This video is the best guide to growing sweet potatoes on the internet! I teach you everything you need to know to grow sweet potatoes including how to plant sweet potatoes, what type of soil to grow sweet potatoes in, how to root sweet potato slips and how to fertilize sweet potatoes. These tips will unlock massive harvests of sweet potatoes!
Sweet potatoes are actually not potatoes. They are roots in the morning glory family. Therefore, they grow differently than most plants we grow in our vegetable garden. They tolerate hot, humid, wet conditions where other more fragile, disease prone plants often fail, but sweet potatoes need the right conditions to develop a big root harvest. This video will teach you how to grow sweet potato roots instead of vines for the biggest harvest you’ve ever grown!
How To Grow Sweet Potato Slips: https://youtu.be/0igp5IzO21g?si=1LWU4MmlXTAPl7bx
How To Cure & Store Sweet Potatoes: https://youtu.be/69Nw5JbEle0?si=Z-T_tIFxlu6qAZXB
DIY Garden Teepee: https://youtu.be/Ozcq72RwLgE?si=7XJ5MSF_qthpU-3V
I use the following products* to grow sweet potatoes in my vegetable garden:
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Sweet Potato Growing Tips
1:22 Tip #1: Containers VS Soil
5:09 Tip #2: Sweet Potato Soil Mix
8:05 Tip #3: Rooting Sweet Potato Slips
12:56 Tip #4: Fertilizing Sweet Potatoes
14:42 How To Plant Sweet Potato Slips
19:55 Tip #5: Vine Management
22:19 When To Harvest Sweet Potatoes
25:27 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about how to grow sweet potatoes, 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!
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Miracle-Gro Soluble All Purpose Plant Food https://amzn.to/3qNPkXk
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Miracle-Gro Soluble Tomato Plant Food https://amzn.to/2GDgJ8n
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Japanese Pruning Saw with Blade https://amzn.to/3wjpw6o
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String Trellis Tomato Support Clips https://amzn.to/3wiBjlB
Nylon Mason Line, 500FT https://amzn.to/3wd9cEo
Expandable Vinyl Garden Tape https://amzn.to/3jL7JCI
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Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B
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#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #sweetpotato #sweetpotatoes
43 Comments
If you found this video helpful, please "Like" and share it to help spread its reach! Thanks for watching 😀TIMESTAMPS for convenience:
0:00 Growing Sweet Potatoes
1:22 Tip #1: Containers VS Soil
5:09 Tip #2: Sweet Potato Soil Mix
8:05 Tip #3: Rooting Sweet Potato Slips
12:56 Tip #4: Fertilizing Sweet Potatoes
14:42 How To Plant Sweet Potato Slips
19:55 Tip #5: Vine Management
22:19 When To Harvest Sweet Potatoes
25:27 Adventures With Dale
Florida Gardeners: IT'S MY TIME TO SHINE
I’m going to grow them for the first time this year. Can chickens eat the greens? I know regular potatoes are a no no.
If nitrogen is the enemy of root development, perhaps we can till a small amount of woodchips in the soil? It's known to rob nitrogen. After a year the wood would have broken down and can be used as compost.
N Leaf. P flower. K fruit/root
Does the PH of the water matter?
This is such a good video. I love growing sweet potatoes in grow bags. They take such a long time I don’t have to sacrifice raised bed space for them. Thanks for another great instructional video.
You can add some sawdust into the soil mix, this carbon rich material will help to suppress the nitrogen yet also make the good soil structure for growing sweet potato
This video is amazing! It’s my first time and you’re answering all my questions. Thank you for this!!
The easiest trellis to build is bamboo and the sweet potatoes love it
Grow bags… I also line them with cardboard recycle to retain moisture and help with heat stress during the hottest months. I've found it also extends the life of the grow bag. If I see the cardboard breaking down mid-summer, I just slide new pieces along the outer edges.
Man you talk alot, just show us the hands on material. No one wants to look at you while you talk for 30 minutes straight
So, if I am planting in cardboard boxes, what do I need to mix as the soil? All I have is a small compost pile and black cow
Instead of perlite, can I add toilet paper rolls?
