Sweet potatoes produce “slips” from buds near the top of the sweet potato. The root end normally does not produce slips though sometimes roots will emerge. Sweet potatoes can be placed in water at 120F for 30 minutes to induce growth from buds all along the length including down to the root end. I tried this years ago and did not regulate the temperature well enough. I got a lot of sprouts, but also damaged several of the sweet potatoes.
As stated above, sweet potatoes normally take 90 to 120 days to mature. Georgia Jet is one of the few that matures in 90 days and sometimes a bit less. It has several flaws, but if you are in a marginal growing area, might be worth chasing down.
It is possible to speed up growth significantly by using black plastic to warm the soil. I recommend using black plastic given your climate. A black garbage bag can do the trick if you are willing to pin it down on the ground where the plant can grow over it. Note, this trick is ONLY for people in cold climates with cool soil. In a hot climate, it is a waste of time as summer temperatures heat the soil up.
I put out 70 or so slips. My sweet potatoes stored so poorly this time that I couldn’t start my own, so we bought slips of Georgia Jet and Covington. Also put out a few slips of Korean Gold and Myanmar Purple. I’ve had problems with scurf-infected commercial slips in the past, so I cut away the bottom 2 or 3 inches of each slip before planting. Would’ve preferred growing them out and taking cuttings that entirely excluded the original root zones, but by the time I received the slips there wasn’t time. (This step wasn’t necessary with Korean Gold and Myanmar, as they were grown-out tissue cultures.) Things are off to a slow start, because it’s been very hot and dry this year.
If I end up with any sweet taters—and I’m not counting my chickens, because my luck with them has taken a downturn these past few years—I think I’m going to have to pay much closer attention to the curing process. I believe some of my storage rot issues may be a result of poor curing—minor wounds inflicted during digging not hardening off and becoming an entryway for pathogens in storage. Often, because of late replantings and other issues, I’ll end up with a late harvest and not enough heat to properly cure them. Low humidity during curing might also be an issue. From what I’ve read, ideal curing conditions seem to be around 85F and 90% humidity. Apparently just leaving them in the wagon in the shed for a couple of weeks is not doing the trick.
I don’t know of anyone who has grown one, so I suspect it isn’t a very reliable crop up here by St. Paul. But the sweet potato on the counter was woody inside and had tiny leaves sprouting, so I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to plant it. I’ve no idea what variety it is. I had never heard of eating the leaves.
Sweet potato vines are perennial in areas with no winter. This makes them very popular in tropical countries. When grown as perennials, tubers are harvested leaving the plant to grow and produce more tubers. Don’t expect the vines to die, however, they can be killed by even a light frost. Getting frosted is a severe negative for flavor. I’ve salvaged some in years past by cutting off the vines early in the morning after a frost before the leaves had a chance to thaw. Sweet potatoes suberize over about 3 weeks at temperatures around 85 degrees as stated above. Some varieties do not properly mature due to infection with mycoplasma and other microorganisms. If eaten immediately after harvest, they have a latex like flavor that is repulsive to most. Matured properly, they get sweeter and develop a normal flavor profile. As I stated earlier, the best way to grow sweet potatoes in northern states is on black plastic and with very short maturing varieties. Sweet potatoes don’t really start growing until temps are 80 degrees and go into high gear at 110F. They prefer regular watering but once established can withstand significant periods of drought. They don’t grow much in a drought.
I am thinking about adding sweet potatoes to my garden this year, but wanted to focus more on the greens than the tubers. If you know the variety you grew and can comment on the quality of the greens, I’d appreciate your input! Otherwise, I think I’ll try to root something from market greens or order some Murasaki slips…
I have 100 plants of Evangeline that were planted June 1. It is a 110 day variety so I will start looking soon as I don’t like huge sweet potatoes. Some vines are blooming but I don’t see any pushing up out of the ground. Today is the day for their weekly watering since no rain this week.
I had to come back with additional Calcium Nitrate 2 weeks ago as the leaves were showing N deficiency on my sandy soil. Had the wettest June and July ever so not surprised needing an extra shot of N. 2 pounds per 100 feet of row.
I started a bunch of slips from some left over from last year’s growing season - a purple, an orange (probably Carolina Nugget), and a couple of whites (probably Southern Queen and Triumph). Planted them out and kept them watered to get established, but we went a month without rain to activate the Prowl H2O pre-emergent that I put down, and as soon as the rains finally arrived, pigweed and johnsongrass exploded, and I was gone, for all intents and purposes, for the next 4 weeks, so any efforts at weeding were directed to the tomatoes and peppers. I know some of the vines are down in there, but I don’t have high hopes for them making much of a crop
That is sad to hear. I was in the same boat 2 years ago. I had to bush hog the garden to harvest. 200 plants that year and I only got a few milk crates out of there.
Sweet potatoes need plenty of water and once the weeds take over, its a lost cause.
I was at my local hardware store looking for collards to plant this week. They still had flats of sweet potatoes in cell packs left over that they kept watered. 8 inches tall with a leaf or two at the top.I pulled one out. It had an orange root trying to burst apart the cell. They want to make potatoes no matter what.
