Morning Glory vine (Ipomoea purpurea) and is considered a vine as well. So why not?

Well, the way I see it, you want to grow the TUBERS, and wherever the vine touches ground, sweet potatoes will grow roots and with sufficient nutrients and growing time, they swell into tubers. So that's one reason to keep them on the ground. HOWEVER, my last year's potatoes were trying so hard to grow roots and tubers everywhere that I ended up with a whole bunch of roots and tubers not much thicker than permanent markers.

I read that commercial growers, in fact, use plastic mulch and only allow selected portions of the vines to touch down by slitting the plastic. My potatoes grew EXCELLENT tubers from the original planting point, decent tubers at the next touchdown, and a few more from the third, and that was about it for the most part (some did a bit better some actually were worse).

So what I would do is let each vine grow along the ground and touch down 3 or 4 times, THEN grow them up the trellis. I think we're talking about 3' or 4' length along the ground. FWIW, I think a string trellis would work better than poles or wire fence type rigid support because they didn't seem to hold on that well. With a string trellis, you can easily train the vines by wrapping them around the strings.

[Ozark Lady]

I have potted up sweet potatoes growing as a house plant...

I also have some magic marker sized tubers from last year to get potted up.

I also have a case of sweet potatoes bought from a fruit stand, to be sure that they were not sprayed with a no sprout thing.

So, how does everyone start their sweet potatoes?

I have tried setting them in a glass of water, and they grow... but tough to transplant the vines.

I have also just laid the sweet potato on soil, and the vines, rooted as they grew... these were easier...

How do most of you get your starts?

I also plan to mail order some... suggestions of best vendors?

[ciarandebuitlear]

Hi,
Do you get seed sweet potatoes like we get seed potatoes or what do you plant? How to plant alsp, what depth etc? Can they be grown in Zone 9 (Ireland) - this is a very damp zone 9! I have clay soil...

[!potatoes!]

sweet potatoes are a pretty warm-weather thing. not sure how much times of long heat you've got in ireland...one or two tubers can create a large number of slips to plant if conditions are right - they like it hot, 80 - 90 deg. F... keeping the tuber in moist rooting medium will encourage the slips to grow roots, and when the roots are sufficient, the slips can either the transplanted to where they'll grow, or into a pot to baby a bit, and grow more roots before going out into the big world. the tuber, meanwhile, after the first flush of slips are taken, can be put back in medium to make the next batch of slips. got at least 20 slips off one tuber last year...it's different from potato culture.

[Ozark Lady]

My best luck, is take a regular sweet potato, one not sprayed to prevent sprouting, and I lay it on its side, in a plastic tub of dirt, I usually only bury half the potato. I don't cover it, I do keep it moist and in a sunny window. After a while, it will send up sprouts, As soon as, the sprouts are long enough, I lay them on top of the soil, and put a bit of soil over them... to promote rooting. Once it roots nicely, I simply cut it apart from the parent, and let it grow on its own roots for a week or two, then transplant it.

You can also, take a cutting off of a sweet potato vine growing in the house, just stick the vine in a glass of water, in a sunny location, most of the time, about 75% of them will root and take off.

I have not seen any sweet potato "seed potatoes" for sale. They are usually sold as rooted cuttings.

Oddly enough, when my friend sent me some sweet potato cuttings last year, there were pieces of the sweet potato still attached. So apparently they cut out a piece of the potato with the vine. I planted them, and that piece did not rot all summer long, it stayed as part of the plant.

Sweet potatoes don't particularly like rich soil. They prefer poor to be marginal. But, they love, soft soil, warmth, and plenty of moisture.

In a cool climate, I would get them started early, have decent sized vines ready for the garden. You can raise them like house plants... they are in the morning glory plant family.
Then I would prepare a bed... you don't want the potatoes growing 3 feet down, so make sure the soil is soft for at least 6-8 inches. I would cover the bed with black plastic, right on the soil to warm it up... then I would put a tunnel over it of clear plastic to focus the heat in there. Once it is nice and cozy, I would cut holes in the plastic and plant them right through there... A soil thermometer might be an asset in cool areas... here, when it is warm enough to wade in the lakes, and they have warmed some... you can tell.

