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Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Sweet Potatoes

NOW is a good time to buy a small 50¢ grocery store sweet potato to grow your own slips = plants. Put potato in a container of water so potato top stick out of the water 1". I like to put 1 tablespoon of garden soil in the water to add extra nutrients to water. In about 3 weeks potato starts to grow buds they become several leaves in another 3 weeks. Keep near a window you will have 1 foot tall plants in a month. Wait until soil is 65°F or warmer to plant potato cuttings with 1 vine & roots. You can transplant to a larger pot inside the house if it is too soon to plant it in the garden. If plants get too long inside the house don't worry about it I have had 10 ft long plants in the house. Sweet potatoes are a hot weather plants they love 100° hot blistering full sun all day in dry soil, same as melons. Each plant can grow 25 lbs of new potatoes in good soil. Vines have the ability to grow roots every place soil touched them. I rake vines in a circle around the mother plant once a week to keep vines in a small 3 ft circle. Plants are zero maintenance they shade out grass & weeds when raked in a tight circle. Plants in tight circle shade soil and keep soil from drying out. Cover vines with soil every 16" vine will grow roots at each location and grow another new sweet potato each place vines grow more roots. I once grew 25 lbs of potatoes from 1 plant and another 13 lbs of satellite potatoes every place vines grew roots. Plants will grow in hard clay soil but they do much better in good soil. After frost kills plants new potatoes are ready to dig up. We have a long growing season in TN April 20 to Nov 5. We usually have too much rain in April to plant sweet potatoes in the garden until about May 15 or 20. If you don't want to grow your own plants garden stores sell small pots of 10 plants for $5. Sweet potatoes come in several colors, red, orange, yellow, white, purple. We grow white sweet potatoes because they taste almost the same as Russet potatoes. Bugs are never a problem for our sweet potatoes. Sweet potato leaves are excellent substitute for lettuce in, salads, sandwich, tacos, spinach, greens & more.
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