During the holidays, vegetables we are hardly aware of during the rest of the year, suddenly put in an appearance. Despite all the PR about the health benefits of the sweet potato, except for sweet potato pie and the occasional menu with sweet potato fries, many of us never give this vegetable a second thought. We certainly don't grow it very often up north.
Sweet potato season may be November and December, but did you ever think of growing your own sweet potatoes and having a few baby sweet potatoes to snack on in early fall? Or harvesting sweet potato greens all summer? It's true that sweet potatoes need a fairly long growing season and a good amount of space, but I've grown quite a few in a limited area, in USDA Zone 5b. You could even grow them in a large container. This year mine took on some odd shapes, as you can see, but they still taste great. And the best part of having your own supply of sweet potatoes is experimenting with them...
- Sweet Potato Patties
- Kurikinton Recipe (Japanese New Year Food)
- Caribbean Spiced Sweet Potatoes
- Vegan Pralined Sweet Potatoes
Photo © Marie Iannotti
Comments
I grew up eating the REAL sweet potatoes from my grandmother’s garden. My favorites!
Great info in your article!
Cameron
I’m supposed to be a gardening expert yet i have always called yams sweet potatoes.I know they are not the same but it has been stuck in my head since child hood.
Sort of fits in with your other article on botanical names.Common names can be confusing.
I planted sweet potatoes from slips for the fiirst time this year. Easy enough to do- but when do I know they are ready for harvest? Are they the same as potatoes in that respect?
Rob, they are a lot like harvesting regular potatoes, except they take longer to mature. If you eat the greens, you can snip them at any time during the summer.
By late summer, you can start taking a few tubers from the edges of the bed. They may not be as large as they’ll get, but they’ll be good.
Harvest the whole crop when a frost is expected or when the tops start to die back. Once the leaves are damaged, the tubers will start to go downhill.
Ms Iannotti, please describe how to grow sweet potatoes in zone 5b as I’ve tried and failed. I’m trying to grow as much of my own food as possible and sweet potatoes are important to my diet. Thanks so much.
I too have tried to grow them, 2 years now, in zone 5b.
First year, with lots of compost, and got 2 carrot size sweet potatoes.
This year i put them in poor soil in garbage cans that got
full afternoon sun, and got nothing, but lots of roots.
What was I doing wrong! I was expecting a couple of bushels worth….
PatsyII and lindamh, I was inspired to try growing sweet potatoes when I read the sweet potato growing information in the Sand Hill Preservation Center catalog. He’s growing them in zone 4B! He said the most important component is how much warmth they get. I won’t go into it here, since you can read his article with the link above. But in a summer with 90 degree days, you could have sweet potatoes in less than 2 months.
Since we rarely get ideal conditions, you might need to give your plants some protection. Other than heat, the 3 keys to success were:
1- Pick a variety that matures in 90-95 days. I usually grow ‘Georgia Jet’. Tainung 65′, ‘O’Henry’ and ‘Korean Purple’ are also good.
2- Start with slips that have just begun to grow roots. They establish themselves faster than slips with lots of roots.
3. Wait until the soil is really warm before you plant them, at least 70 degrees F. He plants in early July. I’m in zone 5b/6a and I plant in mid- to late June.
4. Keep them well watered, but not wet, and go easy on the fertilizer. They will get very leafy with excessive fertilizer. Better to add some compost at planting time.
Try it, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.