Sweet potatoes are perennial in climates that remain warm year-round, but they can serve as a highly productive annual in cooler areas. They benefit from rich soils, but will hold their own in gutless sand or even heavy clay. They will grow in full sun to part shade and even tolerate very shady areas quite well.
Sweet potato vines thrive best when a balanced slow-release 10-10-10 or 12-12-12 fertilizer is applied. Use either organic or non-organic fertilizer since this plant will not produce an edible crop.
The most common causes of yellow or brown leaves on sweet potato vines are improper watering or poor light conditions. They like evenly moist soil and will start to yellow if they dry out completely, or if you overwater to the point where they develop root rot.
Sweet potatoes need at least 1 inch of water per week to grow well. Watering is especially important during the transplant, establishment and root development period. Stop watering the sweet potatoes three to four weeks before harvest to prevent tubers from splitting.
The long vines of sweet potatoes can overrun a garden. In early to mid-September, feel free to cut them back by 25%. This simply makes the plants easier to deal with when digging.
Sweet potatoes produce best in a well-drained, light, sandy loam or silt loam. soil. Rich, heavy soils produce high yields of low-quality roots, and extremely poor, light sandy soils generally produce low yields of high-quality roots. Both surface and internal drainage are important in selecting a field.
How many sweet potatoes do you get from one plant? Typically, you'll be able to harvest 3-5 tubers per sweet potato plant, which is about 1-2 pounds. But if you live in a warmer climate, you may harvest six or more tubers per plant.
The tuberous roots should be harvested by the time frost kills the vines or soon thereafter. Sweet potato roots continue to grow until frost kills the vines. Roots can be left in the ground for a short while; however, a hard frost can cause damage to roots near the surface.
Newly planted sweet potato slips will need to be watered daily during their first week outside. Watering every other day during the second week will help establish plants. Once the plants are established, sweet potatoes can be watered once a week.
Harvest roots as soon as they reach eating size and before a frost. Sweet potatoes generally mature in 85 to 120 days. Check root size after 80 to 85 days because they don't stop growing and can start to split when overgrown.
If the sweet potato vine gets too long, cut it back a few inches to force the vine to get bushier. The tip of the vine that was pinched off can be rooted in water or moist soil. Your sweet potato vines can be planted outside in late May to produce sweet potatoes that can be dug and eaten in the fall.
Is a sweet potato vine an annual or perennial? Hardy in USDA zones 9-11, sweet potato vine is perennial in warmer climates, but is most often grown as an annual.
Sweet potato vines produce tuberous roots. You can save the tubers for the next season. You'll need a box, peat, or vermiculite, and a cool, dry place, such as a basement, crawlspace, or root cellar. Dig up the tubers before the first frost, let them dry.
Application of organic manure such as cow manure will improve the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil that support and facilitate the growth of sweet potatoes, especially the lengthening of sweet potatoes [2].
If the sweet potato vine plant is wilting, that could be a sign that it is under or over-watered. Keep track of how moist the soil is to know the difference before watering the sweet potato vine plant more.
Sweet potato varieties are ready to harvest 95 to 120 days after planting in the garden. When the leaves turn slightly yellow they are usually ready to harvest. Because they have thin skins sweet potatoes are easily damaged during harvest so extra care should be taken.
Now, you can just bury whole sweet potatoes very shallowly if you like, but many gardeners prefer to grow slips from the tubers and then plant the slips. It's easy, fun, and one of the best gardening activities for kids.
Bulging of the soil where the young plants, called slips, were set in the ground is a good indication the roots are ready to dig. Remove a little soil where the roots are forming and if they are grocery store size, the sweet potatoes are ready.
Unlike regular potatoes, you can't just plant a whole sweet potato in the ground and expect a crop; it will rot underground. Sweet potatoes are grown from sweet potato slips. Slips are the stems and foliage that sprout from already grown sweet potatoes. Twist them off the potato, root them in water, then plant them.
The plant reproduces in three ways: from seed, from the actual storage roots, or from the plant vines. Sweetpotato is cultivated by vegetative propagation. Growers take stem cuttings from the vines, which then root and form new storage roots.
Dividing mature sweet potato vines is a great way to get lots of new ones. You can either split up the rootball, or separate the individual tubers that form on mature plants.
One sweet potato, cut in half lengthwise (producing two halves each with a round base) will sprout slips. These roots, once planted in deep trenches or raised rows of soil, will each yield several sweet potatoes.