# Sweet potatos



## talob

I'm looking at growing sweet potatos this year for the first time, I thought befor I order my 'vines'? I'd see what advice I can get as far as what to plant how to plant, grow, harvest, save seed, in the central KY area whatever advice I can get would be appreciated.


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## camo2460

Try the Sand Hill Preservation Society, They have lots of Heirloom seeds and plants and are chock full of good information


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## Davarm

Sweet potatoes are easy to "start" and grow, they like sandy soil - the less clay the better and have few insect pests(grasshoppers generally leave them alone) and they are pretty heat tolerant.

Its really a pain to gather and grow them from seeds, better to put one in water or soil, take cuttings and root "slips" to plant. "I" just put a sweet potato(from the grocery store) in a jar of water and take the shoots off off and root them as they grow, nothing difficult or special steps necessary.

Plant them after the last frost, in fertile to marginal soil and make sure they have adequate water and they should give you a good return. I've read(on this formm - I think) that the leaves are edible and good in salads, I've munched on a few and they are not bad tasting.

Sweet potatoes are related to "Morning Glories", that should give you an idea of how little care is needed and how hearty the vines are.

I was going to order "slips" from a commercial supplier this year and plant them along with what I root myself to compare yields, I decided on the "Beauregards"

(http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-279-sw...13-b-g-m-1t2&gclid=CPuvxNSX8bsCFcZZ7AodiXoAUg)

The "slips" aren't cheap but the above source is about the best priced I've found. I think they are a common verity found in stores so it should give a good side by side test.


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## roselle

talob said:


> I'm looking at growing sweet potatos this year for the first time, I thought befor I order my 'vines'? I'd see what advice I can get as far as what to plant how to plant, grow, harvest, save seed, in the central KY area whatever advice I can get would be appreciated.


I am in Ky. and start my sweet potato slips in mineral buckets. Since the buckets are much deeper than needed, I throw rocks in the bottom 2/3's, then put peat on top. I lay the whole sweet potatoes on top of the peat. Then I cover the sweet potatoes with 1/2 inches of pro-mix. Make holes in the buckets for drainage, since the sweet potatoes may rot, if rains too much. I use a small amount of organic fertilizer. I planted 6 mineral buckets last year and ended up with probably 1500 plants.

You will eventually see the little slips poke out of the pro-mix. I let them get at least 4 inches long, then gently pull them away from the sweet potato. Make sure the slip has some small white roots attached, but honestly they don't need many roots, to survive and grow. You can just leave the sweet potatoes in your bucket...They will keep on giving more starts, so if you need extras or want to share, you will have them.

You can go to an Asian store and buy purple sweet potatoes or other types and even use them to start your plants. I save some from the previous year's crops. Some of my friend's use the "tails," from their previous years crop as well. I like to use full sized sweet potatoes, since they keep on giving for a long time.

I usually plant 800-1000 sweet potato slips each year. The deer and bunnies love to eat them, so if possible keep the baby plants covered with some light grow cloth. They especially need to be kept watered for the first 10 days or so. They will sometimes look like the little plants have died, but you will be surprised to see them come back. However, they do best when babied for the first days. Then they just take off and need little care.

I plant mine in 4ft. wide rows of black plastic mulch. I plant them, one row on each side, and about 8 inches apart. This prevents them from getting "head" sized. When I pull the starts from the sweet potatoes, I pick a handful, put them in a bucket of water and run and plant those. Then I go back for more. The little starts are very fragile. I also add a small handful of peat to each hole. That seems to help the baby plant keep from drying out. It also makes it easier to see where you planted your sweet potatoes, when it is time to dig...Well if you have a lot of red clay...And yes they will grow in red clay just fine...But they are the dickens to dig out!

Good luck!


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## talob

camo2460 said:


> Try the Sand Hill Preservation Society, They have lots of Heirloom seeds and plants and are chock full of good information


Thanks Camo, I'll check em out they'll probably have more than just sweet taters that I'm interested in.


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## talob

Davarm&Roselle thanks to you both lots of good info, Davarm I read your post and I'm going uh oh no sand around here! But I do have the ground in pretty good shape a lot of old cow manure and leaves worked into this red Kentucky clay Roselle we know about red clay dont we, Davarm that sounds like an interesting experiment be great if you think of it come back and let us know how it works out. You both got me thinking I'm gonna have ta try getting some slips started myself since I am a do it yourselfer but I think I'll still buy a few just in case, now if I get these to grow decent this year what would be the best way to save a few for starts for next year? I should have asked these questions last fall we bought some nice ones from the Amish last fall and wife canned them all had I knowen I'd tried saveing a few.


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## goshengirl

roselle said:


> You can go to an Asian store and buy purple sweet potatoes or other types and even use them to start your plants.


So _that's_ where you get the purple ones! Thank you!

If I'm smart I'll wait another year before trying sweet potatoes, as our gardening agenda is already beyond full. But I'm not always smart.


