planting sweet potatoes

[VT Chicklit]

I want to plant sweet potatoes too! I have started my sprouting potato in water and it now has roots and little nubs that will become the sprouts. Can anyone tell me if I can plant these sprouts the way that regular potatoes were planted in another thread on this site. That method had the seed potatoes planted in a large chicken wire cage that was layered with grass clippings, compost/soil and manure as the potato plants grew. I had thought that I would try this method useing a black plastic composter that unrolls to form a circular ring. I thought that the black plastic would help warm the soil. I do not know if it would get the soil too warm in the Vermont summer heat (80 - 85 degrees)

 

[Ridgerunner]

I want to plant sweet potatoes too! I have started my sprouting potato in water and it now has roots and little nubs that will become the sprouts. Can anyone tell me if I can plant these sprouts the way that regular potatoes were planted in another thread on this site. That method had the seed potatoes planted in a large chicken wire cage that was layered with grass clippings, compost/soil and manure as the potato plants grew. I had thought that I would try this method useing a black plastic composter that unrolls to form a circular ring. I thought that the black plastic would help warm the soil. I do not know if it would get the soil too warm in the Vermont summer heat (80 - 85 degrees)

I can't answer your specific question as I have not tried it nor do I have your climate. Now that I said I don't know what I'm talking about so you know how much to trust me on this, I think I'd use the black plastic to warm the soil in the spring and cover it with mulch or remove it when the sun got hot in the summer. It could give you an earlier start and give you a longer growing season. Hopefully someone with your climate or experience in that method can help.

My tip is to check the variety you are planting. In New England I'd plant a faster-maturing sweet potato, Georgia Jets or O'Henry's come to mind. They have a shorter growing season than most varieties.

Editted to add: My wife told me not to grow Georgia Jets this year. They grew so large she had trouble slicing the raw potato for cooking.

 

[sheps4her]

Hasn't anyone else just tried planting them the same way as regular potatos? :/ Mine grew like crazy last year and we had so many we ended up giving a bunch away. Just wondering why everyone else takes so many steps when we practically just threw them in the ground and had great success?

 

[Catalina]

Hasn't anyone else just tried planting them the same way as regular potatos? :/ Mine grew like crazy last year and we had so many we ended up giving a bunch away. Just wondering why everyone else takes so many steps when we practically just threw them in the ground and had great success?

I think it might be the difference in growing zones.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hasn't anyone else just tried planting them the same way as regular potatos? :/ Mine grew like crazy last year and we had so many we ended up giving a bunch away. Just wondering why everyone else takes so many steps when we practically just threw them in the ground and had great success?

I believe Catalina has a good point. Sweet potatoes need warm soil and a fairly long season, about 100 days. For some people, it just would not work. They need the head start slips give them.

One reason I never tried it that way is I never thought about it. I've always seen sweet potatoes started from slips. Those slips are so hardy, they will live with very basic care.

I'm not sure I would consider planting them your way that much easier. Putting a sweet potato in water in a warm spot in the house is not much bother. I think it might be easier to form the hill before you set them out instead of around a growing vine. Vine growth habit is different than white potatoes. I do break up the crust and increase the hill a little after they start growing, but that's mainly weed control, not landscaping.

How hard were yours to dig? I've read that white potatoes form over the seed potato, thus you need to form a hill after you plant them for ease of digging and to increase the harvest. I'm not sure that is true with sweet potatoes. You have the experience with that. If you start your sweet potato in a trench, how deep did you have to go to dig the potato out?

I'm not trying to nitpick you or criticize you. I'm trying to show my thought process, reason things out, and learn something from your experience.

Thanks.

 

[simple life]

Ridgerunner, I would tend to agree with your post.
You are right about the white potatoes growing above the seed.
Thats why many people don't even bother to plant them in a trench but plant them in soil just enough to cover the seed potato and as the plant grows you keep hilling soil or straw/hay over the base of the plant so that more potatoes will keep growing above the last.
The metal peddlar on this site even has pictures of how he grew his in a tomato cage and when it was harvest time he simply pulled the cage off and all the soil and potatoes were in one big pile, no digging and no accidentally nicking and damaging any potatoes.

You are correct about the sweet potatoes having a vine growth habit and needing a long growing season.
I would never be able to just throw them in the ground here and have them fully develop before the first frost.
As it is I green sprout my regular potatoes before I plant them as well.
Sweets tend to need alot more room to grow, they have more of a spreading habit than regular potatoes if they are the vining type.
You can buy the more compact shrubby type that won't spread but you have to make sure that type is good for your zone.
There are only a couple that are good for shorter growing zones.
I posted some information about that in a few posts back.
I buy the slips because its the quickest way for me to get them going.
I think some people like to grow the slips in a glass of water first because not only is it easy, its also fun for them.
Kids love that.

 

[sheps4her]

ahhh... never even thought about the difference in growing season. They do tend to spread out a bit, but I grew them in my raised beds shown in the post earlier. I did not really hill them like the sweet potatos , and to be honest i didn't even think I had anything but the vines at first, until I saw one poke out of the ground a little. When I saw that, i added a little more dirt to all of them, but i did not have to do that very often. I also was not trying to nit pick other peoples ways of doing things, was just trying to understand why it was done that way, and now I do . Since they were not planted that deep to begin with, it was very easy to dig them up.