Also, can I use crushed leaves in place of any of the mentioned soil blend?
Any tips for the northern gardener gardeners? I’m in North Idaho. Grow in a green house or maybe some greenhouse plastic over a teepee like yours to keep it warmer and very humid?
It's funny how this Americans telling us how to plant sweet potatoes … in asia they don't even speak English or never been to school they luvebin tge mountains all they do is ti stick the vine into the soil and that's it theyvjust comeback after 99 day-to-day harvest the roots😂😂😂
I live in Northern Idaho and I have a creek in back. Sand creek. Its beautiful white sand so I will transfer some to my garden. Starting my slips now so they will be ready after freezing. Great video! Very informative. Thanks so much 🙏
Rats, mice and voles LOVE SWEET POTATOES ! They feast on mine every year in Virginia… 🙁
Thanks man. I wasn’t sure if I should mound them like potatoes
It’s March 17 2025 today in zone 6a do I have time to get or make some slips to get a harvest of sweet potatoes and what is the variety they sell in the grocery store
I started my sweet potato slips in February and forgot to turn the heating mat off after they sprouted and they're getting huge and vining everywhere. I'm worried they're getting too big and I have 2 more months before they can go outside. I'm in zone 6a
Thanks awesome video.
I liked it sir
Great video!! I bend a box flap of cardboard over my slips for a week and keep it wet. It gives shade from direct sun while boosting ambient humidity.
He is right about nitrogen, it will ruin your crop of roots, though some people eat the leaves. I think it is best to have both roots and a few leaves, but not too lush. I buy high phosphorus and potassium fertilizers which I apply separately and then a low nitrogen fertilizer, which will likely have some P and K but that does not matter, it is very unlikely that you would overdo P or K . My nitrogen fertilizer is mostly organic, with a smigion of inorganic, which works much faster than organic, so a balance of both is suitable. My organic fertilizer is 3.5% nitrogen. A lot of commercial growers are using inorganics of about 5% nitrogen, that is what I used on my last commercial crop.
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I can buy 100# of sweet potatoes for what itll cost to do this.
Could you do one bag with the teepee over the top? Maybe leave one side open for access?
Is it not cheaper to buy the Sweet Potatoes ???
I learn so much from your videos. Thank you!
Cooler master has good AIO but mine lasted about 4-5 years and the fans suck, they were squealing after a couple months
Good video, it shows that you put a lot of work into your content. Living in the "sweet potato capital" area in northeast NC, I have never had much luck growing my own slips and always have to buy them. I always thought best way was to sprout them in water. I am trying your methods this year. Hopefully get a good crop
This is very helpful. I live in Tampa Bay FL and after only a few weeks the sweet potatoes I partly submerged in water, and others in dirt, have already developed slips and roots. Into my soil I mixed goat manure and vegetables, the later which have composted over several months. Will plant the slips directly into the soil this weekend.
Do I still need to use as much fertilizer and bone meal as you suggest here?
You can expect 4 potatoes per slip
Do you have to deal with fire ants? If so, how do you keep them eradicated. They demolished my potato crop last year.
I get that Lowes topsoil and its mostly sand and shredded wood.🤪Check the playsand for gold flakes! What if I leave the slip attached to the little potato left over from pervious year? I'm using the big plastic tubs, drilled 4 holes at bottom for drainage.
Thankyou so much. Have learned so much form you. Excellent video. I see how mine turn out first time for me to try them.
Excellent job explaining everything about sweet potatoes. Many thanks!!!
Gave up waiting for him to get to the point.
Is it more expensive to buy all these products than to just buy sweet potatoes at the store?
Thank you for your excellent videos!
If you plant them in ground, how deep would you need to cultivate the ground?
This is the best and most complete and knowledgeable video I have come across on this topic. Thank you. One comment. We tried cloth grow bags, but the voles easily chewed through the fabric and took up a summer residence in our grow bags. They took bites out of every tuber. This year we are going back to large plastic pots with lots of small drainage holes. It’s key to the drainage to make sure those drainage holes are not blocked, such as setting them on a concrete patio.we set ours on river rock.