Summer heat kills my tomatoes and peppers, summer heat has only invigorated my sweet potatoes. I would leave tunnel ends open, for some air flow, and possibly make some low trellises for the vines, they need airflow to prevent disease.

They are extremely cold sensitive.
But, I didn't dig mine up until after Thanksgiving, which means they did survive several light frosts, but the leaves were damaged from it.
I didn't harvest them... they didn't grow, it was just not a good year for my sweet potatoes... but I finally had pity on them, and simply dug them up, potted them and brought them inside. At first, they shocked and dropped leaves, some were frost damaged anyhow, but it was touch and go... then they decided they liked it here... and now the vines from the top of the fridge will soon hit the floor... I need to root these vines for growing this year.

I think that sweet potatoes would do great with some phosphorous and potassium added, just go easy on the nitrogen.

I am going to experiment with these vines, as well as the case of sweet potatoes in my pantry... see what works best... and it is about time to start my sweet potatoe vines, because it takes awhile to get them big.

To be completely honest, sweet potatoes taste so similar to many of the winter squash, if it was tough for me to grow them, I would just grow the squash. Here I debate, should I grow the squash? It will taste just like the sweet potatoes... But, folks do have differing taste buds.

[kath]

I tried the trellis method one year and it was a lot of work because those vines did NOT want to climb-I had to keep tying them to the trellis net. I found it easier to grow them in two rows about 6' apart with the area covered in that woven black plastic landscape material and just train the vines to grow toward the opposite row. Each week I'd gently walk between the two rows, lifting up the vines to make sure they weren't rooting through the fabric. We got amazing potatoes from Beauregard using this method for the last 3 years.

[nedwina]

I got a tip from another forum that I used last season which worked really well: For row culture, raise a 12 inch high hump the length of the row and plant the sweet potato seedlings in the side a few inches from the top. The tubers form well in the looser soil, and they're easier to harvest. Just slide the shovel under the hump and gently lever the soil up as you tug on the plant. No more dinged or cut tubers, since you're usually below them.

The only bummer is that the mulch tends to slide down after a hard rain or if it gets stomped by deer on the unplanted side. But more mulch may remedy that. I was using raked up brush hog cuttings from the field and 60 foot rows took alot!

[Farmer Bob]

Hi Folks,

Did you know that the young leaves and young tips ( about 3 inches long ) can be stir fried with some chopped garlic in a little oil .? Absolutely healthy and yummy. ! That way you can control the vines from running all over the show. Give it a try.!

[gixxerific]

Yeah Bob I have seen this and may try the leaves this year.

OL I'm not sure what makes them grow like crazy, last year I had 9 plants. 4 here 4 there and one by itself, the one by itself I hilled up and did nothing else different. that single plant grew exponentially better than the others, why I don;t know. But that one plant grew like mad and cropped out maybe 3 times the crop of the all the others put together.

In my personal thinking they should not be trellised but who am I to say.

Thinking about this some more I have heard of the commercial growers using plastic to keep them from forming roots everywhere, my lone plant talked about above that did so well had roots all over the place, the others did not. I did somewhat trellis it being that it grew next to my wood pile but mostly let it sprawl ALL OVER THE PLACE! The only reason I trellised it on the wood pile was it was taking it over.

[Farmer Bob]

Hi gix.
I guess the single plant had no competition for nutrients from the ground, unlike the 2 lots 4 plants competing with each other. I too prefer the vine to run wild to encourage rooting and to develop more tubers. I guess those who choose to trellis the vines want more ground space for other vegs.??

I love baked sweet potatoes in their jackets, where the sugars are nicely caramelised . I eat them in their jackets. Good fibre and roughage.!

