experimental gardening: Sweet potatoes

[ittibittirainbow11]

I am always looking in to new ways and new things to garden. So today I of course jumped the gun and purchased some sweet potato slips. I have never grown them before. I have spent the last few hours looking up how to grow them. I want to grow them in a barrel type situation. I know it can be done Iv'e seen it on a few sites. My problem is I can't find the answer to a question I have..... Do you need to mound or cover them as they grow, just like you do with regular potatoes? Does anyone know?

 

[StupidBird]

I have grown sweet potatoes successfully the last two years in the ground, in Georgia, in clay-loam. One year I had to cover the swelling roots/tubers, one year not. Hay mulch sheltered mice that gnawed the exposed roots, or the rodents dug the shallow ones.

Its a tropical that needs warm temps, and the greens are edible. Best wishes!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

The first time I grew sweet potatoes I planted them just under the ground a couple of inches. Then potatoes started growing on the surface of the ground so I made a 2' X 3' retaining wall (2' tall) with concrete blocks around the plant and built up the soil inside. In our climate it grew like wildfire, escaped the boundaries of the garden and threatened to take over my entire back yard. Frustrated with the vines and the loss of garden space, I ended up pulling them for compost just so I could get to the planter and remove the blocks. What I found was an amazing orange cube (2' X 3' X 2' tall +deeper) of sweet potatoes woven together like a puzzle with virtually no soil in between. It looked so strange and interesting, I wish I had taken a picture. Some of the potatoes weighed more than 10 lbs. Of course the big ones were too woody to eat (my mealworms loved them) but the smaller ones were delicious. I've since learned to harvest them at the 6 month mark for the best results. I now use a similar block/brick planter box (blocks and bricks simply stacked with soil inside) at the outer edge of the yard and away from the garden so I don't lose valuable garden space to vine coverage.

I've since experimented with various ways of growing them--including barrel type conditions and I think hilling them up with some soil is good, but adding much more than 12" of soil over the top of the plant doesn't add much to productivity. I've also successfully used 1/2" hardware cloth to make bins 2' high X 3' dia. and lined with black plastic as containers for growing them. Another interesting tidbit about sweet potatoes is that they are very easy to propagate by taking vine cuttings and rooting them. Near the end of the six month period before harvesting I take cuttings to root and replace the plant I harvest.

 

[ittibittirainbow11]

so i don't continue to cover them AS they grow?

 

[huyenaht]

a tropical to warm temps, and the side of it is edible. Congratulations!