How deep do sweet potatoes grow?

[skeeter9]

I just ordered 12 sweet potato slips. Now I just have to figure out where to grow them. About how deep do the tubers grow? Guess I should mentiont that these are Beauregard slips.

 

[curly_kate]

I've grown them, and I usually just dig the hole deep enough for the slip. I've never had any trouble with getting good sized tubers doing it that way. However, we are blessed with really nice, loamy soil, so that might have something to do with it, too. I did plant them in raised beds one year, and ended up getting some as big as DH's foot! It was cool to see them that big, but really not very practical to use ones that big.

 

[lesa]

If your soil is too compacted they will have a hard time growing... So, you might want to hill up some loose soil for them. Since they don't need to be hilled as they grow (like regular potatoes) it is good to start out with loose, deep soil. Happy Gardening!

 

[retiredwith4acres]

We make a large hill about a foot high for our sweet potatoes.

 

[ducks4you]

NOBODY has any slips this year. Our local FS had a 100 person waiting list. SOOO...I'm trying some grocery store sweet potatoes, instead.
My DH left one on her kitchen counter a few years back, nothing but artificial light and nowhere close to her basement apartment windows, and it sprouted and lived for over one year.
I'm planting in a tilled bed, next to some fencing that I had put in for cucumbers earlier.
Just another experiment. And, YES, I know that the sweet potato is more closely related to a morning glory than a spud.

 

[catjac1975]

I plant them as you would any other transplant. I have rich sandy soil. The roots grow into tubers. Sometimes they are just below the soil, other times a foot down.
I buy them from Steele. I order them early or they sell out. I think the prices are very good.

 

[so lucky]

I cut the end off a sweet potato to bake it in the microwave, and the end had a couple of tiny sprouts on it. I put the slice in a bit of water in a cup and they are growing. I guess the roots will come out of the same eye that the stem is coming out of? Do they have to be as big as the sprouts you buy, to plant in the garden, or can I do that as soon as they start growing roots? I used to sell sweet potato slips at the store, but I haven't grown any since I was 8 years old. That was when my mom fooled me by inserting a big store bought sweet potato in the ground where my vine was, and told me to go dig where the soil was disturbed. Honestly, I didn't know I hadn't grown that potato till a couple of years ago, and I'm 63.

 

[skeeter9]

Our soil is extremely hard/compact. It's like trying to dig in granite. I'm thinking of planting the slips in some kid of raised bed, but I just want to make sure it's deep enough because there's no way the tubers can grow in our "soil". So do you think if I gave them a foot or so of soil that would be enough?

 

[hoodat]

I cut the end off a sweet potato to bake it in the microwave, and the end had a couple of tiny sprouts on it. I put the slice in a bit of water in a cup and they are growing. I guess the roots will come out of the same eye that the stem is coming out of? Do they have to be as big as the sprouts you buy, to plant in the garden, or can I do that as soon as they start growing roots? I used to sell sweet potato slips at the store, but I haven't grown any since I was 8 years old. That was when my mom fooled me by inserting a big store bought sweet potato in the ground where my vine was, and told me to go dig where the soil was disturbed. Honestly, I didn't know I hadn't grown that potato till a couple of years ago, and I'm 63.

If you're growing it from a cut end the roots will come at the base of the shoot. You don't have to wait for them to grow big; just snap off the shoot, being sure to get the little roots and plant it in a small pot with good potting soil. It only needs one or two sets of leaves to grow in a pot. When the shoot gets three or four inches long you can transplant it into the garden. If you use a larger pot you can plant several shoots in the same pot and seperate them when you transplant them.

 

[retiredwith4acres]

I put 5 sweet potatoes from last years crop into a glass of water each back in March. I would break off the sprouts when they got about 5-6 inches long. I then put them into another glass of water and left them there to develop more roots. When I got about 100 plants I put them into my hills. This was the first time I had raised my own slips and they are doing wonderful. Next year I will start a little earlier so to have more plants since we got another 75 from a friend that grows his in a covered bed of soil each year. I furnished about 50 of those to someone else. This was easy to do and I enjoyed growing my own in my sunroom.