{"id":1444,"date":"2018-07-06T13:45:16","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T18:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/?p=1444"},"modified":"2019-03-25T21:45:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T02:45:59","slug":"grow-sweet-potatoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/grow-sweet-potatoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Grow Sweet Potatoes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1465 size-full\" title=\"The trick to growing Sweet Potatoes\" src=\"http:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes.jpg\" alt=\"Trick to growing sweet potatoes\" width=\"400\" height=\"429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes-280x300.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite things to grow in the garden.&nbsp; Once planted, they are low maintenance until it&#8217;s time to harvest them. Their vines and flowers are beautiful!&nbsp; But there is a trick to having more than just beautiful vines and flowers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h5>Basic Sweet Potato Requirements:<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>loamy, well-drained soil&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>a long growing season, anywhere from 90-170 days depending on the variety<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;hot weather, but cool soil<\/li>\n<li>does not like frosts, be sure to dig before a frost or you will end up with mushy sweet potatoes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can start sweet potatoes with slips that you can purchase, or you can start your own at home.&nbsp; My friend Amber from My Homestead Life has a<a href=\"https:\/\/myhomesteadlife.com\/2017\/06\/27\/grow-sweet-potatoes-5-easy-steps\/\"> great post about sweet potatoes on how to start your own slips<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; You can meet their soil requirements and water them faithfully only to have small, finger like sweet potatoes.&nbsp; While tiny sweet potatoes are still good,&nbsp; they just don&#8217;t cut it when you&#8217;re expecting a nice, big sweet potato!<\/p>\n<p>When we lived in Colorado, I tried every trick that I knew, but unfortunately couldn&#8217;t grow decent sweet potatoes.&nbsp; The vines looked beautiful, but harvest time was very disappointing.&nbsp; The growing season was short in Colorado, which was probably part of it.<\/p>\n<p>When we moved to Missouri,&nbsp; a long time gardener generously shared a simple trick that changed how my sweet potato harvest looked.<\/p>\n<h3>What&#8217;s the trick?&nbsp;<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s all about the vines!&nbsp; Those sweet potato vines want to root back into the soil every where they touch.&nbsp; If allowed to do that, the plant will put all of it&#8217;s energy on creating many undersized tubers at each <span class=\"standardtext\">rooted area rather than ripening the main crop at the base of the plant<\/span><span class=\"standardtext\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>To prevent this from happening, all you need is something to prevent the vines from rooting!&nbsp; I use leftover paper feed sacks, but newspaper or cardboard will do.&nbsp; After planting your sweet potatoes, mulch them with the feed sacks or newspapers.&nbsp; Then cover all of that paper with a thick layer of straw.&nbsp; The straw helps keep the paper in place and looks much better than seeing a garden bed covered in paper.&nbsp; As the vines grow, they will not be in contact with the soil, and therefore, will not root!&nbsp; Some have used just straw as a mulch with success.&nbsp; I have had my sweet potato vines root through the straw, which is why I now use an extra layer.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s it!&nbsp; An easy trick to growing large, beautiful sweet potatoes!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes_pin.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1463 size-full\" title=\"The trick to growing Sweet Potatoes\" src=\"http:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes_pin.png\" alt=\"The trick to growing sweet potatoes\" width=\"735\" height=\"1102\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes_pin.png 735w, https:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes_pin-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes_pin-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sweetpotatoes_pin-534x800.png 534w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. &nbsp; Sweet potatoes are one &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homesteadintheholler.com\/blog\/grow-sweet-potatoes\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[234,239,238,236,233,237],"class_list":["post-1444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garden","tag-growing-large-sweet-potatoes","tag-growing-sweet-potatoes","tag-sweet-potato-growing-requirements","tag-sweet-potato-mulch","tag-sweet-potatoes","tag-why-do-i-have-small-sweet-potatoes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Grow Sweet Potatoes - Homestead In The Holler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite things to grow in the garden. 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