In this video, I share the most mindblowing sweet potato harvest I’ve ever had! The trick to growing sweet potatoes is to grow them in poor soil and to avoid high nitrogen fertilizers. Rich soil, compost and fertilizer will grow sweet potato vines, but you’ll have poor sweet potato development. Sweet potato plants thrive on neglect, and these sweet potato growing tips gave me the biggest harvest ever! Watch how I did it:
How To Grow Sweet Potatoes In Containers: https://youtu.be/4sd7rAnA_eg?si=YA_Oc5yFNgvEFfvL
How To Cure And Store Sweet Potatoes: https://youtu.be/69Nw5JbEle0?si=pPGOI9JFYfqkP4iG
The following products* will help you grow big sweet potatoes and store them all winter:
Grow Bags (Many Sizes): https://amzn.to/4edtcwr
Weatherproof Tarps (Many Sizes): https://amzn.to/3Ao6t36
Perlite (Coarse): https://amzn.to/3UAwjb2
Coco Coir (2.5 Cu. Ft.): https://amzn.to/40yxGuu
True Organic All Purpose Fertilizer (4lbs): https://amzn.to/40osSrt
Jobe’s Organic Vegetable Fertilizer (4lbs): https://amzn.to/45YHmh2
Espoma Bone Meal (10lb): https://amzn.to/3X9s88a
Seedling Heat Mat & Thermostat Package: https://amzn.to/3UzYxCG
Seedling Heat Mat 48″x20.75″: https://amzn.to/48AUkof
Seedling Heat Mat Thermostat: https://amzn.to/3YMR5Xo
105 QT Clear Storage Bin w/Lid: https://amzn.to/3YNpeX5
Weed Barrier (Many Sizes): https://amzn.to/4ekxaU1
Full Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 The Sweet Potato Growing Experiment
1:18 The Secret To Growing Lots Of Sweet Potatoes
3:49 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Containers
6:28 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Raised Beds
9:49 My Biggest Sweet Potato Harvest Ever
10:42 Curing Sweet Potatoes For Storage
12:49 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about how to grow sweet potatoes in containers or in ground, have questions about growing fruit trees or want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
***********************************
VISIT MY AMAZON STOREFRONT FOR PRODUCTS I USE MOST OFTEN IN MY GARDEN*
https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener
***********************************
VISIT MY MERCHANDISE STORE
https://shop.spreadshirt.com/themillennialgardener
***********************************
SUPPORT MY SECOND CHANNEL!
https://www.youtube.com/c/2MinuteGardenTips
***********************************
SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow Me on TWITTER (@NCGardening) https://twitter.com/NCGardening
Follow Me on INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/millennialgardener/
***********************************
ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B
***********************************
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
© The Millennial Gardener
#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #sweetpotato #sweetpotatoes
49 Comments
If you enjoyed this video, please LIKE it and share it to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 🙂TIMESTAMPS here:
0:00 The Sweet Potato Growing Experiment
1:18 The Secret To Growing Lots Of Sweet Potatoes
3:49 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Containers
6:28 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Raised Beds
9:49 My Biggest Sweet Potato Harvest Ever
10:42 Curing Sweet Potatoes For Storage
12:49 Adventures With Dale
Another great video.
Great video. Side note. Purple sweet potato greens are edible and sold in Asian markets. The are a staple in many African countries as well.
Yeah….Compost. That's what did me in. I'll be better prepared next year. Congratulations on the amazing haul!
Your theory makes the Matt Damon movie The Martian more realistic. He was trapped on Mars and grew potatoes from sand and his own feces.
Dale is so cute and listens so well!I can’t wait to grow sweet potatoes next year! Your harvest was huge. I’m going to follow your instructions and buy the items you pinned.
