NOTE: This applies to those of us in warm climates. For those in harsher environments, you might have to wait a few months! I usually start about 2 months before planting out time.
For many of us, it's time to start your sweet potatoes. Yes, sweet potatoes like warm loose soil, but it takes a couple of months to get them ready to plant out so start now!
Get yourself a couple of good firm, unblemished, mature sweet potatoes and give them a good washing. Next, find a glass for each one and stick 3 or 4 toothpicks into the potato to suspend it vertically in the glass. (I like to have about 1/3 of the spud above the rim of the glass)
Now fill the glass with regular old water until about half of it is covered and put the glass on your kitchen windowsill. In a few days to a week you will start to see roots form. Top off the water as needed, and change it once a week or so. If you see any rot, either discard that potato or just cut the rot out.
You will soon see sprouts coming off the top. Once these slips get to be 5" or 6" long, twist them off and put them in another glass so the bottom 2 inches or so are covered with water. They will root, and once the roots are a couple of inches long, you can transplant them into flats or (if the soil is warm) right into your garden. One sweet potato can produce as many as 50 slips!
The main thing sweet potatoes need (or any root crop, for that matter) is good loose, fluffy soil. They can't expand into yummy goodness in hard soil!
I usually turn the bed in the fall. In early spring, I "solarize" the bed by covering it with a clear plastic drop cloth. This acts like a mini greenhouse to warm the soil earlier. Once it warms up a bit, I pull back the plastic, water it good, then replace the plastic.
This will sprout most of the weed seed. The plastic blocks any further water from getting to the plants, and it gets hot under there, so the weeds quickly wither and die. Once the weeds die, remove and store the plastic for another time. This will drastically reduce the amount of weeding I have to do for the season and the warmer soil can give the garden a few weeks head start.
Sweet potatoes need quite a bit of room. I usually plant two rows in a 4' wide raised bed, with about 18" between plants. They grow fast and the vines try to escape the beds, but they don't run all that fast so it's easy to just put them back where they belong.
You can expect to get a LOT of sweet potatoes from one bed 4' wide and 10' long. I mean more than a wheelbarrow full. They store well, so there's no such thing as too many!
For many of us, it's time to start your sweet potatoes. Yes, sweet potatoes like warm loose soil, but it takes a couple of months to get them ready to plant out so start now!
Get yourself a couple of good firm, unblemished, mature sweet potatoes and give them a good washing. Next, find a glass for each one and stick 3 or 4 toothpicks into the potato to suspend it vertically in the glass. (I like to have about 1/3 of the spud above the rim of the glass)
Now fill the glass with regular old water until about half of it is covered and put the glass on your kitchen windowsill. In a few days to a week you will start to see roots form. Top off the water as needed, and change it once a week or so. If you see any rot, either discard that potato or just cut the rot out.
You will soon see sprouts coming off the top. Once these slips get to be 5" or 6" long, twist them off and put them in another glass so the bottom 2 inches or so are covered with water. They will root, and once the roots are a couple of inches long, you can transplant them into flats or (if the soil is warm) right into your garden. One sweet potato can produce as many as 50 slips!
The main thing sweet potatoes need (or any root crop, for that matter) is good loose, fluffy soil. They can't expand into yummy goodness in hard soil!
I usually turn the bed in the fall. In early spring, I "solarize" the bed by covering it with a clear plastic drop cloth. This acts like a mini greenhouse to warm the soil earlier. Once it warms up a bit, I pull back the plastic, water it good, then replace the plastic.
This will sprout most of the weed seed. The plastic blocks any further water from getting to the plants, and it gets hot under there, so the weeds quickly wither and die. Once the weeds die, remove and store the plastic for another time. This will drastically reduce the amount of weeding I have to do for the season and the warmer soil can give the garden a few weeks head start.
Sweet potatoes need quite a bit of room. I usually plant two rows in a 4' wide raised bed, with about 18" between plants. They grow fast and the vines try to escape the beds, but they don't run all that fast so it's easy to just put them back where they belong.
You can expect to get a LOT of sweet potatoes from one bed 4' wide and 10' long. I mean more than a wheelbarrow full. They store well, so there's no such thing as too many!