# sweet potatoe question.



## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Sweet potatoes are runners, does that mean that the vine streatches out and sets roots along the vine and those roots make potatoes, or do the sweet potatoes just grow at the center of the plant where the slip was planted?

Do you have to bury segments of the vine to get it to get the vines to root, like you have to do with the layering method?

Thanks


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Most varieties will have their vines run as much as 8'. That's good and bad. That's good if one lives in the tropics and may grow them as a perennial. Bad for us when the vines set roots down along the way. What one wants is for the plants to form their tubers at the base of the vine. Then all of the energy goes into producing those tubers. If the vines root, they will also try to make tubers. Result is a lot of skinny tubers throughout the plant. Commercial growers may go through every few weeks and flip the vines to one side and next time flip them back. That prevents them from rooting. I just pick them up and uproot any which have rooted and leave them in place.

Martin


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Paquebot said:


> Most varieties will have their vines run as much as 8'. That's good and bad. That's good if one lives in the tropics and may grow them as a perennial. Bad for us when the vines set roots down along the way. What one wants is for the plants to form their tubers at the base of the vine. Then all of the energy goes into producing those tubers. If the vines root, they will also try to make tubers. Result is a lot of skinny tubers throughout the plant. Commercial growers may go through every few weeks and flip the vines to one side and next time flip them back. That prevents them from rooting. I just pick them up and uproot any which have rooted and leave them in place.
> 
> Martin



Thanks martin. So, what you are saying is that one living in the north would idealy like for all tuber production to happen at the base of the plant, and that the vine will produce tubers along it's length if the vine is allowed to roam free, but those tubers will most likely be weak?
I might try growing the vine up a trellis if it does not really need to touch the ground to make potatoes.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Doesn't matter where you live in the Continental US other than the tip of the Florida Keys as you would not want sweet potato vine rooting. Goal of the foliage is to transfer all energy to the main root. When a vine sets root, "the buck stops here". From that point on, the tubers under the original plant are now secondary since the "buck" stopped where the new tubers are forming. Primary tubers never reach expected size, vine tubers even less, frost stops everything and nothing to harvest. Thus you see why it doesn't work for sweet potatoes to grow "wild" rather than "cultivated". Lots of leaves, few meals.

Martin


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## mandieg4 (Apr 12, 2011)

So would it work to keep the vine cut back?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

mandieg4 said:


> So would it work to keep the vine cut back?


I would prefer to say no but I can't. In an open plot last year, 6 leftover sweet potato plants were used simply as space fillers. Deer were a problem so a section of 3' chicken wire was fashioned as a row cover. That only protected an area perhaps 2' wide. Any growth which came through the wire was periodically pruned by deer. Surprisingly, there were tubers under each plant but nothing to brag about. Since the soil was also poor, that also may have had an effect on the production. Regardless, I would not intentionally prune them back.

Martin


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

MArtin, great advice, i love it. Ok, so i get you, if the vine roots it cuts the energy flow in the plant and over all makes for a bad harvest.

Since the vine is intended to be an energy collector for the main root, I am going to try to grow the vines virtically and lay mulch over the base of the plant to retain water. I will try this with a few plants to see how it goes and I will also plant a few the traditional way to see how that goes.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Now I know why my sweet potatoes are always small. I was trying so hard to not disturb the new little roots. Will they climb a trellis?


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

callie, I am going to attach them to the trellis with ties as they grow.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Don't know if you'd want to mulch to retain water. Sweet potatoes are usually grown on mounded rows which drain quickly. More important is the depth of the prepared soil. Look at the size of some tubers in the stores and they are often long. I till 8" or more deep and then mound 8" above that. Most of the nutrients are in the first tilling while the mound is whatever soil is available. Anything in the mound portion only serves the plants for awhile right after planting. After that, much of the root growth goes down. Three weeks after planting, the root system may be only 6" wide but 16" deep. That's I put any added nutrients deeper than for most other vegetables. 

Martin


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Thanks, martin. Ok, so they do not need as much moisture as the regular potatoes? I was thinking of growing one sweet potatoe plant each in one five gallon bucket, do you think it would work?


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Might I add that if deer are a problem you will find they love sweet potato vines...a few years back we had a 50' row nipped off in a night and we had to buy our 'taters that year. Now they are up in the house garden closely protected 'cause we love sweets....so far my mama plant has made 47 babies!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEE


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Sweet potatoes require less water than most vegetable crops. At maturity, the main roots may be as deep as 11' or more. Thus they are very efficient at obtaining sufficient water. With that in mind, and those same roots being the ones which produce the tuber, think of where the nutrient and water zones must be. Furrow or drip irrigation is preferred methods while leaving the foliage and tuber zone dry.

And as Mutti reported, deer will go right down a row of young plants and nip off every one. If the plants have established roots, they may come back but there's little time to produce decent tubers in the North. I quickly learned to protect mine from the very first day of planting until right up to harvest. 

Martin


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Those deer are real pests. We dont have Deer here in Brooklyn, but we have racoons, possoms, and squirles.
Outside of the NYC bourders there are deer. 

Do you guys eat the sweet potatoe greens? They are edible and they taste good.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

City Bound said:


> callie, I am going to attach them to the trellis with ties as they grow.


that's what I thought I would try....and I plan on eating some of the leaves too- just to see if I like them. (might sneak some in a salad for DH). shhhhh....he HATES sweet potatoes.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Callieslamb said:


> that's what I thought I would try....and I plan on eating some of the leaves too- just to see if I like them. (might sneak some in a salad for DH). shhhhh....he HATES sweet potatoes.


The greens are pretty good.


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