How to Grow Sweet Potatoes
Instruction & Advice for Growing Sweet Potato Plants
in Your Vegetable Garden
| Nutrition | Watering Instructions | Harvesting |
| Climate | Fertilizing Instructions | Storage |
| Soil | Challenges | Tips |
| Planting |
Sweet Potatoes (Yams) are considered a tender garden perennial, but are grown as annuals. This vegetable requires a long gardening season of at least 150 days.
Gardening Advice Tip: Sweet Potatoes are not well suited for container gardening, unless as an indoor houseplant (that will not yield a crop).
NOTE: Sweet Potatoes make curious and attractive house plants. Obtain a mature tuber, stick three toothpicks in a circle around it so that the toothpicks stick out at right angles. Lower the tuber into a jar of water (consider adding a few pieces of charcoal to the water) until the toothpicks rest on the rim of the jar. Keep the water level so that it always touches the bottom of the tuber. Change the water occasionally. Keep the jar in a warm sunny spot, and vines will soon start to grow. Then it's ready to transplant.
Nutrition Information: (back to top)
Under optimal growing conditions, sweet potatoes offer: Dietary Fiber, Potassium, Chromium, Manganese, Magnesium, Copper, Iron, Vitamin A, B6
Climate & Growing Conditions: (back to top)
Sweet Potatoes need warm nights and warm days, with a minimum of 4 months of frost-free gardening. This vegetable is very hard to grow in cooler climates.
How to Prepare the Garden Soil: (back to top)
Pick a spot that is in full sun for your sweet potato garden. They grow best in sandy or sandy loam soil with medium fertility.
Sweet potatoes have very deep roots, so you will need to dig your garden bed very deeply. The deeper the prepared soil, the bigger your roots will be.
Also, this vegetable doesn't tolerate competition from weeds particularly well.
How to Plant Sweet Potatoes: (back to top)
In hot areas, plant year round. In warm areas, plant from spring to miod-summer.
Sweet potatoes are grown from pieces of sprouted tubers (like with potatoes). Plant the seed pieces in garden beds with rows 3 feet apart and 14” between plants. Hill the rows to 10”. Water the plants immediately after planting.
To form your own sprouted tubers, take healthy mature tubers, and place in a propagating bed. Cover with 3” of sand. Keep the sand warm and moist. When seedlings are 6”, gently remove them and transplant them.
How to Water: (back to top)
Water well in the beginning of the growth cycle. When the seedlings appear, reduce watering, but keep the soil moisture level constant.
Gardening Advice Tip: Too much water can cause the sweet potato roots to rot.
How to Fertilize: (back to top)
If you dig in a complete fertilizer before planting, you probably won’t need to fertilize again.
Gardening Challenges: (back to top)
Sweet potatoes experience few problems.
Gardening Tip: Practice good vegetable gardening by rotating your crops within your garden space with each new season. This will prevent many plant diseases.
How to Harvest Sweet Potatoes: (back to top)
Plan on 5 or 6 months for the tubers to reach maturity. Harvest before the first frost arrives.
When harvesting, be very careful not to damage the potato or skin (this affects it's ability to keep in storage). Cure for 10 days at approx 85 (F) degrees in a well ventilated covered area, then store at approx. 50 degrees (F).
If there is a frost, immediately cut off all the vines, to prevent the tubers from being spoiled. Then dig up the tubers.
How to freeze Sweet Potatoes (back to top)
After scrubbing and peeling the sweet potato, bake until mostly tender. Drain and cool. Pack sweet potato into freezer bag, remove extra air, seal and label. Freeze up to 3 months.
Cold Storage (back to top)
After curing (drying) for 10 days at 85 degrees, store in bushel baskets or crates in a cellar at 50/60 degrees. Be very careful not to damage the skin or bruise the sweet potato.
Gardening Advice Tips (back to top)
Have a helpful gardening tip (or even a fun story) to share about your sweet potato growing experience? Share it with us at: gardeningtips@howtogardenadvice.com
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