Have you ever wondered what’s better, growing sweet potatoes in raised garden beds or growing sweet potatoes in containers? This video answers that question. I grew sweet potatoes in containers and in garden beds and compared the results of the sweet potato harvest. The results were surprising and will forever change how I grow sweet potatoes.
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How To Grow Sweet Potatoes From Slips: https://youtu.be/0igp5IzO21g?si=iFpwd13DOj0bNJn1
How To Cure And Store Sweet Potatoes: https://youtu.be/69Nw5JbEle0?si=1cAPbQzgSLHJNY7d
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Intro To Growing Sweet Potatoes
1:02 Compost: Sweet Potato’s Enemy
3:20 Container Grown Sweet Potato Tips
4:01 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Containers
6:07 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Raised Beds
7:42 Containers VS Raised Beds Results
9:29 Sweet Potato Growing Conclusions
12:42 Curing And Storing Sweet Potatoes
14:05 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about maximizing sweet potato production, 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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#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #sweetpotato #sweetpotatoes
25 Comments
If you enjoyed this video, please “Like” and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊TIMESTAMPS here:
0:00 Intro To Growing Sweet Potatoes
1:02 Compost: Sweet Potato's Enemy
3:20 Container Grown Sweet Potato Tips
4:01 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Containers
6:07 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Raised Beds
7:42 Containers VS Raised Beds Results
9:29 Sweet Potato Growing Conclusions
12:42 Curing And Storing Sweet Potatoes
14:05 Adventures With Dale
How do you use your sweet potatoes? You should do some cooking videos using your harvests 🙂
I WOULD SO BUY MILLENNIAL GARDEN SLEEVES. You are the reason that my garden has been so wonderful. I thank you every time I go out to it.
And btw, I love those sleeves. I have two pair but millennial gardener sleeves, oh yeah baby. Lol
Check out a kale and roasted sweet potato salad with cranberries and pecans from Natasha’s kitchen. I think you will love it
please learn to differentiate between raw compostable materials and finished compost. properly finished compost will have used up all the nitrogen breaking down the woody material that should have been in the compost.
An occasional scattering of blood meal and bone meal..all done. I had an incredible haul from only 4 plants following a tip from an old grandma farmer..when you plant your slips mix in blood meal and bone meal in the hole and forget about it. Just water the crap out of it.
Do you know how large your lot is? We also have a large neighborhood lot but have over 30 trees and two slopes. If I thought we were staying, I would cut trees and terrace for beds.
Yes to the gardening sleeves!
I grow my sweet potatoes in the ground, in clay soil. They grow great in clay, but digging them can be tough. The harvest was 256 lbs this year, and about half that came from a single 25' row with trellised plants (the vines have to be trained to climb a trellis, but it saves a lot of space). Lots of roots in the 3-5 lb range. Curing helps develop sweetness quickly after harvest, but they do sweeten up slowly in storage anyway. Curing is not necessary for storage, in my experience. Mine keep for about a year without it. I don't cure, as I prefer the roots to be less sweet.
I generally dont fertilise anything. I give them compost but thats about it. As for sweet potatoes, this is my first year doing it and they came out pretty well. I will do what you suggested and add more peat, because the soil did compact more than i liked.
I also grew in containers so i could see exactly how many i got, and found they will produce way down up to two and half feet.
Ome final suggestion, i think this is a plant that doesnt like being babied. Some plants are like that where stress causes them to produce better because it caused them to feel like hard times are coming so they focus on producing fruit, seed, or their energy storing tubers.
👍
Your videos are the best, thank you for sharing.
Sweet potatoes and their leaves are the best for people with diabetes.
I cut the young leaves, put them into boiled water and take out immediately, then stir fry with garlic and some salt and serve.
In cutting away the excessive leaves the tubes will grow better I believe.
Also one advantage with containers we can bring some inside to have the vines for planting in the spring.
Thank you for the very informative video. Dogs are the best…just saying 😊
Sweet video ! My raised bed sweet potatoes looked more like your container grown, big deference is my beds are 30" tall and I filled them with logs and soil from my forest area full of NC sand and clay.
How do you think sweet potatoes will grow in New York? I want to try next year.
Thank you for the heads up! I tried sweet potatoes in a bed with little production. Your channel is the best!
I think you’re spot on about the root restriction effect. I’m shocked by your haul – I got at least 2x the amount from the bed in mine that’s 1/3 of the size.
I started your heat mat cure method today but wondering – your potatoes look like they’re in about a single layer – can you cure with more in the box? Or will it cause them to rot? I hadn’t thought I’d get nearly so many and only purchased one heat mat controller. Wondering if I need to get another to spread them out a bit more…
I did not know the roots are invasive. I'm so happy I heard your video before trying to plant sweet potatoes!
Yep, I put them in a new bed with new soil mix. Aka lots of compost. The vines grew like kudzu. I got about 15 pounds in a 4 foot square bed. Not awesome. I did better in the grow bags. Thanks for the great video. 🎉🎉 Ps also yes to the sleeves.
My (2) 4 x 4 raised beds are looking great vine wise. And of course are spreading. I did not fertilize hardly at all but did water pretty regularly, hot summer as you know. Will report when I dig them up, maybe this weekend. question, are the vines and leaves ood for composting? My other potatoes in the containers always do well, and yes harvesting is much easier.
Wondering how many sweet potatoe slips did you put in your 20 gallon bags. Great info, thanks
Also thought of 2 other reasons why your sweet potato in your raised bed didnt do so well. It came to me as i picked my sweet potatoes today. Firstly, did you cover the ground in the raised bed? If the vines of the plant had touched the soil, it possibly re rooted. So the plant spent energy producing another root system, instead of concentrating on developing the one it already had into tubers. Secondly, how dense is the soil? Sweet potato like loose soil to allow the tubers to develop. If the soil is tight, they will not form and if they do, wont get big. And if they get big, they'll be slightly deformed. These 2 reasons may have contributed to your low yield from the raised beds
Maybe if you left the raised bed potatoes in the ground longer, they would have gotten bigger? I also read somewhere that if you keep the vines short, the tuber will grow bigger? I'm growing sweet potatoes for the first time this year in a raised bed. I didn't use any fertilizer hope they come out okay.
Awesome video great information. How much slips did you put in each bag.
Very helpful and informative, I grow sweet potatoes every year and have healthy vines but few potatoes, now I know why, Thank You