spacing sweet potato slips

Errol 3/15/2012, 6:03 am

I have made two beds, 4ft x 12ft 8 inches deep, in which I want to put sweet potatoes when time is right..what I need to find out is how close can I space the slips in eash bed? can I get 2 or 3 rows in each bed? space 12 inches, 18 inches ? how many slips per bed? this is my 1st yr at growing sweet taters and I need some experience help! Smile

The beds have mels mix plus composted horse/cow manure.

Squat_Johnson 3/15/2012, 12:09 pm

Last year I grew 8 sweet potato plants, first time in SFG. I was overwhelmed by how much they overwhelmed my bed. I planted 8 across the back, and carrots in the rest of the bed. Below, the carrots were all harvested, and the potatoes ended up with 90 lbs.

also see this thread:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t2619p75-sweet-potato-question

@Squat_Johnson wrote:

I have 8 Beauregard sweet potato plants that have taken over one of my boxes. They are in a 12"
box and have grown up a 5 ft. trellis and spilled out 4 ft. on both
sides. I dug up a square last month, and was happy with about 3 lbs. of
sweet potatoes.

They turned out to be not so sweet though.

When do I harvest for the best flavor? Will they get sweeter if I wait until cold weather?

littlejo 3/15/2012, 3:07 pm

I think they are supposed to be 12 in apart, but depending on the variety, they may put on under the plant or the roots may travel a ways before getting fat.

Last yr. in a 4x8, I planted a row on the 8ft edge, slips very close together, and just let them go in the whole bed. I got about 50 lbs.

This yr. I'm planting several different varieties so will put each variety in a different bed(6slips each) I guess I'll train up a tomato cage, 1 per ft. Other veggies will be planted in the other squares.

Here is a link to growing guide, and they do sell slips too. Jo

http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/pages/sweetpotato_catalog.html

ericam 3/15/2012, 4:58 pm

Great link littlejo, thanks.

I had to do a few temperature conversions since we use celsius here but otherwise lots of great info.

One of my sweet potatoes in my pantry started sprouting so I'm going to plant the slips as an experiment, from what this guy is saying it's probably the wrong time of year for me and it might not be warm enough but I'm going to give it a go anyway. See what happens...

littlejo 3/15/2012, 5:18 pm

You could maybe plant thru black plastic to keep the ground warmer?

Good luck!

Jo

ericam 3/15/2012, 6:48 pm

I think they'll be all right to start with as we're averaging highs around 25 C (75-80F) in the daytime at the moment. Growth might just slow down as the temps drop but even still we don't often get below 5-10C (40-50F) in winter so a very temperate climate here.

Doesn't matter, I have a spare pot and even if it doesn't work I'll still have learnt something...even if it's what NOT to do! Wink

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