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## Davarm

The most important thing with the soil is that it not be too hard and compact for the tubers to grow, be careful not to over do it with the manure.

I dont worry about storing them to start slips with the next year(probably should though) "now" they are too easy to get at the grocery store but if/when the SHTF I may have wished I had.

Canned sweet potatoes are good but they also dehydrate and keep well, I made a sweet potato pie a few weeks ago from some I had cooked and dried - came out really good. Dehydrating is just another option you can check out to see if it suits your needs.

I'll be sure to post the results of the experiment!



talob said:


> Davarm&Roselle thanks to you both lots of good info, Davarm I read your post and I'm going uh oh no sand around here! But I do have the ground in pretty good shape a lot of old cow manure and leaves worked into this red Kentucky clay Roselle we know about red clay dont we, Davarm that sounds like an interesting experiment be great if you think of it come back and let us know how it works out. You both got me thinking I'm gonna have ta try getting some slips started myself since I am a do it yourselfer but I think I'll still buy a few just in case, now if I get these to grow decent this year what would be the best way to save a few for starts for next year? I should have asked these questions last fall we bought some nice ones from the Amish last fall and wife canned them all had I knowen I'd tried saveing a few.


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## roselle

talob said:


> Thanks Camo, I'll check em out they'll probably have more than just sweet taters that I'm interested in.


Oh yes! They will! I get the most beautiful shallot and garlic bulbs at the Asian store. Saves me a lot! They grow beautifully!


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## roselle

Davarm said:


> The most important thing with the soil is that it not be too hard and compact for the tubers to grow, be careful not to over do it with the manure.
> 
> I dont worry about storing them to start slips with the next year(probably should though) "now" they are too easy to get at the grocery store but if/when the SHTF I may have wished I had.
> 
> Canned sweet potatoes are good but they also dehydrate and keep well, I made a sweet potato pie a few weeks ago from some I had cooked and dried - came out really good. Dehydrating is just another option you can check out to see if it suits your needs.
> 
> I'll be sure to post the results of the experiment!


Last year we canned 105 quarts of sweet potatoes. Haven't dehydrated any yet, but plan to.

My soil is hard and the most sweet potatoes I ever gleaned out of a patch was in pure red clay...But that same patch this year and with ample rain, did not do so well and neither did the two patches with better soil. Seems they do best in the clay when the summer is kind of dry....Maybe in all soil types...Although those first few days they seem to need plenty of moisture and some protection from direct sunlight and predators. Then we are in Kentucky....


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## roselle

goshengirl said:


> So _that's_ where you get the purple ones! Thank you!
> 
> If I'm smart I'll wait another year before trying sweet potatoes, as our gardening agenda is already beyond full. But I'm not always smart.


One reason to maybe think about planting sweet potatoes ASAP...I believe they are the single most completely nutritious food. They keep very well and are very filling, as well as nutritious. You can store them most of the year, can, dehydrate and even start next years crop with barely anything. I baby my starts, but my friends stick them on the ground, throw some dirt on top...Not too much, and cover them with a tarp....I have found they send slips up more quickly, if the momma sweet potatoes can see a bit of sunlight.....

Here....We pull the gorgeous sweet potatoes vines right before the first frost...We scramble to get them dug before the first rain, after the first frost...

Then...This is the big disappointment...Kind of like waiting for Christmas morning, without peeking...You need to allow the sweet potatoes to "cure." They need this time to become sweet. They are well worth the wait!


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## roselle

goshengirl said:


> So _that's_ where you get the purple ones! Thank you!
> 
> If I'm smart I'll wait another year before trying sweet potatoes, as our gardening agenda is already beyond full. But I'm not always smart.


Forgot...The ones we have found in the Asian stores, both here and in Md..They are purple on the outside and yellow on the inside. Ours have been very sweet and they are also a dryer sweet potato. I did find that it is nice when canning sweet potatoes to mix maybe a more moist orange with a dryer yellow. I think this helps keep the canned sweet potatoes from being quite so watery, when you are making something out of them. Just my little experiment.

There is a Japanese purple sweet potato, that is deep purple on the outside and a deep purple on the inside. I haven't found that one in stores yet, but my neighbors grew them last year. They were also very prolific, compared to the other varieties.


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## LilRedHen

This year I didn't think I was going to have a garden. I finally got it worked up the last day of May and was afraid that I couldn't find any plants, but apparently I wasn't the only one. As I was looking around town for plants, I found some Beauregard's in individual cups. They were a little pricey, but were the prettiest sweet potato plants I had ever seen for sale. I bought 36, but wound up with 39 because there were two plants in 3 pots. The ground was worked up well, so I dug a deep trench with a big hoe and filled it with rotten manure before setting the plants out. I watered them every day for two weeks and tilled them twice before they started spreading. I wound up with 7 milk crates full of sweet potatoes. Yes, I had some 'head size' ones which I found out that one fit it the crock pot and after about 6 hours would melt in your mouth. I offered some to a few of the Rooster's friends, but they didn't want the big ones. I got so many snarky remarks that I decided I wasn't going to give any more away. Usually I can't keep them through the winter because the basement I have them stored in leaks and the moisture makes them rot. I love sweet potatoes, but I'm beginning to get a little tired of them.


