Can I Grow Sweet Potatoes?

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The question, “Can I grow sweet potatoes?” has been directed to me several times this summer. Of course it’s been asked midway through the season, with my only response having to be, “Sure. Next year.”

We Northern gardeners are a patient bunch. We have about 110—maybe more—days in the year that are without frost. This gives us a 10-day cushion for planting, growing, and harvesting sweet potatoes, a crop that loves warm weather and grows in about 100 days from planting.

So, for next year, here’s what you can do:

— Unlike real potatoes, sweet potatoes are planted as a rooted cuttings (not sliced tubers). I’ve seen them at garden centers but not reliably available. You may be able to find some through a mail order source.

— Plant these rooted cuttings in a raised bed, as soil in raised beds warms up in spring sooner than garden soil. This will give you a few extra days or even weeks to extend the season’s growth. To add even more days to the growing season, beginning in May, cover your raised bed soil with black plastic (secure it to the ground so it doesn’t blow away). Let the soil heat up under the plastic for a week or two. Once the danger of frost has passed, plant the rooted cuttings through holes cut into the plastic.

— Speaking of soil, give it a good dose of compost before you plant. And ease back on the nitrogen-heavy fertilizers you may be giving the rest of the garden. This will give you plenty of foliage but will also produce small underground tubers. And you want big ones.

— Sweet potatoes are vines, and vigorous ones at that. Give them plenty of space to grow. This is a good plant with which to actually follow planting directions.

— The rest of the summer is easy. Just give them water—not too little, not too much. About 3-4 weeks before you plan to harvest—let’s say middle to late September, stop watering.

— Leave the tubers in the ground until the first fall frost kills the leaves. Then dig up the tubers and let them sit on the soil in the sun for a day or two to dry. Brush off the soil, wrap individually in newspaper and store in a dark place (a box!) in a warm room for curing (85F). This helps set the potato and makes it last in a cool place (55-60F) for up to a year. That’s right—a full year!

Meet Ellen Wells

When you’re raised on a farm, you can’t help but know a thing or two about gardening. Ellen Wells is our expert on edible gardening.…

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