Sweet Potatoes are GREAT Weed Control.

[Gary350]

I noticed my sweet potatoe vines have crowded out all the grass and weeds in their designated space. They have gotten out of control and I decided to let them take over the whole garden just to see what would happen. The 6 plants are out of their designated space about 15 ft in all 4 directions. The plants grew across 5 row of bush beans on the west side and are headed towards the tomatoes. They have grown across the squash and 5 ft into the yard on the east side. They have grown completely out of the garden on the south side across the yard and into a fence row. They have grown into another section of the garden on the north side that is all mellons. The sweet potato vines are not causing any problems with the already established plants but they are crowding out all the grass and weeds. This is very interesting I wish I had discovered this years ago. I am not needing to hoe grass or weeds the sweet potatoes are doing the job for me. If they keep growing at the same speed they should take over the tomatoes in about 2 more weeks. Sweet potatoes are very agressive.

I think next year I will plan to use sweet potatoes as ground cover for my whole garden to keep out grass and weeds.

[soil]

if you leave them in until frost, you get a nice weed free mulch when they die back. and you get loosened soil from the tubers.

[2cents]

Gary,
Isn't it amazing
We got lucky with sweet potatoes a couple years back. Stuned MDOW how they grow. They crawled up and took over half of the deck. Till she got tired of them and threw all the vines over the railing and down into the garden.
Everywhere they root...there will be a tuber underneath.
The farther away from the original slip, the smaller the tuber(my experience)
The biggest I had was the size of a football, unbelievable.
Please take fotos, because I forgot in the excitement to cook and eat that giant tater.
And great tasting.
Enjoy