I have to rethink my tuber growing strategy, mice chewed through my grow bags and ate all the sweet potatoes of decent size and did the same with a bag of regular potatoes as well, along with my carrots…
We needed to move the sweet potatoes to in ground beds because they were taking over the walkways in the raised bed garden. It was a good move! I sprouted the purple potatoes from an Asian market and used the runts from last year’s traditional types as well. I also just threw last year’s leftover tiny tubers in the ground and got a ton in return! I created a deep mulch bed and used triple phosphate fertilizer at planting of the sprouted slips, plus wood ash was sprinkled there too. They could be bigger, but I’m thrilled with the size of the harvest, especially for how low maintenance they were. The soil is still very rough clay, so I’m going to mix in the chopped vines and some leaf mold, along with bone meal, more wood ash plus mulch, just so the soil can loosen up and allow for more growth and easier harvesting. But there were lots of tiny guys left behind so I’m really hoping for volunteers nest year!
PS Did you rinse the tubers before curing?
I got enough sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, which is more than I have gotten in the past. I will add sand to the soil in their tub. What was the other stuff to add?
(One person I know gets FOOTBALL sized sweet potatoes, and one of them makes a whole pan of candied sweet potatoes…) Not sure how he does it, because it did not work for us.
How many slips did you use per 25 gallon grow bag?
Oh my! That’s a ton of sweet potatoes. Did I ever make a mistake with my sweet potatoes this year. In a grow bag, I planted a single sweet potato in all compost soil. It grew beautifully. About a week ago, I decided to dig up what I thought was going to be a great harvest. Just like you said, I had one sweet potato and about 25 sprouts. I was so disappointed. I do have a question. Now that I know what to do , can I replant the sprouts? They are currently just in my garage. If so, should I dump the compost soil back in the compost bin and add the new mixture to the bag and replant them now and keep them in the garage or will they keep until the spring out of soil. I guess my question is how to store them or even if I can store theme. I live in southeast PA. I don’t know what I didn’t watch how to plant them before I tried. I do subscribe to your channel because you always give great advice.
On another note, I pruned my fig tree the way you suggested and I got a ton of figs this year. Thanks for that video, you’re the best.
Dale is such a good boy!❤️
Wish we got rains here. In California they'd just fry in the sun
Thank you for such a great video. Are you able to advise how long a summer you have and how hot? We are in Marlborough NZ, and have very hot summers but they are shortish. I was unsuccessful with Kumara last year but I grew melons, which makes me still think I should be able to grow kumara. I've done a lot more research this year 🙂
Why did you put a jar with water in the middle of the tub with your sweet potatoes please. Cheers Denise- Australia
Thanks for info. I would have liked to know the comparison : growing size area/volume of the ground grown sw.potatoes with its yield in weight
compared to/versusthe grow pots total growing area/volume and its yield. Great videos!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🎉🎉I missed the size of bag you were using. I had some 7 gallon bags and was struggling to haul those around. It looks like 25-gallon bags will hold up to 300 pounds! of soil, so I don't know if I'll go that route.
Out of 4 bags, this year, I got about as many sweet potatoes, as one of your 25-gallon bags.
Looking forward to trying my hand at potatoes and sweet potatoes next year. Thank you for the tips.
Do you eat all of them?
Anthony, same! After a pitiful harvest a year ago, I took your advice and ignored my sweet potatoes this year. Best harvest I’ve had! Thanks for the advice. I would never have figured that one out on my own 😊
Even with a screen on top, the Iguanas eat some of the leaves. I don't think I'll get much💔
Certain plants do better in ground left to their own devices 😁. I’m a lazy gardner so this is encouraging lol.
First year growing sweet potatoes got some good size ones, but I also have a lot of small 2 to 3 inch size ones. If I go ahead and replant the smaller ones will they just come back in the spring? I’m in zone 7a Virginia mountains.
Don't be afraid to eat the leaves either. Make salads out of them.
Great video! I now need to find room to grow sweet potatoes. lol I have a question Anthony. The raised bed you had that was neglected for 2 years, produced more sweet potatoes. You picked them now, and now will it grow more next year? Maybe not as much as this year? I'd be curious how long that happens for. Super cool to know.
Sweet potato leaves are really tasty cooked with some garlic and oil! So even if you get foliage, its still useful!
You seem to be back to your old self Love it, also I only planted 2 slips didn't pay too much attention to and got about 15 lbs approximately 11 jumbo a couple of medium sized ones, just enough to eat in a few months. Im glad you had success …sending a hug and kiss greetings to your family.
