How to Grow Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes should not be confused with yams--they are not even related. Yams are monocots and related to the lilies and grass. Over 95 percent of yams are grown in Africa. On the other hand, sweet potatoes are dicots and related to the morning glory family. Sweet potatoes require warm climates similar to the southern part of the United States. Growing sweet potatoes is easy with these simple steps.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Garden
• Sweet Potatoes or Slips
• Mulch
• Water

1. Begin about a month before the last frost or before you plan to transplant the slips in the garden. Sweet potatoes are not grown from seeds, but from vine cuttings called slips.

2. Choose a couple of nice sweet potatoes from your local grocery store. You can grow several bushels of sweet potatoes from the slips taken from just a couple of sweet potatoes.

3. Grow your slips from the sweet potatoes. There are several ways to do this. Bury the mature sweet potato halfway into moist potting soil and keep the soil moist. Or put enough toothpicks in the midsection of the sweet potatoes to hold the potato up in a jar of water.

4. Cut the slips off the mother sweet potato when they are six to eight inches long. Remember to handle the slips gently at this point because they are easy to damage.

5. Transplant the slips in the garden when the soil is at least 70 degrees and there is no danger of frost. Lay the slips on their sides with most of the slip buried a half inch under the soil.

6. Plant the slips 12 to 18 inches apart in rows that are three to four feet apart. Sweet potato vines will cover the ground; therefore, they need a lot of space in the garden.

7. Place black mulch around the young sweet potato slips to help retain moisture. Black mulch will also draw heat from the sun.

8. Harvest sweet potatoes before the first frost. Sweet potatoes are ready to be harvested after four months in the ground, no later than five months.

9. Dry the sweet potatoes on the ground two or three hours after harvesting. Then allow them another 10 to 14 days of curing in a warm room with moderate humidity. Afterwards, they should be placed in a cool room for storage until ready to be cooked.

Tips & Warnings

• Spur the growth of slips by placing the mother sweet potato on the hot water heater or someplace that is very warm.
• After vines cover the ground, very little weeds will be able to grow making it easy to keep the weeds away from the sweet potatoes.
• Do not allow frost on the sweet potatoes because this will ruin them.
• In case of an unexpected frost, cut the vines from the roots. This helps prevent decay from spreading to the roots. Dig sweet potatoes as soon as possible after frost.
• Mice love sweet potato roots. Mice will burrow into the ground and eat the roots of the mature sweet potatoes. You may have to take precautions to keep the mice out of your sweet potatoes.

[ejazz]

on 8/2/2009 How many spotatoes does 1 slip yeild asuming average sucess?

Thanks
ejazz

[mommyhen42]

on 12/28/2008 Very interesting, I have been wondering if I needed seed or if I could use the grocery store tubers. Thank you