Sweet potatoes come in two forms: vining and bush varieties. Both types thrive in the hot summer sun and are relatively easy to grow if given the right spacing and soil.
Sweet potatoes aren't started by seed like most other vegetables, they're started from slips.
We cut the slip from the original one. We choose the strong and mature enough to easily sprout the roots.
Notes:
If you would like to know which soils that good for sweet potatoes plantings, please read this topic:
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We may cut all the leaf and its young part to make sure the slips you receive are in strong condition because it saves itself energy/nutrition to sprout.
3. We cut fresh daily, but after 2-3 days of delivery, the leaf may turn yellow. But as long as the body still fresh, not rotten, they are still strong to grow. We suggest you can cut 1/2 in at the end of the cuttings, then grow them to the soil.
When is the good time to grow?
Sweet potatoes are the tropical plants, they require at lease 6 hours of sunlight, temp from 80-95 F. They can be died if the weather is too cold, under 40 degree and not grow well from 45-70 degree.
So please check google for your growing zone. For example , if you are in zone 10-11. Here google suggest:
If you are in the cold weather state, you can grow them in the pot first, place inside the green house, or inside your home near the window, wait for the warm weather and transplant them.
When you receive the slips please follow the instructions:
1/ Root the Slips
(If the slip already have roots, no need to do this step. If you are in the cold weather state, please do this step indoor)
Lay each sprout in a shallow bowl with the bottom half of the stem submerged in water and the leaves hanging out over the rim of the bowl.
Do forget to change the water in the bowl every day, 1 time a day.
Wait for 3-6 days for rooting. In the cold weather, it should take longer.
2/ Prepair good soils
Before you plant sweet potato slips, you have a little extra work to do. Sweet potatoes need loose, well-drained soil to form large tubers. You should mix the topsoil with compost.
You don't want the roots to face resistance when they try to expand within the soil. Loose soil is more critical than almost any other factor when it comes to growing sweet potatoes successfully.
If you plant outdoor directly to the garden, make the hill with 10-12 inches in heigth, 20 inches width and length,then grow on the top of the hill.
We recomend you use some NPK fertilizers mix with soil at the layer of the BOTTOM of the pot, under the root but need a space around 4 -6 inches.
3/ Plant the Slips
Plant slips in prepared soil with the roots pointing down. Position the slip so that the bottom half will be covered with dirt while the top half with all of the new leaves is above ground.
Sweet potatoes needs full sun but when you grow, in the first two to three weeks, you need to have cover them by the screen to keep them cool.
Here are 5 different ways to grow sweet potatoes from slip.
Note: Do not let the sweet pototoes spread and root in the big area if you would like they produce the big yam from the main roots. Just keep 3-4 main roots in 12 inches diemeter from the orginal slip. If they spread bigger, do not cut the branch, only cut the roots at the leaf node .
4/ Water, Water, Water
Water the slips once all of the slips are in place. You'll need to give them a thorough soaking until all of the surrounding dirt is wet. New plants, like slips, need to be watered every day for the first week and every other day the second week.
Each week the waterings can happen a little further apart until you're watering once a week. If the ground is very dry or you've had a lot of rain, you may need to adjust this schedule in your own garden. Sweet potatoes can withstand drought but they'll produce less, so make sure you water them during the hottest part of the summer.
5/ Harvest
Okinawa sweet potatoes will take about three to four months to mature – about 100 to 120 days depending on weather. They grow fast in summer and full sun. They grow very slowly even can be died at the cold weather (under 40 F degree)
While some varieties grow better in northern gardens, it is important to harvest your sweet potatoes prior to any frost or freeze, no matter where you live. If you have a shorter growing season, your potatoes may be smaller in size but will still have the same wonderful taste as larger spuds. Watch the weather report and harvest your sweet potatoes when the night time temperatures start to dip into the 40s to 30s to ensure that none of your crop is lost to frost. The longer you are able to keep the plants in the ground, the larger and more numerous your harvest will be.
If you have any question please contact us via email evafarmandservices@gmail.com or text to our phone 321-234-8869.
We will try our best to help you by picture or video of real Sweet Potatoes that we have grown succesfully.
ENJOY!
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