sweet potatoes

I am wanting to raise some sweet potatoes this year. I do have some SF garden boxes that I raise other veggies. Has anyone grown sweet potatoes in a SF garden? I also intend to grow my own "slips". I have never grown sweet potatoes before. Is there a certain depth? I figure sometime in may would be the time to set out the slips.

thanks

Errol:)

I had great success last year, here is my blog post. http://digginwithdixie.blogspot.com/2011/10/sweet-success.html

Don't plant them til the soil has warmed.
Plant straight down for large potatoes, at an angle for longer, more slender ones.
I really don't recall how deep I planted them, but I don't think it was extra deep.

The foilage is beautiful but vigorous, so I had to trim the vines. I watered when they got droopy through the summer, but as my mom said, "September rain is what makes the sweet potatoes". I watered extra during Sept & got a good harvest.

Do a forum search & you will find several posts.

Good info on curing the harvest
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/crops_livestock/crops/sweet_potatoes/LSU+AgCenter+Horticulturist+Discusses+Curing+and+Storing+Sweet+Potatoes.htmhttp://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/crops_livestock/crops/sweet_potatoes/LSU+AgCenter+Horticulturist+Discusses+Curing+and+Storing+Sweet+Potatoes.htm

Where did everyone get their sweet potato starts? I have never planted them myself and want to. I am going to be making up my list (checking it twice) and I have a couple catalogs here will be going through them. My main online seed store didnt have them, so onto the catalogs.
Ha-v-v

I used sweet taters from the grocery store. Look for ones with lots of eyes. I use a wide mouth jar, put the potato in & fill jar 3/4 or more with water, replenish as needed. It takes a long time for sprouts to appear, but when they do, break them off & put in MM. Leave the mama potato in the jar & more will appear.

dixie wrote:I used sweet taters from the grocery store. Look for ones with lots of eyes. I use a wide mouth jar, put the potato in & fill jar 3/4 or more with water, replenish as needed. It takes a long time for sprouts to appear, but when they do, break them off & put in MM. Leave the mama potato in the jar & more will appear.

Oh good thank you Dixie, I was just going over previous posts on the forum looking When you say long time to sprout? How long is long Sprouts, do you mean cut the thing growing from the eye? Or like a regular potato (well maybe not if you leave the mama in) .

Here is one thread about sweet potatoes I found so far
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t7644-considering-sweet-potatoes

Ha-v-v

I'm not good at descriptions, but here is a link I found with good pics. I usually wait until mine have a few roots, then just kind of snap them off the mama with my thumb & repot.

I'm in the mid south & normally would be starting my jars soon since store bought potatoes are usually treated to hinder sprouting & takes a while for them to start. (Mine from this year's crop are sprouting in the cool basement on a shelf already.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23380146@N08/3105792456/in/photostream/

dixie wrote:I'm not good at descriptions, but here is a link I found with good pics. I usually wait until mine have a few roots, then just kind of snap them off the mama with my thumb & repot.

I'm in the mid south & normally would be starting my jars soon since store bought potatoes are usually treated to hinder sprouting & takes a while for them to start. (Mine from this year's crop are sprouting in the cool basement on a shelf already.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23380146@N08/3105792456/in/photostream/

Thats amazing thank you !

I grew my slips from a store bought sw. potato, which I put in a pot of soil, just picking off the slips as they got to about 6 in. If you cannot grow enough slips to suit ya, you can also cut the stem of a plant that is growing, and put the stem in your MM square,and it will root and grow you some more potatoes.

I've included a link where you can order slips from all varieties of sw. pot., but there is a good write-up on growing sw. potatoes, some good tips.

Jo



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