Today we would like to talk about one of my favorite vegetables and a lot of other peoples favorite vegetables, the great tasting Sweet Potato. It is so delicious and very famous around the holidays, there are so many ways to fix them for the dinner table, we will talk more about that later, but first we would like to tell you all, they are so very easy to grow.
Here are some things you need to know about Sweet Potatoes. You do not buy sweet potatoes seed, there is no sweet potatoes seed. What you will plant is called slips, you will plant slips from the sweet potato, you can grow your own slips indoor. You can go to the store and buy 2 or 3 sweet potatoes and grow your own slips. You can put the sweet potato in jar of water, filled the jar with water, after you put your sweet potato in the jar stick 3 to 4 toothpicks in the sweet potato to hold it up, so the end of the sweet potato is sticking out of the jar. The sweet potato will start to vine, all you have to do is cut the vine about 7 to 8 inches from the sweet potato. The 7 to 8 inches you cut off is called slips, and that is what you plant in the soil to grow your sweet potatoes. You can also plant a sweet potato in a flower pot in potting soil, if you like.
You can save your self a lot of time by going to just about any place that sell plants and seed and buy all the slips you will need at a very low price, that is what we do because we like to Garden The Easy Way!!
How To Plant:
1. Sweet Potatoes like dark rich sandy soil. ( Plant in Full Sun. )
2. Make your rows in a mound, and your rows 3 to 4 feet apart.
3. Plant the slips 14 to 18 inches apart. Plant your slips 1 inch under the soil.
4. Water well after planting, water as needed. Never let the soil dry completely out. 5. Harvest sweet potatoes 4 months or no longer than 5 months.
Warning and Tips:
A. Never try to plant too early, wait until all danger of frost and cold weather has passed. The soil should be good and warm or your slips could die. The soil should be at least 70 degrees.
B. Sweet potatoes love hot weather, and they are eager to grow but you need to water 3 or 4 times a week if you don't get any rain.
C. Harvest your sweet potatoes 1 to 2 weeks before your first frost.
D. Before storing your sweet potatoes, let them dry outside 3 to 4 hours, take a brush and brush all the dirt off the sweet potatoes, then allow them another 11 to 14 days of curing in a warm room with moderate humidity. Then store them in a cool dry place until you need them.
E. Never wash your sweet potatoes before you store them, if they are wet or have any moisture on them they all could go bad.
F. If stored properly sweet potatoes should last 6 to 8 months.
Enjoy your good eating Sweet Potatoes.
Well that's all for today, we hope that we have been some help here today, on Garden The Easy Way. Tomorrow we will like to share some sweet potato recipe with you all, until then Happy Gardening Always from Ken & Marilou.
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