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## roselle

LilRedHen said:


> This year I didn't think I was going to have a garden. I finally got it worked up the last day of May and was afraid that I couldn't find any plants, but apparently I wasn't the only one. As I was looking around town for plants, I found some Beauregard's in individual cups. They were a little pricey, but were the prettiest sweet potato plants I had ever seen for sale. I bought 36, but wound up with 39 because there were two plants in 3 pots. The ground was worked up well, so I dug a deep trench with a big hoe and filled it with rotten manure before setting the plants out. I watered them every day for two weeks and tilled them twice before they started spreading. I wound up with 7 milk crates full of sweet potatoes. Yes, I had some 'head size' ones which I found out that one fit it the crock pot and after about 6 hours would melt in your mouth. I offered some to a few of the Rooster's friends, but they didn't want the big ones. I got so many snarky remarks that I decided I wasn't going to give any more away. Usually I can't keep them through the winter because the basement I have them stored in leaks and the moisture makes them rot. I love sweet potatoes, but I'm beginning to get a little tired of them.


One of my Mennonite friends...May he now rest in peace...Said that there were restaurants that would buy all the head sized sweet potatoes that they could get their hands on...I just can't get them cut up, but going into the crockpot is a great idea! Thanks!


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## talob

Mentiond to the neighbor last night that I was gonna try sweet potatos this year and she said she still had a bucket full from last year that was starting to sprout from the same place we got ours so got my starts for this spring How much do these things spread when they grow, more than cucumbers?


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## roselle

talob said:


> Mentiond to the neighbor last night that I was gonna try sweet potatos this year and she said she still had a bucket full from last year that was starting to sprout from the same place we got ours so got my starts for this spring How much do these things spread when they grow, more than cucumbers?


That's great! They spread farther than cucumbers and have much thicker foliage. They are actually beautiful plants. You won't see the ground under the plants, nor for many ft. around them. They have lovely blooms. You will be so happy next fall!

One thing to remember...Sweet potatoes need heat hours, not days....So when you plant them is a gamble. If you have a cool summer, they need much longer. Summer before last...I took some starts to a Mennonite friend with 14 children. Her white potatoes had done poorly and her kids were sick of rice and pasta. I took her what starts were left in my sweet potato barrels and took them the middle of August. I told her she could try planting them and see what happened. When fall rolled around, I filled my trunk up with some of my sweet potatoes and took them to her...In case she didn't get any. I asked her if she had dug any of the starts I gave her. She grabbed a shovel and said "Let's go!" We went out to her late sweet potato patch and dug....She had beautiful, large, mature sweet potatoes. You would never have known she didn't plant them in May. We had an extraordinarily hot summer that year...I know, because we don't have air conditioning....Those sweet potatoes got enough heat hours quickly.

Last summer, we had a very cool and damp summer and the sweet potatoes didn't do very well....I got over 30 bushels that hot summer and maybe 5 bushels of decent sweet potatoes last summer. It's always a gamble! I guess I am a gardening gambler!


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## kappydell

The spreading of the plant depends on the kind of sweet potato - some are bushier than others. And yes, the vines are delicious - kind of a cross between snap peas & asparagus!! Very popular in the Philippines.


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## lilmissy0740

Would a trellis hold them to plant vertical?


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## Davarm

lilmissy0740 said:


> Would a trellis hold them to plant vertical?


I've never tried to train the vines "up", the runners like to take root and help feed the plant.

When my vines start spreading I pitch a shovel of dirt on them to encourage them to set roots, may not be necessary and could be an over kill but it works for me.

Maybe someone that has tried a trellis will post about it.


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## Davarm

I ordered my slips today from "Johnny's Seeds", the "Beauregards" - 50 for $25.00, they ship April 21st. They came out a bit less expensive than I thought they were going to be.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-7124-beauregard.aspx

I'll plant them along with the ones I'm rooting now, gonna be interesting to see how they compare.


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## AnnieAnnie

Hello Dararm,

Just make sure your area has a long growning season. Maybe 220 days.

Thanks


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## Davarm

No worries there, some years we stretch the garden year to 10+ months, a lot of our garden plants(here) can grow all year long.


BTW, welcome to the forum!:wave:


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## gardenshepherd

We grow sweet potatoes(kumara) in tyres, first we put corrugated iron (roofing iron) under them to stop them growing down. Yes strange but it works, will dig mine up before the first frost, as we are having a extra long summer(drought) that might not be for some weeks. Oh yeah the vines will grow up a T Pee like structure.


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