How to Plant Sweet Potatoes

You can plant sweet potatoes in just about any sun-exposed soil. Sweet potatoes are dicots and require a long, warm growing season. Sweet potatoes are typically grown by planting a sprout from an aged sweet potato. These potato sprouts are also called, and sold as, sweet potato slips.

Things You'll Need
Sweet potato sprouts
Shovel
Garden

Instructions

1. A month before your last frost, buy several sweet potatoes from your local grocery store. Fill a gardening pot with sand, and bury the potatoes so that they are covered with about an inch of sand. Position the pot near a window so it receives sun, and keep the sand moist.

2. After a few weeks, the sweet potatoes will have little vine-like sprouts growing out of the eyes located all over the potato. When these sprouts reach about 6 inches long, cut the potato into sections so that each sprout retains a chuck of the potato from which it emerges. These are your slips.

3. Dig rows in your garden 3 feet apart and about 4 inches deep. Plant the sweet potato slips every 15 inches and bury them completely. Cover the rows with black mulch or plastic to attract heat, which sweet potatoes need to grow. Don't plant the slips until the ground is at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit and there is no chance of frost.

4. Harvest the sweet potatoes in three to four months or before the first frost. Gently dig around each plant and pull out all the sweet potatoes. Allow the sweet potatoes to cure in a humid, warm area for two weeks. Store the sweet potatoes for up to a year in a cool, dry area.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_6024400_plant-sweet-potatoes.html

Sweet Potato Plants

Sweet potatoes thrive in the warm weather of the southern United States. The tubers and the sweet potato shoots are edible. Sweet potatoes are a good source of fiber and vitamins A and C.The vines grow along the surface of the soil, while tubers develop from the roots below ground.

Varieties
Edible sweet potato varieties include the popular orange-fleshed varieties, as well as yellow and white tubers. Yellow and orange sweet potatoes are grown as eating varieties. The white tubers are mainly grown as ornamental vines for use as ground cover, or as a hanging or trailing container plant. Ornamental tubers are edible, but not considered tasty.

Planting
Transplant sweet potato slips when the sun warms the soil in the spring. In cooler climates, cover the row with black plastic to keep the soil warm. Plant the slips 12 to 18 inches apart on raised rows spaced 3 feet apart. Sweet potatoes take 100 to 120 days to grow to maturity. Water them once or twice a week during dry weather for the first 10 weeks. Give them enough water to keep the soil from drying out, but do not allow it to become soggy. For the last three to four weeks before harvest, withhold water to harden the tubers for harvesting.

Harvest
Dig a few tubers, for immediate use as needed, in late fall. Harvest the rest of the crop in the fall just before the first frost occurs or when the leaves begin to turn yellow. Dig the tubers with a shovel or spading fork, digging around the outside and under the roots to avoid cutting or bruising the roots. Allow the roots to dry on the ground for two to three hours during dry weather, then finish curing them in a warm, humid space for approximately two weeks. Store the tubers in a cool location for up to 10 months.

Sweet Potatoes vs. Yams
Sweet potatoes are actually a different plant than yams, but the terms are used interchangeably in the southern United States. Yams are the edible root of the Dioscorea species that originated in West Africa and Asia. Sweet Potatoes are from the Ipomoea batatas plant. They originated in Peru and Ecuador..