Getting Ready for Planting: Sweet Potatoes for Pennies

Even while still buried under many feet of snow, I am already planning the garden.  I cannot wait to get planting and the signs of my eagerness are starting to pop up all over the house. My husband has even commented recently on the number of plants and seedlings started around here.. and I have only just begun... *insert maniacal laugh here*. I have many of my heirloom seeds collected from last year ready to go soon, if not already, and I have been sifting through my favourite seed catalogues and websites (I'll tell you my favs in an upcoming post!) and will be ordering the rest of my seeds soon! Yay!  Now, hopefully all the wonderfulness will be planted in the ground at the new homestead, but if not, it will be a container garden year, ready to ship to the new place when its Go Time.
Amongst some of the recently started plant babies around here are sweet potatoes!  Now, one of the most obvious reasons for planting sweet potatoes is because they provide us with yummy tubers that taste great and are super versatile. They also keep for a very long time if stored properly: this includes curing them.  I'm going to write a separate post on curing sweet potatoes during one of my sweet potato updates, that way you get all of the sweet details and can enjoy your delicious harvest's full potential!
There are a few other reasons you should include this tasty plant in your garden this year. One being that sweet potato vines are eager little growers, taking no time at all to fill out their spot.  The vines are also very pretty (or aesthetically pleasing, if you don't like referring to your food as pretty).  If you are growing in the city, you could easily plant sweet potato in your front garden bed and no one would ever be the wiser, until you dig it up in the fall and your neighbours are amazed at the bounty you pull from your flower bed!

Day One

Sweet potatoes also really like the heat, which is why you wait until the soil is warm and all danger of frost is past before planting your shoots.  This also makes them excellent candidates for container gardening and raised beds!
Sweet potatoes are one of those plants you DON'T plant by seed.  They grow from shoots, which makes them super easy to propagate AND you can get all you need at your local supermarket (no shipping and handling on these babies)!  I do suggest buying organic sweet potatoes for sprouting, but you don't have to.  This year I am actually going to try both conventional and organic, I'll document the results and see if there is a difference between sprouting time, growth and yield.  I have already started mt conventional potatoes and will get my organic ones this weekend.  Here's a picture of the conventional potatoes on Day One.
You don't have to plant them like this.  Cutting them in half and then playing them cut-side down in a tray of water also works well.  I'll like do that with my organic ones, but this way really lets you see those roots developing.  Here is a picture of my one week check-up.

One week check-up.

First, you will see roots develop and then likely within a couple of weeks you will see the shoots start to develop near the top of the sweet potato.  Can you see the itty bitty roots forming on the guy on the left?  Yeehaw!


I'll do a check up each week until we have some viable shoots, with more tips and what to do next!  I'll also update this post with my organics, and of course some sweet potato recipes in upcoming posts... YUMBO!  So when you get your groceries this week, grab a couple sweet potatoes and get them started.   They might not be ready for the outside, but they need some time inside to get ready.  This is perfect timing!  See you all soon!