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Sweet potatoes in garden


How to Grow Sweet Potatoes In Your Backyard

There's no denying the beauty of a sweet potato plant, whether it's placed on a trellis, in a garden, or a simple container. And the positives don't end there. When it comes to health benefits, sweet potatoes are worth considering as part of your diet. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients that can bolster your mind and body.

If you're curious about growing them on your own, keep in mind that they do best in a sunny vegetable garden even though they can also thrive in other areas of your outdoor space. They can even act as a temporary groundcover or function as a trailing houseplant. In a patio planter, a sweet potato vine will form a gorgeous foliage plant that you can harvest roots from in the fall.

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This warm-weather crop grows worldwide, from tropical regions to temperate climates. The flesh is classified as either moist or dry. Moist, deep orange types (sometimes called yams) are more popular with home gardeners, especially the varieties Centennial and Georgia Jet.

Sweet potatoes are also remarkably nutritious and versatile; each fleshy root is rich in vitamins A and C, along with many important minerals. Use them raw, boiled, or baked, in soups, casseroles, desserts, breads, or stir-fries — and don't forget to try some homemade sweet potato fries! Here's everything you need to know to grow your own sweet potatoes.

How to planting sweet potatoes:

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Sweet potatoes will grow in poor soil, but deformed roots may develop in heavy clay or long and stringy in sandy dirt. To create the perfect environment, create long, wide, 10-inch-high ridges spaced 3½ feet apart. (A 10-foot row will produce 8 to 10 pounds of potatoes.)

Work in plenty of compost, avoiding nitrogen-rich fertilizers that produce lush vines and stunted tubes. In the North, cover the raised rows with black plastic to keep the soil warm and promote strong growth.

It's best to plant root sprouts, called slips, available from nurseries and mail-order suppliers. (Store-bought sweet potatoes are often waxed to prevent sprouting). Save a few roots from your crop for planting next year.

About six weeks before it's time to plant sweet potatoes outdoors in your area, 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.

Sweet potatoes mature in 90 to 170 days and they're extremely frost sensitive. 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.

How to grow sweet potatoes:

Ezra Bailey

If you're not using black plastic, mulch the vines two weeks after planting to smother weeds, conserve moisture, and keep the soil loose for root development. Occasionally lift longer vines to keep them from rooting at the joints, or they will put their energy into forming many undersized tubers at each rooted area rather than ripening the main crop at the base of the plant. Otherwise, handle plants as little as possible to prevent wounds that vulnerable disease spores.

If the weather is dry, provide 1 inch of water a week until two weeks before harvesting, then let the soil dry out a bit. Don't overwater, or the plants — which can withstand dry spells better than rainy ones — may rot.

How to avoid pests:

Mila Usmanova

Southern gardeners are more likely to encounter pest problems than gardeners in Northern areas.

Sweet potato weevils — ¼-inch-long insects with dark blue heads and wings and red-orange bodies — puncture stems and tubers to lay their eggs. Developing larvae tunnel and feed on the fleshy roots, while adults generally attack vines and leaves. They also spread foot rot, which creates enlarging brown to black areas on stems near the soil and at stem ends. Since weevils multiply quickly and prove hard to eliminate, use certified disease-resistant slips and practice a four-year crop rotation. Destroy infected plants and their roots, or place in sealed containers and dispose of them with household trash.

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Fungal diseases include black rot, which results in circular, dark depressions on tubers. Discard infected potatoes, and cure the undamaged roots from the same crop carefully. Don't confuse this disease with less-serious scurf, which creates small, round, dark spots on tuber surfaces but doesn't affect eating quality.

Stem rot, or wilt, is a fungus that enters plants injured by insects, careless cultivation, or wind. Even if this disease doesn't kill the plants, the harvest will be poor. Minimize the chances of disease by planting only healthy slips; avoid black and stem rot by planting resistant cultivars. Reduce the incidence of dry rot, which mummifies stored potatoes, by keeping the fleshy roots at 55 to 60 degrees.

Harvesting sweet potatoes:

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You can harvest as soon as leaves start to yellow, but the longer a crop is left in the ground, the higher the yield and vitamin content. Once frost blackens the vines, however, tubers can quickly rot.

Use a spading fork to dig tubers on a sunny day when the soil is dry. Remember that tubers can grow a foot or more from the plant, and that any nicks on their tender skins will encourage spoilage. Dry tubers in the sun for several hours, then move them to a well-ventilated spot and keep at 85 to 90 degrees for 10 to 15 days. After they are cured, store at around 55 degrees, with a humidity of 75 to 80%. Properly cured and stored sweet potatoes will keep for several months.