Was waiting for this! Thx so much! My sweet potato vines are growing like wild fire. This is my first time so I’m praying for at least a couple for now 😅
Where did you get Okinawan slips? I could NOT start them from the "Hawaiian" tubers I bought. I even bought one with tiny sprouts and it wouldn't grow.
I’m in FL and I just started harvesting mine. I grow mine in 25 gallon grow bags and I added some of my native sandy soil to the bags, along with the potting mix I used. And I added bone meal and a small amount of blood, and fertilizer. I harvested some nice ones from the bags I’ve checked so far, a big bowl full. I still have some to finish harvest now that I can get to them from under where the fence fell in Milton! But I can see them popping up out of the top. I had a few I put in kind of late that didn’t yield much, but I cut slips from the vine that I’m going to save and plant in feb/march. I don’t get a freeze here. But I will reuse the grow bags in a week or 2 to plant my regular potatoes. We harvest those pretty early, so just in time to start the sweet potatoes again in them. I just rotate between the two.
My grow bags hardly produced any sweet potatoes. My raised beds produced a nice crop. At least the deer enjoyed the vines from the grow bag.
This year we hade 5 kg of sweet potato from ground, but a little from a little pot. Next year i want to dedicate a lot bigger place for our sweet potato, the goal is 40 kg.
First year growing sweet potatoes had a relatively decent harvest with several large tubers. I also had several very small tubers 2 to 3 inches and maybe an inch in
diameter. Can I replant those in the ground and will they come up next spring? I live in zone 7a in VA mountains
This is encouraging! I only planted a small section of sweet potatoes in hard soil. I was pleasantly surprised at my results. I plan to do an entire bed next year.
Love you channel I have a quick question I live in South Carolina zone 8a and wondering when I should prune my orange,lime and lemon trees any instructions would be greatly appreciated thank you and have a blessed day
just an excellent video. will follow your instructions completely. the key will be neglect lol. looking forward to a great harvest. Love the Okinawan
I'm not joking when I say I have a binder of notes taken from your videos for each fruit/vegetable you've featured. Hopefully, when I can garden next Spring, my garden will be half as impressive as yours.
Also, LOVE murasaki sweet potatoes. They make better fries than standard sweet potatoes, and I can semi-trick my husband into eating them b/c they're white inside (he claimed he wasn't a sweet potato person, but I think he was just used to them being prepared in very sweet ways). As always, great vid!
Its one of them moments that you ask yourself "shit, now if I maybe DID do something to the free bed, could I have gotten EVEN more?" Then the following year you do too much and ruin it all 😂 i seriously need to plant some out now, I keep hearing they're meant to be much easier than potatoes and I think this has really shown me why haha
That's what I love about gardening too – every season there are a few surprises…and it's a bonus when they are good surprises! 🙂
Have you ever planted in prepped straw bales (prepped as in pre conditioned with nitrogen to break down a bit) I’d be interested in your thoughts on this if you have.
Great info
Thanks for your videos Anthony..I am glad you do the experiment and that helps me.
Was a good year for sweet potatoes, ended up with 186 pounds, with one raised bed left to harvest..
Just harvested my sweet potatoes here in South Central PA (zone 6) and it was a $27 investment and its was absolutely dismal 🥴 hopefully I learn what I did wrong after watching this video 🤞🏻
I so enjoy your videos and have learned a tremendous amount from you! First year with a big garden and I considered it successful due to what I had learned from your videos. Please keep them up. Sweet potatoes will definitely be tried next year.
Yes, you should continue making videos! You are awesome at it! I have learned so much from you!
All those sweet potato greens are just as good as spinach. I blanch and freeze them when I harvest the roots. Great harvest btw!
I spent $6 for 2 lbs of local, organic sweet potatoes back in March, grew 60+ slips, in May I planted 5 slips per 25 gallon grow bag, 9 grow bags total, mixed in some organic granular fertilizer (lower in N, higher in P & K) and compost, set a soaker hose on a timer, and harvested 55 lbs in October! First time, they did great, thanks to all the videos I watched back in the winter, including yours. But I plan to reduce nitrogen even more next year to see if they do even better. Thank you, and nice harvest!!
This tip is great for me. Plan on doing what you recommend! Thanks