[Gary350]

I have never seen sweet potatoes that climb. I cut the sprouted part of the potato off of the grocery store potato and I plant them about 10" apart. I have a spot that is extremely dry, full sun, lots of lime stone rock, lots of sand, and peat moss that I added. Soil is pretty bad grass and weeds have a hard time growing here but the sweet potatoes love it and grow very large. I can't grow white potatoes in TN, red potatoes grow better but nothing worth talking about, but the sweet potatoes do excellent and I basically don't do anything. I have read sweet potatoes like it hot and dry so I guess that is why they do good and the weeds won't grow. The vines do get out of hand so I turn them around and make them grow back and forth over themself.

[Ozark Lady]

It is getting closer to sweet potato planting time.
I contacted some vendors and they are already sold out for 2010.

I went to the pantry, checking my potato box for potatoes that need to be planted, and found 4 that were ready to go into the ground.

But, I also found.... my sweet potatoes are sprouting, and I have about 3-4 weeks till time to set them in the garden! So they are now laying with the tips buried in some dirt, and watered, right under my grow lights.
No leaves open yet, but they are putting on the leaf buds. I don't know what kind these are, but they were okay for eating. Not like my favorite "Georgia Jets" but, at least I will have sweet potatoes. Even the tiny finger sized ones are sprouting. The ones in the flower pot died, no matter what I did, they grew long and then just died off.

With 12 good sized sweet potato tubers starting to send up sprouts, I should have alot of sweet potatoes this year! Maybe I should get on a waiting list somewhere for Georgia Jets 2011? ha ha

The small ones just might be Georgia Jets their coloring is right.

May I suggest, when you harvest, save the finger sized roots, and we can all have a sweet potato root exchange? Since it is so difficult to get slips! It wouldn't be difficult to send small roots in the off season!

[applestar]

I have some slips starting too. This year, I decided to try different methods than the one I tried last year (water method).
(1) Big clear salad greens tub. No holes. Filled with moist 1/2 sand, 1/2 compost with sweet potatoes barely under the surface. Bagged in clear grocery bag and set outside in the sun. Tops tied closed tight at night, loosened for ventilation during the day.
(2) 2' window box with drain holes. Filled with moist 1/2 sand, 1/2 compost with sweet potatoes barely under the surface. Bagged in clear plastic bag, then black trash bag. Spent last two weeks mostly with clear bag tied closed and black bag loosened on hot days. Soil thermometer, stuck through the bags register upper 90's during the day. Bags closed at night when in 50's.

Both are sprouting well (1/2"~1") so the black bag has been pulled down to just cover the windowbox. Last 3 days, it's been REALLY hot 90's day, upper 60's/low 70's at night. The bags were left open. We're looking at 50's nights this week with dips into low 40's this weekend, so the bags will be closed as necessary. I'm trying to maintain high 80's~90's during the day in the bags.

[lilcee]

This is my first year growing sweet potatoes. The leaves have spots on them. Is that normal or is there something wrong with them?

[Tate]

This is my first year to grow them. I have the slips already. Does each plant form one potato at each point it touches the ground? Or does it form more than one? For example, if I let the vine from one plant touch in 3 places to form 3 roots along the vine does that mean 3 potatoes? Does each plant form one vine or more than one? I read that the deeper the soil the more productive they will be. Today, I got more soil and increased my depth in one of my raised beds to 18 inches in preparation for planting. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Tate

[Ozark Lady]

Since no one has attempted this, I will.
Can you post photos of the spots?
I have little transplants growing and they have no spots, and I honestly don't recall having spots before. Maybe, I did and forgot? I know that I had spots after frost, but that was damage.

The Sweet Potatoes will make alot of tubers. The more vigorous the vine the larger they will get. But, you will get more tubers everyplace that it roots, that is why some are considering trellising them, so they have to put more energy into less quantity. They are vines, and instead of climbing fences and having holding tendrils, they run along the ground, rooting as they go, and they can be challenging to dig up, since they can actually go pretty deep.