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How to Grow Sweet Potatoes

In This Article

The first step in learning how to grow sweet potatoes is discovering that they are not related to regular potatoes and are not developed the same way. Unlike regular potatoes, you can't just plant a whole sweet potato in the ground and expect a crop; it will rot underground. Sweet potatoes are grown from sweet potato slips. Slips are the stems and foliage that sprout from already grown sweet potatoes. Twist them off the potato, root them in water, then plant them. In three to four months, you should have some sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are always planted in the spring. They are slow-growing and require warm temperatures to develop full-size tubers. You can usually get three to five tubers per plant and more if you're in a warmer climate. Sweet potato plants come back every year if you live in a warmer growing zone (USDA zones 8 through 11). The orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are the most familiar, but sweet potatoes can be white, yellow, and even purple. If you have a smaller garden, you can grow bush varieties.

Learn How to Grow Sweet Potatoes

Common Name Sweet potato
Botanical Name Ipomoea batatas
Family Convolvulaceae
Plant Type Herbaceous, perennial, annual
Mature Size 2-20 ft. long
Sun Exposure Full sun, part shade
Soil Type Well-drained, sandy
Soil pH Acidic
Bloom Time Summer
Hardiness Zones 8-11 (USDA)
Native Areas North America, South America

What are the Differences Between Yams and Sweet Potatoes?

​The Spruce / K. Dave  The Spruce / K. Dave ​The Spruce / K. Dave  ​The Spruce / K. Dave 

How to Plant Sweet Potatoes

When to Plant

These plants are tropical in origin, so wait until the soil has warmed up fully in spring before planting.

To give them a head start, sweet potatoes are often planted in raised rows, about 8 inches high. This helps the soil warm faster and keeps them well-drained. If you are gardening in a cooler climate, spreading black plastic on the soil will also help it warm faster.

Selecting a Planting Site

Sweet potatoes will generally thrive in any average well-drained soil in a sunny location. If your soil is too dense or rocky, consider planting sweet potatoes in raised beds filled with sandy but rich potting soil.

Spacing, Depth, and Support

Plant slips about 12 to 18 inches apart with 3 to 4 feet between rows. The vines will spread and fill in, so give them plenty of room.

Sweet Potato Care

Light

Be sure to plant your sweet potatoes in full sun to part shade. They generally prefer full sun but appreciate some afternoon shade in hot, dry regions.

Soil

Sweet potatoes prefer soil that is well-drained but high in organic matter. Sandier soil is preferable to dense, clay soil.

Water

Once established, sweet potatoes will tolerate growing in dry soil. It's best to keep it evenly moist with 1 inch of water given once a week. Don't water your sweet potatoes during the final three to four weeks prior to harvest to prevent the mature tubers from splitting. Keep the plants moist, especially during dry spells.

Temperature and Humidity

Sweet potatoes should not be planted outdoors until the temperature of the soil has warmed to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. They need soil growing temperatures between 60 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit and an air growing temperature of 65 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Choose short-season varieties if you live in the northern part of the country.

Fertilizer

Sweet potatoes are not heavy feeders, but it's important to give them balanced nutrition, typically with proper soil preparation. Overfeeding tends to promote growth of foliage rather than tubers. The best approach is to add compost to the beds before planting the sweet potatoes. Alternatively, you can apply an organic liquid fertilizer to the soil prior to planting.

Types of Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes vs. Sweet Potato Vines

Sweet potatoes may be associated with growing only in the southern United States, but they will actually grow in just about any garden anywhere. The part we eat is the tuberous root of this warm-weather perennial vining plant. Edible sweet potatoes are closely related to morning glories (Ipomoea tricolor) and are the same species as the sweet potato vining plants commonly grown as ornamentals. The edible and ornamental types are different cultivars of Ipomoea batatas.

Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

Three to four months after planting, the tubers should be ready to harvest for eating, depending on the cultivar. If you like to eat the leaves as greens, you can do so in moderation throughout the season. Be sure to leave enough leaves to keep the plant growing.

You can dig up your tubers once the foliage starts to yellow. If the foliage is hit by a frost, the tubers are probably still fine. Just don’t let them sit in the ground too long after the tops die back or they could start to rot. Be gentle when digging. Sweet potato tubers grow close to the surface. Their skins are tender and can be damaged and bruised easily.

How to Grow Sweet Potatoes in Containers

If you want to experiment with growing edible sweet potatoes, try starting them off in containers. Sweet potatoes are easy to grow in containers. Start small plants you purchase in the spring or grow slips in pots. Loosely fill a large container of any material with lots of drainage holes with high-quality potting soil. A half-whiskey barrel is a good size. Make a hole large enough to cover the roots of your plant or slip. Water it thoroughly, and put the pot in a sunny spot. Water it thoroughly at least once a week unless it rains.

You can try to grow sweet potatoes indoors, but it is challenging. The yield is often small after a four-month wait. They require a lot of sun, heat, and water, which is harder to replicate indoors.

