Sweet Potatoes

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Temperature

  • Cannot handle cold
  • Can handle hot
  • Around 60 degrees fahrenhait ideal

Sunlight

  • Ideally in full sun

Water

  • During the first 2 weeks after planting, spray each plant with 10 seconds of water from a garden hose (1/2 diameter) at 50psi or equivalent volume of water.
  • After the first 2 weeks, spray each plant similarly as before but once a week if the weather has been dry.

Planting Timing

  • Plant after any risk of frost.
  • Planting with frost coming later is situationally ok because the water inside a grown sweet potato causes a moderating effect that enables the plant to last in the cold longer than it would normally as a new split.
  • Beauregard sweet potatoes are harvest-ready in 90 days.
  • Centennial sweet potatoes are harvest-ready in 100 days.

Planting Material

  • Sweet potatoes grow from splits, thin root-like things.
  • If you cut a sweet potato in half then submerge it in water, the splits will grow.

Spacing

  • Plant sweet potatoes 2-4 inches below the topsoil surface
  • Plant sweet potatoes 12-18 inches apart in rows
  • Plant the rows at least 2-3 ft apart

How to Plant

  • Till the ground to loosen the soil
  • Make holes in the soil in rows and put the splits into them
  • Cover the holes with soil and lightly tamp them