I normally devote a bed, this year it will be a boat to them, and simply keep redirecting them, back into their growing area.

The leaves are also edible, although I haven't tried them.

[gixxerific]

I can't remember having any tubers at the points where the vine hits the ground. I did have quite a few big ones on at least one plant.

I have been trying unsuccessfully to sprout some of last years sweets with no success. I have tried the water but I probably didn't let them get warm enough. Right now I have some just stuck in the ground to see if that will work. I may pull one and do as some of you did and put them in a pot or something with a little soil. Hoping for the best. They were great last year much better than store bought.

[Gary350]

I don't have any trouble growing sweet potatoes. I look in the kitchen pantry for grocery store sweet potatoes that are sprouting. I cut the end off with all the sprouts. I put the sprout potato piece in the soil and cover it up and it grows. Last summer I planted 4 sweet potatoes at one side of my herb garden about the first week of July. The soil is not very good here, lots of lime stone gravel, sand, clay. I tilled in a lot of organic material several years ago but it all composted away you can't tell it ever had any compost. It is pretty hot, dry and well drained soil the herbs like it but most of the weeds won't grow here because it is too dry. The sweet potatoes did great. I kept turning the vines and made them all grow in a circle about 4 ft diameter. About late August or maybe early Sept I noticed the new sweet potatoes were growing up out of the soil so I had to cover them up with dirt. It frosted late October I pulled the vines when they started to look like they were dying. I got about 7 to 8 large potatoes from each plant.

[Ozark Lady]

Here is my sweet potato starts. They are in a plastic shoebox, with a couple inches of dirt and no drainage holes at all, I just water them a little bit based on how the dirt feels, and keep it a little dry, but not dry, dry.

I plan to snip off these vines, since they are tops and have no roots. But here is what they look like right now, before I clip them. I will put the snipped off pieces in water to root. If they work great, if not, well, the lower ones will have roots.

[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/000_0236_phixr.jpg[/img]

[Gary350]

Here is my sweet potato starts. They are in a plastic shoebox, with a couple inches of dirt and no drainage holes at all, I just water them a little bit based on how the dirt feels, and keep it a little dry, but not dry, dry.

I plan to snip off these vines, since they are tops and have no roots. But here is what they look like right now, before I clip them. I will put the snipped off pieces in water to root. If they work great, if not, well, the lower ones will have roots.
]

I would not snip them and put them in water to grow roots that sounds like unnecessary work. I always cut off a small piece of the potatoe with the sprouts. I place that piece in the soil, cover it with soil and it grows fine. I don't cover them with very much soil either maybe an 1" of soil at the most. In about 2 months you will see the new potatoes pushing up through the soil, they will need to be covered with more soil.

[gixxerific]

alright than I am going out right now to try another method. You all got me wanting some fresh sweets now.

I second the hilling of the plants, not sure if that is what did it last year but the only plant I hilled up real high outproduced 8 other plants together.

[applestar]

The ones you have in the ground, try putting cloches on them (you still have your milk jugs right?). My salad tub in clear grocery bag loosely tied closed and the 24" window box now sitting on the black plastic and covered with clear plastic are both sprouting, though not vining like OL's. From what Gary said, I can just cut these up with piece of potato attached and plant them.

[Dixana]

Sometimes I hate this forum!!!! Now I want sweet potatoes too, I LOVE them and so does my little guy.
Repeating to myself- "you have no space for potatoes, you have no space for potatoes, YOU HAVE NO SPACE FOR POTATOES!"
BAH

[applestar]

What about that sunny patch of lawn...

[Dixana]

I'm gonna post a pic of what's left of my lawn after the garden is in so you know how little lawn there really is.
Keeping in mind of course we have a 2 year old and a 6 month old german shephard....

