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Step 1
These plants are native to South America just like potatoes. Yes, indeed, the common potato did not originate in Ireland, but was brought back by early explorers. The same is true for the cooking yam. Whether it is the red-orange or the yellow-white variety, it is still technically a sweet potato. The medicinal yam is native to Africa and (to a lesser degree) Asia.
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Step 2
The Ipomoea batatas is a most useful plant for growing in the garden. If you live in an area with little to no frost you can leave some tubers in the ground to over-winter for next year's crop. If you live where there are hard frosts, you may want to grow yours as an annual (to plant and grow just for the one season) or try growing your sweet potato/yam in a pot.
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Step 3
Plant the Ipomoea batatas where it can ramble over a large area. This is a vine so you can grow it up a trellis or let it meander along the ground. Either way they cover a lot of ground (literally and figuratively) and need a lot of space to grow.
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Step 4
Rarely are sweet potatoes/yams planted from seeds. Usually they are cultivated with tuber divisions.
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Step 5
Unlike potatoes, you can't cut a yam apart and expect to grow a plant from each eye. You need to grow them from what are called 'slips'. These are sprouts that can be encouraged to grow by placing a store-bought sweet-potato/yam in moist soil or by suspending it in a container of water with toothpicks pressed into the center. Allow the bottom part of the 'body' to touch the water while the toothpicks rest on the edge of the container. The tuber will send out root-like sprouts that can be planted once they reach 4"-6" in length. You can also order sweet potato/yam 'slips' from catalogs. They will not ship to California so if you live there, you'll have to grow your own slips. Be very careful with slips as they are very delicate and break easily.
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Step 6
Since higher humidity and a moist (but not wet) rich soil is best for growth, the Southern states seem to grow the best sweet potatoes/yams. Leave lots of room between plants to let them sprawl--at least 18" between plants (more is better) and 3' between rows.
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Step 7
You can also save tubers from the ornamental yams sold as house plants or decorative garden plants. The plants are available at nurseries and home stores. These are very decorative and come with tri-lobbed arrow-shaped leaves in dark purple, like the I. "Blackie" and chartreuse leaves like in the mounding variety I. 'Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Light Green'. You can dig and store these tubers after they die back at the end of the season to grow in pots. Replant them in the spring.
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Step 8
Harvest food crops of tubers after 3 - 5 months, depending on your climate. Dig them very carefully. Most roots do not go very deep. Let them dry and 'cure' out of the sun and/or rain for about a week or two before storing. Store sweet potatoes/yams in a dark, dry, airy and cool space so they will neither rot or start to grow. Not all will make it though the winter as they do not store as well as, say, potatoes or onions. So feel free to cook most of them up in the autumn while they're fresh and tasty.
Comments
Hapworth said
on 8/12/2008 Lots I didn't know!
acole said
on 8/12/2008 Interesting.