# growing sweet potatoes



## DW (May 10, 2002)

We do well with reg potatoes but have never grown sweet potatoes. I ordered some...any tricks to growing them? We have very sandy soil.


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## uncle Will in In. (May 11, 2002)

DW <> I am assuming you are getting plants. 
They don't withsand late spring frosts. We are in zone 5 and we wait until after the 15th of May to set them out. I would put the slips in a glass of water when you get them. We make a ridge to set them on. They also don't like soggy ground. We set the plants about a foot apart on the ridge. We water them well at that time and try to keep the ground moist while they are getting established. Putting an old gallon milk jug with the bottom cut out over the plants when you set them out will make them thrive and really grow fast. Throw the cap away. GOOD LUCK <> UNK


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## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

I plant mine by making long mounded rows. I then go down the row with a heavy stick and make holes spaced about a foot apart. Then I drop the slip in the hole, pour some water in it and push the dirt up around the slip firmly. Last year we tilled horse manure into the soil before planting and I had sweet potatoes the size of footballs!

One year hubby brought a load of dirt with his front end loader to the garden and dumped it out. I planted my sweet potato slips all over that mound of dirt. They grew great!

I always plant sweet potatoes after all chance of frost is gone and the ground is good and warm...here in Zone 7 I usually plant around mid May.


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## uncle Will in In. (May 11, 2002)

Also leave space along both sides of the row for long vines. We had one variety that had vines over 10 feet long. We now have Georgia Jets and still have vines going out over 4 feet. Last year, we put a couple rows of sweet corn along both sides of the sweet potatoes about 3 feet away. The vines grew into the corn stalks without harming the corn. Our corn is harvested by the last of July. I then cut the stalks and removed them from the garden.


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

I always order my sweet potato plants & usually the place you order from won't send them until time to plant them. Last year I think I had mine a few days to a week early & I kept moist paper towels wrapped around them in a cool place like the basement till planting.
I also plant mine in mounded row's & when the vines are running I just run them back over the plant so by the time I harvest them it looks like big mounds of plants.
I plant my sweet potatoes along with the rest of my garden about the end of May. I'm in Northern lower peninsula in Michigan.


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## jrw422 (Apr 27, 2005)

Do you hill them as they progess thru the growing season like you do with regular taters?? This year will my first growing sweet taters too..


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

jrw422 said:


> Do you hill them as they progess thru the growing season like you do with regular taters??


No, you build the hills or mounded rows first and that's it. Soil should be loose to at least 18" so that the tubers have ample room to grow.

Martin


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## DW (May 10, 2002)

For all this good info. I had no clue ... we can have frost in May so will probably wait until the end of May.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

If you read the instructions from most places that supply slips, you'll find that they will not be shipped until the appropriate time for your area. When ordered from Steele Plant Co., their shipping date for me would be 15-25 May. Colorado would be 3-13 May. That gives you plenty of time to have the mounds built and warmed up before the slips arrive. 

Martin


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## Grandmotherbear (May 15, 2002)

Use a black plastic mulch to keep the soil warm. 
Remember that Irish potatoes form ABOVE the seed piece and sweet potatoes (iponeum batas) form BELOW. Sweets are actually a part of the plant root system and the plants will grow until frosted. (altho sweets won't form when soil temp is below 55 degrees)
Thanks you for not calling them yams:gritDiscorea and a true tropical tuber)


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## Patches (Aug 9, 2006)

Can you lay plant the slips real shallow and then cover with hay/straw and let them grow like potatoes? Our dirt is so hard, they would be alot easier to dig that way? Marilyn


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Patches said:


> Can you lay plant the slips real shallow and then cover with hay/straw and let them grow like potatoes? Our dirt is so hard, they would be alot easier to dig that way? Marilyn


No! Potatoes are produced on stolons which grow off the stem. Sweet potato tubers are the actual roots and want to grow straight down. If your soil is not loose, they will simply try to keep going deeper and you may end up with a 2' long thing not even an inch thick. The soil must be loose or you may as well not even try to get anything good. I till sand and compost a foot deep and then mound another foot of soil and sand above that. That's 2' of loose soil for the roots to grow in. 

Martin


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## DW (May 10, 2002)

like the tire method for reg potatoes? We don't have tires but do have plastic barrels.


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## astackr2 (Apr 19, 2009)

I do mine (both sweet and red [new]) in a bed made of landscape timbers stacked 6-8 high with the sand/soil combo for the sweets...When time to harvest just kick the timbers to one side and "dig"


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## ceresone (Oct 7, 2005)

Ravenlost--How long did you wait to plant, after the horse manure was dumped? I have access to both horse manure, and from the chicken house (I used shredded leaves for bedding last fall)--but I thought I'd have to wait till fall to apply this.
My sweets are coming in May too.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

ceresone said:


> Ravenlost--How long did you wait to plant, after the horse manure was dumped? I have access to both horse manure, and from the chicken house (I used shredded leaves for bedding last fall)--but I thought I'd have to wait till fall to apply this.
> My sweets are coming in May too.


I did the same thing for 2 years in a row. The horse manure was fairly fresh and was tilled in as deep as the Mantis could dig. Then a foot of plain soil and sand mix was mounded above that. There was no need for many nutrients in that mound itself. When the roots of those plants hit that rich manure below, they really went crazy. I don't have a precise figure for how much was used each time but it was four 5-gallons pails for a 32' row.

Martin


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