[Gary350]

I found 5 sweet potatoes with sprouts in the kitchen pantry today so I guess I have to plant sweet potatoes too. Problem is I have no space left in my garden. (??????????) Some how I need to find a place to plant these. I will cut the potato off and put them in the compost all I want to save is the very tip end of the potato with all the sprouts. One potato looks like it has 6 or 7 sprouts on the tip end all the others have 1 to 4 sprouts on the tip end. 5 plants should grow at least 30 nice size potatoes.

[lilcee]

Here are a couple pictures of my plants. They are called Beauregard Sweet Potato if that means anything

[img]https://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/lilcee1947/100_1067.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/lilcee1947/100_1066.jpg[/img][/img]

[Ozark Lady]

Those spots look like damage. For instance from frost. But you are in Florida, okay, how about water damage? Have you watered when the sun was shining bright?

They could even be a fungus or disease. I don't know. You know, I would go through and snip all affected leaves off, and wait to see if it comes back, and be really careful not to get water on the leaves.

I bet some of the ones more up on diseases than I, will spot this and post. But, for my 2 cents, I would just cut them off, leaf by leaf, not the whole stem.

[lilcee]

I know it's not frost - it's been in the 90's here. My husband was thinking water damage too. It is pretty hot. I started watering them around the bottom and try not to get any on the leaves. Thanks for your suggestion

[Gary350]

If you water in the evening about an hour before sun down you won't have to worry about water damage. Mother nature usually makes rain in the evening so it is natural for the plants to get wet then. I always give my plants a good drink of water by watering the soil first then I put the garden hose on spray and give the plants a good shower. The shower cleans the plants. I try not to get much water on the soil around the plants that will only make weeds grow. A little water is OK if weeds try to sprout the soil soon dries out and the weeds die. Once I get weeds under control usually when it gets 85+ degrees and sunny all day about mid June I have no weed problems the rest of the summer. If I mulch my garden that makes the soil hold moisture and all the weed seeds sprout and grow. Dry soil makes the plants grow deep roots in search of water a very hot dry summer does not bother the plants much at all.

[lilcee]

Thanks, I'll give that a try

[Cats&Dogs]

I am attempting my first try at sweet potatoes. I have had a half of a sweet potato "slipping" for quite a while now and it's not even an inch tall, with *no* roots? I'm thinking I just might plant it as is, with the small slip above ground into my raised bed.
Think this might work?
Anyone?

[applestar]

I'm just going to give you the [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=136355#136355]same advice I gave Gixx in this post on Page 2 of this thread[/url].

I decided to try planting some of the not-yet-vining "slips" in sunniest of the sweet potato designated beds today. I used a sharp knife to cut off a piece of the mother potato with a cluster of sprouts -- they were near one end as Gary350 suggested. When I carefully dug that piece out of the sandy soil in the window box, I discovered they had great set of roots. I cut/dug up a few more and planted them with their little chunk of mother potato attached. I had one that I accidentally cut off of the potato but it had nice set of roots so I think it has a good start. 90/63ºF and 89/64ºF next couple of days, then dipping back down to 74/53ºF and then 71/55ºF We're not quite there yet.

[Arriga]

Still not sure. Should I pile dirt along the sides, bury the vines or pile dirt in spots?

[Bobberman]

I think this is a really ood subject since more and more people like sweet potatoes for their flower boxes. We have had one sweetpotato in a half wine barrel with a tall spike and its is really nice the seet potato climbs down fron the barrel toward the ground! Fro what I read here 80 to 90 is idea to stat the plants. I think that is m problem! I will take 2 sweet potatoes and put some dirt and water in a keddle and place3 it beside the hot water tank that is nea a window in the basement and I think the extra heat will work! Even the top of a hot
water tank is only warm depends on the tank! But I think it will work! Thanks Apple. You are not related to Jonny Apple seed are you!!!

[Bobberman]

Out of 10 sweet potatoes put in water none did a thing and it has been a month!! I think its the city water. I put 6 in dirt this week in the green house!