Here you’ll learn how to grow sweet potato at home, with minimal fuss. Sweet potato is one of those foods that most people will enjoy as an alternative to the plain old spud or white potato. I love to mix a couple of sweet potato tubers up with white potato for a delicious mash, and sometimes roast them with carrot, onion and pumpkin. You can bake or microwave them whole, split them and stuff with grated cheese, bacon, coleslaw, tuna or baked beans for a delicious lunch or side dish. And as a main ingredient in my creamy veggie soup, it is truly a versatile staple in our kitchen cupboard.
Originally cultivated in Peru or South America several thousand years ago it was brought back to Europe by Christopher Columbus, and it has since spread around the world. It is pretty easy to grow, especially in a tropical climate as it loves to climb and spread out like a ground cover. While the tubers are a delicious and starchy food the leaves are also apparently eaten like spinach (though I have yet to try that)
I first tried growing sweet potatoes after some of my cupboard stored tubers sprouted shoots. They were randomly planted out in my garden bed with some success, but I’ve since learned a thing or two to help improve my crop and yield.
Learn how to grow sweet potato yourself at home with this simple “How to” guide.
Getting started
I prefer to grow sweet potatoes in a raised garden bed with soil that is from 50cm – 100cm deep. If you have sides that are slightly higher than the soil level, it will help to contain the plant from growing over the ground and becoming a nuisance. We have some pretty dangerous snakes in our neck of the woods, so I like to keep climbing plants and vines like this off the ground so there’s less places for them to hide. Yes snakes are wonderful creatures and part of the ecosystem but I’d prefer they didn’t bite my dogs or myself for that matter.
A trellis is a great way to help the plants grow up instead of down so I would use one of these too to keep the plant controlled and tidy. It will naturally grow up, over and around anything in its path, so a trellis is perfect. It can be as complex as a store-bought trellis or as simple as some posts with chicken wire attached, or an old wooden bed frame or steel mesh.
Soil
Soil should be loose, pliable and able to hold some moisture but still drain. A good quality garden soil that has some sand in it mixed with plenty of organic mulch is ideal. Stay away from clay type soils as this will hold the moisture and rot your sweet potato tubers in wet weather or if you over water them. You can improve clay soil however by digging in plenty of sandy loam and organic mulch or straw.
Top the soil with a quality natural fertilizer like Blood and Bone, Dynamic lifter (pelletized chicken manure), or mushroom compost. Dig it into the top layer of soil by about 10 -20cm. Once you’ve dug it in water it well help dissolve the fertilizer so the plant roots wont burn once you’ve planted them.
Sweet potato Tubers
To easily grow sweet potato at home you can either plant the tubers whole however a better way that will give more crop is to grow them from slips. What’s a slip you ask?…. well simply cut your sweet potato in half, place the halves in a tray with a little water and wait for 3-4 weeks, watering every day so it doesn’t dry out. In a few weeks some sprout will shoot out from grow points on the sweet potatoes……These are slips and they’re not ready just yet.
Snap the slips gently off the potato and put them end first in a small jar of water. After a week or two roots will form on the shoots. Once they have plenty of roots the slips are ready to be planted out.
Planting
Spring is the perfect time to plant sweet potato as they’ll love the warmer temperatures. Plant the slips to the top of the roots about 30 cm or so apart. You can plant them beside the trellis but if you’ve put them in a raised garden bed with higher sides they’ll grow in a crisscross, hectic fashion and find their way to the trellis. If they start to grow out of the bed gently turn them back on themselves to keep it all tidy and off the ground. Mulch well with straw, sugar mulch or other mulch to suppress the weeds and keep moisture in.
Water the plants, making sure the water gets through the mulch or straw to the plant roots. Water them at least every 2-3 days for the first week until the plants get established and about once a week after that. If it’s been raining a lot, then just leave them alone.
Harvesting
Once the leaves start to turn yellow and the vine begins to die back they are mature and hopefully big. It’ll take anywhere from 3-5 months or 12- 20 weeks, depending on your climate. Simply pull out the vines and gently turn over the soil with a spade.
Storing
Brush the dirt off the sweet potatoes and let them dry a little in a cool airy spot outside to help them seal off before storing. Keep them in a cool, dry cupboard or basket with plenty of air flow for several weeks or they can be baked, roasted, boiled or mashed before freezing.