Pruning

Sweet potato vines will grow in a rambling fashion, but they should not be trimmed because they are important to help feed the potatoes. If your vines are wandering out of control, use your hands to turn the vines back toward the garden.

Propagating Sweet Potatoes

Propagate sweet potatoes with slips or by saving tubers for replanting. If you put a sweet potato in water, you won't get more potatoes, but it will develop slips that you can plant that will develop sweet potatoes. If your winters are longer than a couple of months, you can propagate sweet potatoes by saving tubers over the winter and planting them the following spring. If you live in an area with short winters, you can begin new slips from vine cuttings or whole potatoes.

Propagate with saved tubers using these steps:

  1. Use a shovel to carefully dig up the tubers before the first frost in the fall. Gently brush the soil off the tubers to prepare them for storage.
  2. Store them over the winter in a sturdy cardboard box filled with peat, vermiculite, sand, or other dry material. Make sure the tubers are not touching each other in the box.
  3. Keep the box in a cool, dry place without light (such as a basement or root cellar). Make sure the tubers in the box won't freeze. Place a blanket over the box to ensure warmth.
  4. In spring, the tubers will start to sprout. Divide them into pieces, making sure that each piece has at least one eye.
  5. Plant them in the garden after the threat of frost has passed and the soil temperature is at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Propagate by creating slips from vines using these steps:

  1. Use a sterile, sharp cutting tool to snip off about 6 inches from the tips of healthy vines, before the first frost.
  2. Place the cuttings in a jar with room temperature water.
  3. Once they develop roots, plant them in pots filled with good-quality potting soil.
  4. Keep them in a sunny location until it’s time to plant them outdoors.

Propagate by creating slips from full-grown whole sweet potatoes using these steps:

  1. Use a sterile, sharp knife to cut a full sweet potato in half lengthwise.
  2. Place each half on a bed of damp potting soil using a deep tray.
  3. Cover the pieces with a few inches of soil.
  4. Keep the pieces moist and warm.
  5. Small roots should develop within a few days, followed by leaves.
  6. They are ready to be lifted and planted in containers once they’re between 4 and 8 inches tall (about six weeks). Keep them in a sunny location until it's time to plant them outdoors or in larger containers.

Overwintering

Overwintering sweet potatoes is the same as propagating them for the next growing season. Before the first fall frost, cut the vines to the ground. Carefully dig up tubers with a shovel and gently brush the soil from the tubers. Then store them in a box filled with dry material, make sure the tubers are not touching, and place the box in a cool, dry place where the tubers won't freeze. Cover the box with a blanket to make sure no light reaches the tubers.

Common Pests and Plant Diseases

Wireworms and root-knot nematodes are the biggest problems when growing sweet potatoes in home gardens. Damage is lessened if you rotate your crop each year. Many diseases can be avoided by choosing disease-resistant varieties and using certified disease-free sweet potato slips. Mice can also be a problem, so be on the lookout.

Article Sources

The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

  1. Sweet Potato Production and Pest Management in Georgia. University of Georgia Extension.

How to grow sweet potatoes | Horticulture

Sweet potato is a tropical American vegetable whose ease of cultivation and exquisite taste make it one of the most important foods we use in the kitchen. To taste it, we can go to the supermarket and buy it, or grow it in the garden.

I recommend the second option because you will always know what products you are using to care for it, and thus ensure that you can taste exceptional quality sweet potatoes. If you don't know how to do this, don't worry . I will help you 🙂.

Index

Sweet Potato Characteristics

Sweet Potato, also known as Malaga Potato, Sweet Potato, Sweet Potato, Sweet Potato or Sweet Potato, is a perennial plant grown as an annual plant belonging to the botanical family Convolvulaceae. Its scientific name is Ipomoea sweet potato , It is characterized by large olive green leaves with nerves visible to the naked eye. The stems are long, can reach 6 m, and thin, with purple speckles.

Flowers usually solitary, with 5 petals, pink to blue. After pollination, the fruit begins to ripen, turning into a spherical chestnut capsule, inside which they are located. seeds are flat on one side and convex on the other.

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Together with roots, false tubers grow which are sweet potatoes themselves. They have a sweet taste and are tender.

Varieties most cultivated in Spain

There are many varieties of sweet potatoes, both white and yellow sweet potatoes, but in Spain the most cultivated and therefore most readily available are:

How is it grown?

Plants need regular care for a good harvest. This will give them enough energy to develop strong and large tuberous roots (false tubers). So, if you want to make delicious sweet potato recipes, follow our tips:

Sowing

  1. The first thing to do is to purchase seeds in late spring.
  2. When you have them, sow them in seedling trays or in pots with universal growing medium or special seedling medium. You will find both for sale in children's and garden stores.
  3. Then water thoroughly, leaving the soil well-soaked.
  4. Finally, place the seedling in a place where it will receive sunlight during the day.

They will germinate in two weeks.

