Growing the Sweet Potato Vine in Your Garden

Did you know that the sweet potatoe vine belongs to the morning glory family? Here are some gardening tips for how to grow potatoes in your own yard.

Rather than start from small seeds, sweet potatoes best grow from tiny plants called slips. You can find these transplants or vine cuttings from sweet potato vines already growing in the field, or you can grow some vines in water from their buds. Alternately, you can buy slips from seed companies.

In addition to being versatile and tasty, sweet potatoes are popping with nutrition: beta-kerotene, lutein, and fiber, as well as vitamins B6 and C, manganese, and some potassium.

Planting the Sweet Potato

You’ll want to plant sweet potatoes in late April or early May in an area of the garden that receives direct sunlight all day. As the vines creep, allow plenty of space and use a trellis or garden stake to accommodate them. The University of Illinois Extension says that sweet potatoes like warm weather and need a long growing period without frost.

Different varieties of sweet potatoes require different growing times. The range is between 100 and 140 days. Once you are ready to harvest the sweet potatoes, pull the vines carefully out of the ground. If you damage the roots then the new sweet potatoes will be vulnerable to decay in storage. Their skins are easily damaged too, and the entire sweet potato spoils easily.

You shouldn’t store sweet potatoes in the refrigerator. They keep at room temperature just fine for up to a month, and the colder temperature breaks the sugars down into starch and gives the sweet potato an unpleasant taste.

top