Sweet potatoes... growing them in a cold spot!

I first learned about the sweet potato plant less than 10 years ago! Weird, huh? Seems like the whole world is eating them in a zillion ways, but here it was definitely not popular until the last few years. You couldn't buy sweet potatoes in any store, except some specialty gourmet shops with imported produce.

At some point a friend of mine shared he worked on a sweet potato farm in the USA while on a student working holiday over there. And he wanted to try and grow them here. So we started researching requirements, weather conditions, soils, watering, feeding, everything we could about that relative of the morning glory flower :)

Two main motivators were the fact it does not get attacked by potato beetles nor does it suffer from the whole slew of fungal problem the Solanaceae family is so susceptible to.

The one main obstacle was our much shorter growing season and the fact sweet potatoes basically won't grow at all in cold soil and cold nights.

So the regular protocol of starting them indoors a couple of weeks before the last frost date and then planting them out definetely wouldn't have worked. We regularly have frosts in April, including late April and the soil is not really warm before mid May, when we plant our beans and corn.

Mind you, that happens maybe 8 years ago. So this is what we devised.

  1. We will start them much much earlier, indoors.
  2. We will pot the slips (the new growth stems that come out of the sweet potato) in good soil and grow them indoors on a sunny window for at least 4 weeks.
  3. We will acclimate the plants by bringing out the pots and keep them outdoors after risk of frost have passed, for at least 2 weeks.
  4. By that time the plants will be much larger and with better roots than regular bare root slips that are usually used.
  5. We will prepare a bed by removing the straw mulch so the sun can warm the soil but then return the mulch before planting the slips.
  6. After that, easy - water once a week, harvest, enjoy.

So here are a few photos of the indoor part of the process.

First we put a couple of sweet potatoes in a deep pot with clean water and keep them in the warmest place in the house until stems start growing.

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After the stems themselves have individual roots, we pull the stem off the sweet potato, gently. Take a look at the photo, see how the left stem still does not have own roots, while the right one already has roots.

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Next photo shows the separated stem with its own roots. The sweet potato is returned in the pot of water. The stem is planted in a 500 ml pot, but sometimes we use 1 liter, for exceptionally large slips. Water well, keep mosist but not too soggy,

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Here are our potted slips on a sunny windows. They are in varying age, that's why we put younger in front to catch more light.

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Harvest time

So now we're moving forward in time, up to 3 years ago when we dared grow our first sweet potato crop. Previous attempts were a joint effort and in a garden in a much warmer part of the country.

Still we decided to try and subject the poor plants to a May of 5-8C nighttime temps!

And I'm glad we did, because even on the first year, when we still hadn't figured out all the details and planted only 4 slips, we got a few kilos of amazing sweet potatoes.

Problem was we delayed our harvest too much. You see, regular potatoes you dig out when the above ground portion dries out. Turned out, that's too late for sweet potatoes and most of them were full of holes made by slugs. Still, we salvaged about 30-40% of them to eat.

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Next year we got better, smarter, better planing, another variety = better yield and almost none eaten.

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And finally, last year, because of the 'Rona we couldn't start many slips in time, but still managed to grow a few plants. Here they are mixed with sunchokes, which we start to harvest about that same time, early October.

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So I encourage you to try and grow some sweet potatoes even though you might think you're in a cold spot. If they can grow here, zone 6A, they would be growing in much of the northern hemisphere. Just make sure you start them early on! Let me know if you have any tricks or maybe favorite recipes with sweet potatoes!

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 3 years ago  

I’m a lazy sweet potato grower. We're lucky enough to have a hot climate, so I just let them grow and spread , then harvest if I remember. They're rarely very big, because my soil still needs so much work, but we eat the leaves too.


Posted on NaturalMedicine.io

Leaves are edible??? Thanks, will look that up! Similar to spinach?

 3 years ago  

Yes, that's how we use them. Our bunnies like them too.

Very fresh and gorgeous.
Remembering my childhood, sweet potato leaves are our snack. We boil or steam it. Delicious!

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I feel ashamed that I haven't even tried growing sweet potatoes until it works. Though, they are my favorite vegetables.

Your harvest looks amazing!

Reminds me it's about time to soak some sweet potaties. Did u by any chance made some chips?

Not fried but we did slice them on a mandoline and toss them with salt and pepper and olive oil and thyme and put them in the oven :)

Probably tasted better that way and healthier😂

I grew huge tubers and over knee high vines one year. The vines were incredibly lush and thick. When I went to harvest them, I think I found 3 tubers, and the huge husks of many more. The voles/moles/mice had had a feast. I always wondered how the vines survived with their tubers destroyed....

Wow, what a disappointment... Moles certainly did not help, I think they're carnivores? Our main pest is slugs. I think the plants are very robust and they feed via the roots and the tubers are just the storage mechanism for "overwintering".

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Wow!! This looks like a fascinating process. I've never tried growing any sort of potatoe, let alone sweet. I also live in a relatively cold climate that sounds similar to yours. Random frosts still at the end of April even if there are some hot days in between; the weather can't decide what to do. I'm going to try this! Thanks!

Let me know if I can help - drop a line here or find me on Discord in Sustainable Living Hub server.

Will do! Thank you!