If you want to grow sweet potatoes in a container, plant the rooted slip into a pot or grow bag big enough to grow nice tubers. Both types belong to the Ipomoea batata species, a tender perennial normally grown as an annual, and both ornamental and edible varieties are quite easy to grow in pots. Slips can usually be purchased from garden centers or seed catalogs. Sweet potatoes are a vine and want to grow horizontally across the ground. Sweet potatoes prefer a warm environment, so try to choose an area that gets a lot of sunlight (especially if you live in the north) and is well drained. Sweet potatoes are an easy crop to grow, and you can grow them in many areas of Australia. These growing containers are lightweight, environmentally friendly, and made of fabric, so your potatoes get air as they grow. You can use good potting soil and add some more compost to it for nutrients, or mix your own soil the Square Foot Garden way: 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss. Sweet potatoes crop best at temperatures between 21-26°C (70-80°F). Regular watering is essential for growing potatoes indoors, as they cannot resist droughts and infrequent watering. Pot the sweet potato slips into bigger pots when you begin to see while roots poking out of the bottom of the pot. The thing they dislike is frosts. Each vine can grow to be over ten feet long. Sweet potatoes are easy to grow but they do need a few things to grow really well. The freshly picked spuds have the sweet and nutty flavor that you will not find in store bought potatoes. Smart Pot Soft-Sided Fabric Garden Plant Container Aeration Planter Pots with Cut Handles, 3 Gallon, 5 Pack, Black . They also have great natural drainage, ensuring your potatoes will never sit in water and rot. Let us begin!! Where space is limited you can even grow sweet potatoes in containers or patio bags. The secret to growing sweet potatoes is a long frost free growing season. Your pot will also need to contain a sizable drainage hole. You may think that growing sweet potatoes requires a lot of space, but think again.With the use of containers and compact varieties, any gardener is able to grow sweet potatoes on their patio or balcony. 2. Growing sweet potatoes can require a lot of space however, with the use of containers and compact varieties any gardener is able to grow their own. Any good growing medium is satisfactory, including peat-free types. Table of Contents. They are not particularly fussy but do prefer an acid or neutral soil. Allow the pieces to dry and callous over, about 2 days. Ideally, the pH is between 5.8 and 6.2, although, they will tolerate a more acidic pH to 5.0; Plant slips 10-12 inches apart and allows room for the vines to grow, they will create their own tropical ground cover. This 4-step guide to growing 100 pounds of potatoes is so easy, that anyone can do it! Smart Pot Black 20 Gallon w/Handles. Sweet potatoes are not like regular potatoes. How to Grow Potatoes in Pots What is Seed Potato. Growing Potatoes in Containers – How to Grow Potatoes in Bags or Pots [GrowVeg] Share this Story. You'll need to start by sprouting your seed potatoes. Take note, however, they are extremely frost sensitive and not suited to cooler climates. Buy seed potatoes from local nurseries or online. Till the earth. Regular ones are part of the nightshade family, sweet potatoes are from the morning glory family. Avoid using wet and clayey soil. It will take sweet potatoes between 90 and 170 days to grow depending on the variety. As an added bonus, these vines make attractive patio plants. In most parts of the world they are called sweet potatoes, however they are not the same plant family as regular potatoes. Smart Pot is the leading fabric container for faster producing, healthier plants. Whereas sweet potatoes are a long season crop that grows on trailing vines, potatoes are grown early in the season and do best in cooler temperatures. Growing sweet potatoes works best in loamy, well-drained soil that is not too rich. Fill the Smart Pot container about 1/3 full with a 50/50 mixture of garden soil and compost. The first is well dug, compost rich soil, and they need drainage. Whatever you use for a container, make sure it has good drainage. Learn about vertically growing sweet potatoes here. Notes. For gardeners with limited space, growing sweet potatoes on a trellis may be the only way to include this tasty tuber among their homegrown vegetables. Growing potatoes in pots or buckets is really easy...and you don't even need a garden! Sweet potatoes thrive in the long, hot summers of the south, but there are varieties that will grow just fine in the north, even in Canada. You can use a simple finger method as well. Smart Pot is the top brand chosen by professional plant growers for over 20 years. Generally speaking, you’ll get between five and ten sweet potatoes per plant. Plant sweet potatoes 30cm (12") apart, leaving 75cm (30") between each row. How lucky we are in New Zealand to have this nutrient-dense super-food as our national vegetable. Get our Newsletter Subscribe. Make a free draining soil mixture and mix in a handful of time-release fertilizer. Potatoes are a hearty crop that can grow almost year-round in the right conditions. Log in to comment on this story! Bonus Tips for growing sweet potatoes. Robert says that he has tried both spring and winter, but growing potatoes in winter has always worked out better for him. Growing sweet potatoes is easy and requires very less efforts. They are runners, so you have to train them to climb, but encouraging the runners to go toward the trellis. Sweet potatoes come in two general forms: vegetable varieties bred for their edible roots, and as varieties bred specifically for their ornamental trailing foliage. Here are some growing tips for growing kumara in GreenSmart self-watering planters. 