Hello everyone!
I finally got a small area of my own for a garden in my backyard. I've got some peppers growing there now, oddly enough. I had grown a whole bunch of plants to plant there earlier this year, but they were all killed in their youth by a group of unruly screeners who were repairing our pool screen (they got trampled on). So out of a mix of desperation and anger, I tossed the remaining bit of my pepper seeds onto a patch of dirt/mulch which is what is now my garden. I left it alone for a few months, and out of sheer blind neglect, the peppers actually sprouted and are doing quite well.
So since then I've been cleaning out the area, and have about 10 square feet to fill up. I've decided on sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes, but I can't seem to find anywhere that sells seed potatoes locally though (I'd really only need enough for 2-4 plants).
I'm not all that learned in the field of growing sweet potatoes (which are slightly different from regular potatoes, right?). Can I just go buy a sweet potato, dice it up, and plant it? Or do I need a specific seed potato?
If so, does anyone have any seed potatoes they'd be willing to trade for? My trade list is quite eclectic and limited, so my apologies about that.
Anyways, thanks!
-Scott
CLOSED: Anyone have Sweet Potatoes or advice?
Scott,
I would search "sweet potato" in PlantFiles, ignore the ones which are ornamental, and Dmail someone who grows them in your area; I know there are some people like that. Also, I think there was an article about sweet potatoes - click on the GUIDES AND INFORMATION tab at the top of the page, then on ARTICLES from the menu at the right, then type SWEET POTATOES into the search window that appears. Yum yum! Good luck!
xx, Carrie
Alright, thanks for the advice Carrie! This will be a fun thing to grow in some pots too when I go off to college in a few months. Better than some useless old ficus or faux shrubbery =P
Scott,
You can buy a couple of different tubers at the store, plant them on their sides, about 4 inches below the soil and they will grow. A thick mulch of leaves or wood chips helps keep the weeds under control. They take up alot of room, so you are going to need more than 10 sq ft.
Best of luck with them, I just grow flowers.
Thanks for the tips dale! I'll clear out some more land to make room next weekend, and look for some [currently] useless mulch around the yard to use as ground cover.
Since sweet potatoes are vines (or atleast I think they are), will I need to get some lattice/mesh for them to grow on?
Thanks again!
Scott
Ailos- I bought my sweet potatoes from seed and nursery catolog called Henry Field's. I purchased the Gerogia Jet and Beauregard varieties, with the Georgia Jets ultimatly surviving and outperforming the beaquregard's.
www.HenryFields.com is the website. I just red the descriptions and did a little bit of googling to see which varieties would do best in my nc clay soil. Here a pic of my georgia jet. They were the sweetest ever sweet potatoes I ever had. The sugary sap just oozed out of them when I baked them finally after curing them for 30 days in a cool dry place on my front porch. Good luck.
Hmm, I didn't know sweet potatoes could be run on a trellis, that sure would help eliminate all the space they take up.
Buy a sweet potato from the store and put it in a glass of water and put that in a sunny window. When the vines get long enough cut them out and plant them. That's the way my Dad did his and he always had tons.
Anne
Alright, thanks for the tips guys. I'll try Anne's method and go get some potatoes from the store.
I'm kind of confused as to what I do when I grow the slips though. Are the slips themselves just the actual vine part of the potato, the entire sprouted potato, or a cut sectioning containing both roots and a sprout?
And how do plant the slips? Do I just stick them in moist ground?
Thanks!
Dad used to just cut a chunk from the potato around and under the sprout and then just stick them in the ground. You may get 3 or 4 sprouts from the one potato.
Anne
Excellent! Thanks so much for the help Anne!
I can't wait to start growing my own food =]
Dad always had sweet potatoes growing. As with any garden there was either too much water or not enough (Dad didn't believe in watering). But there was one year when all the stars aligned and he had a bumper crop. There were as many as 10 potatoes per vine! I'm not kidding, and each was huge. We had the potatoes that year.
Anne