Transplanting

  1. When the seedlings are at least 10 cm high, they must be removed from the pot.
  2. The seedlings are then separated by removing some substrate from the roots so that they can be disentangled.
  3. Then plant each in a separate pot, at least 20 cm in diameter, with the same substrates mentioned above (general purpose or for seedlings).
  4. Water.

Planting in the garden

  1. If you want to grow plants in your garden, as soon as you see roots coming out of the drainage holes, you will have to make a planting hole in it.
  2. Then take the seedling out of the pot.
  3. Then plant it in the ground.
  4. Water.

If you have two or more specimens, it is important to leave a distance of about 25 cm between them so that they can grow and develop well.

Sweet potato care

You have sweet potatoes, but how do you take care of them? If you have questions about its maintenance, don't stop reading:

Sweet Potato Pests and Diseases

Although it is a fairly resistant plant, unfortunately it can also have a number of problems, namely: It feeds on roots but is easily controlled with chlorpyrifos.

  • Black Donut : This is a caterpillar that feeds on leaves and fruits. It can be controlled with Bacillus thuriengensis, an environmental insecticide; or with chlorpyrifos.

    • Diseases

    properties

    Sweet potatoes are a great vegetable that will help you take care of your health almost imperceptibly. It is rich in vitamin C and also contains minerals that are essential for the proper functioning of the body, such as magnesium, phosphorus and fiber. And as if that weren't enough, 200 grams of sweet potatoes give you only 195 calories, so they help you lose weight without having fat.

    But not only that, you should also know that has antioxidant properties and it will help you prevent cataracts and cardiovascular problems .

    How are sweet potatoes prepared?

    If you have never cooked it before, don't be afraid: you can cook it according to the same recipes as with potatoes. Is it fried or cooked whole The skin is then removed and served with, for example, a small salad and grilled cuttlefish. Delicious 😉.

    Yes, do not store in plastic bags or in the refrigerator. as if it immediately went wrong. Ideally, store it in a slightly damp, ventilated and cool place where it can keep for up to a week.

    So you dare to cultivate it?


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    How to Grow Sweet Potatoes

    The sweet potato or sweet potato is becoming more and more popular, and in some places it is replacing the familiar potato. Do you think it grows only in warm countries? We will tell you how to care for sweet potato so that it grows well and bears fruit in your garden.

    Vera Ermakova

    Pixabay

    Sweet potatoes may well compete with our usual potatoes: they contain about a third more fiber, iron and calcium than ordinary potatoes, and they also have a lot of carotene, which is good for the health of our eyes. Sweet potatoes are also suitable for people with diabetes, as they help stabilize blood glucose levels.

    Fortunately, sweet potatoes can be grown in temperate climates, as long as they get plenty of sunlight. Moreover, you can grow sweet potatoes not only in the ground, but also in a pot: its vine-like stems can serve as an original decoration for your terrace or even a balcony. We tell you what you need to know in order to successfully grow sweet potatoes.

    How to plant sweet potatoes

    Any soil is suitable for growing potatoes, but keep in mind that clay roots can become deformed, and sandy ones can become too long and fibrous. Plant sweet potatoes in furrows 20-25 cm high at a distance of about a meter from each other.

    Do not use nitrogen fertilizers, otherwise you will get lush tops and small tubers. Cover the furrows with dark plastic to keep warm.

    It is better to plant not tubers, but seedlings. To grow it, about a month and a half before planting, place the tubers in a box with wet sand, sawdust or crushed leaves and place in a warm place. When the shoots reach 15-20 cm, you can transplant.

    Sweet potato does not tolerate frost very well, so it is worth planting shoots when the soil warms up properly. For each shoot, prepare a hole 15 cm deep, spaced at least 30 cm apart.

    How to Grow Sweet Potatoes

    Raise the tops from time to time to prevent them from taking root, otherwise you will get many small tubers, not a bunch of large ones.

    If the weather is dry, water the sweet potato once every 1-2 weeks, but be careful not to get too much moisture: the sweet potato tolerates dryness better than excess water.

    What pests are afraid of sweet potatoes?

    Sweet potato weevils are 0.5 cm long insects with dark blue heads and wings and red-orange bodies. They pierce stems and tubers to lay eggs. Developing larvae tunnel and feed on fleshy roots, while adults usually attack stems and leaves. They also spread root rot, which results in growing brown to black patches on the stems near the soil and at the ends of the stems.

    Fungal diseases include black rot, which results in round dark depressions on the tubers. Throw away infected tubers: they are not suitable for food or seedlings.

    Stem rot, or wilt, is a fungus that infects plants damaged by insects, careless cultivation, or wind. Even if this disease does not kill the plants, the harvest will be poor.

    When to harvest sweet potatoes?

    You can start harvesting potatoes as soon as the leaves start to turn yellow.

    Learn more