1) Choosing Plants; 2) Site and Soil; 3) Planting Sweet Potatoes; When to plant; How much to plant; Starting plants indoors. Plant 'slips' that grow from sprouting tubers in late spring or early summer, after the soil is very warm. Sweet potatoes will grow in poor soil, but deformed roots may develop in heavy clay or long and stringy in sandy dirt. We are here to tell you how to grow sweet potatoes in 6 easy steps. Sweet potatoes have to be one of the more fun kitchen-food plants to grow in the home. Planting potatoes in pots minimizes the amount of space you need, and it also reduces the risk of pest infestation and disease. Planting outdoors; 4) Seasonal Care ; Cover soil with black plastic. We sometimes use a basic moisture meter to ensure we aren’t over-watering or after heavy rains. Sweet potatoes grow easily in warm to hot climates, where they can be planted year round. Sweet Potato .. Fertile soil that is on the sandy side and is free draining is preferable. Grow sweet potatoes in full sun on fertile, well drained soil. How to Grow Potatoes in a Container. Deep, loose, well-draining soil is most suitable for growing sweet potatoes as it gives the tubers room to develop while avoiding the risk of rotting in times of heavy rainfall. Sweet potatoes grow primarily underground, but their vines grow above the ground. However, potatoes growing in pots and planters will be retain heat and be hotter than if you planted them in a garden bed or in the ground. Grow new potatoes in a pot outside the kitchen or in large 5-gallon buckets on the patio. Plant: Plant one seed potato for each 3 gallons of Smart Pot container. Sweet potatoes grow rapidly in the warmer weather and can be grown either along the ground or vertically over a support to save space. Every few days, stick your finger about 2″ in the soil to see if it’s moist. Smart Pots are a fantastic option for potatoes as well. Experiment, experiment, experiment!! You can also grow sweet potatoes in big pots just make sure there is enough room for the vines to grow so we wouldn’t recommend more than one seedling per 50cm pot. Photo: Summer Rayne Oakes. A small pot will not do. This guide will show you how to grow a hundred pounds of potatoes in a pot or barrel from start to finish! How to Get Seed Potatoes. The bigger the pot, the better (potatoes need lots of room to grow), but at a minimum it should be 10 gallons (38 L) for 4-6 seed potatoes. Even if I don’t have much of a harvest, it’s still fun to try new things in the garden & find out how others do this as well! Here are the necessary steps to grow sweet potatoes (Botanical Name: Ipomoea batatas) in containers: Acidic soil with pH 5-6 does well for growing potatoes. Try to maintain the moisture of soil while avoiding overwatering. Best of luck This one started to grow a beautiful, delicate slip right in my fruit bowl, so I removed it and placed the slip and the potato in a jar. The trick is to water the pot until it seeps out of the bottom holes. The secret to success with this method seems to be the preparation. The foliage can be trained up string, canes or trellis. Article from gardening-advice.net. Make sure your garden plot has plenty of room for the vines. Smart Pots are available at your local grow store, hydro shop, organic garden store and Garden Centers. How to harvest. A potato that is replanted and used to grow potato plants is called seed potato. Sweet potatoes are not related to potatoes, and they are grown very differently. Growing your own potatoes is actually one of the easiest things you can do, and is a great way for a beginner gardener to learn about growing vegetables! Sweet potatoes are started from slips, which are shoots that grow off a mature sweet potato. If you don't want them growing all over your yard, try to build some sort of trellis for them to grow vertically on. Check out our simple step-by-step tutorial and grow your own delicious potatoes! Sweet potatoes can be grown outdoors, but you will need a sheltered and sunny position. Indoors: Grow sweet potatoes in a glasshouse in large tubs, growing-bags or the glasshouse border, transplanting from the pots once they have produced plenty of roots. As far as I can tell, once you have prepared and planted the potato spuds, there is not much more work to do. Growing Potatoes in the Fabric Containers (Bags) Prepare: Cut seed potatoes into chunks having at least 2 eyes each. You don’t cut them up like seed potatoes…instead you grow “slips” by putting the sweet potato half in water and letting vines grow out…look up starting sweet potato slips on YouTube or just google it. If you plan to grow more than 6 seed potatoes, go for a barrel-sized pot. We look at how to grow sweet potatoes and when to plant them. Watering. High Caliper Growing Smart Pot Potato and Squash Grower with DSP Box, 15-Gallon, Black. To start them at home, suspend a healthy root – pointed end up – with toothpicks in a glass of water. Sweet potatoes like good drainage so if you are planting in the garden, plant in a raised garden bed or create a small mound and plant your sweet potato in the mound so that it drains well and doesn’t rot in wet weather. Sweet potatoes are usually started from young plants, called “slips,” that are grown from the root. Our Garden Planner can produce a personalised calendar of when to sow, plant and harvest for your area. #gardening #gardeningtips #permaculture #homesteadgarden #organicgardening #homesteading #urbangardening #vegetablegardening … However, they are not natural climbers. Growing Sweet Potatoes Outside. Sweet potatoes form a dense green ground cover, thriving in hot summer conditions. Growing Kumara – Sweet As. You may choose to grow potatoes on the deck in order to have quick access to the smallest new potatoes. Here are the necessary steps to grow sweet potatoes in containers: Step One: Select a variety of sweet potato that is ideal for growing in containers. Plant your potatoes after all danger of frost has passed. My sweet potatoes sprouted for me & I thought it a shame not to try growing them, so I put them into some pots in my greenhouse. Log in . Sweet Potato Plant. Sweet potatoes also like loose, well-drained soil.