Grow Sweet Potatoes
You Will Enjoy Growing Sweet Potatoes
in Your Potato Garden.
You can grow sweet potatoes in most areas of the U.S. and around the world.
The tuberous roots of vining sweet potato plants are what produces the "fruit" of the sweet potato. The vines take root wherever they touch the ground and, as they spread, can produce a bumper crop of sweet potatoes.
If you have a garden that is too small to allow accomdate spreading vines, you can plant sweet potato bush varieties. Growing your own vegetables is a wonderful way to help the household budget and a rewarding outdoor endeavor.
As soon as the ground is warm... and danger of frost has passed, you can plant your sweet potato slips...the small rooted pieces of a tuber. Here are a few more tips about how to grow sweet potatoes:
- You can plant sweet potatoes in raised rows. This allows the soil to warm faster and gives the plants good drainage.
- In cool climates, spread black plastic on the soil to help it warm faster.
- Space sweet potato plants 12 - 18" apart and with 3 - 4' between rows. This allows the vines room to spread. If you are planting the bush variety of sweet potato, they can be somewhat closer together.
- Over-fertilizing sweet potato plants causes them to produce lots of foliage but few sweet potatoes. If the sweet potato vines are started in good, organic soil they do not need further "feeding."
- To prevent the maturing sweet potatoes from splitting, don't water them for 3-4 weeks prior to harvest.
You are likely most familiar with the orange fleshed sweet potato. Sweet potatoes can also be white, yellow or even purple.
Try several varieties and colors. Just be certain you have certified disease-free roots by buying them from a reputable seed supplier.
How to Grow Potatoes
Types of Potatoes
Seed Potatoes
Planting Potatoes
Harvesting Potatoes
Storing Potatoes
Potato Bugs
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