Sweet potatoes

[jackiedon]

Do you plant sweet potatoes like regular potatoes? Can I do the container planting like regular potatoes? Like plant the seed potatoe and when the green start showing adding dirt. My dad told me I should plant them along the fence line so the vine could run on the fence.

I know people around here plant a sweet potato for landscaping plants.

jackie

 

[me&thegals]

I've only grown them once, but they're not really grown like potatoes. Rather than bushing, the vines run along the ground everywhere. You plant them in a heaped-up row but then do not continue to heap the dirt up. Good luck

Here's a link for you on container growing sweet potatoes:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg0612152027401.html

 

[curly_kate]

I'm going to try sweet potatoes this year, too. Thanks for the resources me&!

 

[jackiedon]

Thanks for the info!!

jackie

 

[vfem]

All I know of sweet potatoes is there are FIELDS of them near where we live... its a big crop in NC. In october / november while they are out harvesting... they do the harvest from these huge mounds the build up for them for only about a week. After that week everyone in this area goes out to the field and we dig up all the rest we find acceptable to eat but they didn't harvest.

We got a huge bucket full last fall.... shared it with neighbors, my parents and made a couple sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving. My daughter likes sweet potato french fries with sea salt!!!

Anyways, I see what they are doing in the fields here, and they just let the vines run rampant.... they don't give them the option to climb. But like you said, some people plant them in their yard and the vines grow on yard fences and yard posts to be 'pleasing to the eye' rather then food. Its a very common thing to see around here.

 

[curly_kate]

We got a huge bucket full last fall.... shared it with neighbors, my parents and made a couple sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving. My daughter likes sweet potato french fries with sea salt!!!

Mmm! I like to slice them up, coat them in olive oil, sprinkle with garlic, kosher salt & rosemary. Then I put them under the broiler. They are delicious!

 

[seedcorn]

In northern Indiana we buy starts (make sure they have a good root system) and don't run out of water while they establish themselves. Then keep soil around main stem (runners/leaves are only there to feed the main stem where all the sweet potatoes will be found.

I have problems trying to keep them so I buy a few starts and let it go as fresh when I dig them up.

One other no no is do not let the vines get frosted in the fall or the sweet potatoes will rot faster. If it suppose to frost, go pull the vines off--you don't have to dig them before the frost.

I start digging early because I have to eat them before they go bad. no one else in my family likes them.

 

[Catalina]

I grew them last year for the first time.
Things I learned
1. They stay green even if they are very dry - water them! Even if they still look healthy.
2. Don't use a raised bed with a bottom on it. Duh! They get extremely root bound that way. And you end up with skinny sweet potatoes and lots and lots of stringy roots.

What I harvested tasted good, though!

 

[Athena]

Me & Gals...

Thank you for the link....

I think now, I will try to grow potatoes in containers.. Just a few to see if they work for me. If it hadn't been for that link, I would have thought it would be impossible...