Sweet potatoes are a warm-weather crop. They require a long, hot growing season. Sweet potatoes are grown from rooted cuttings, called “slips” or “draws”. Slips are best started indoors from sweet potato tubers. Slips stated indoors take about 12 weeks to reach transplant size. Transplant sweet potato slips into the garden after all danger of…
Sweet Potato
How to Harvest and Store Sweet Potatoes
Harvest sweet potatoes as soon as they are big enough to eat—usually when the ends of the vines begin to turn yellow. Harvest sweet potatoes before the vines are touched by frost. Frost can damage the tubers below. When to Harvest Sweet Potatoes Most sweet potato varieties are ready to harvest 95 to 120 days…
Sweet Potato Pancakes
Serve sweet potato pancakes with bacon and eggs at breakfast or as a side dish with chicken or ham at supper time. These pancakes aren’t too far a cry from sweet potato pie but just enough. And they aren’t the boiled and mashed sweet potatoes you serve alongside turkey and mashed potatoes. Maple syrup or…
Sweet Potato Growing Problems: Troubleshooting
Sweet potatoes require loose, well-drained soil and about 100 very warm days. Sweet potatoes are usually grown from slips started from roots (to start your own add another 40 days). Set sweet potato starts into the garden about the same time you set out tomato transplants in spring. For sweet potato growing tips see Sweet Potato…
Sweet Potatoes: Short-Summer Varieties
Sweet potatoes in 100 days! Sweet potatoes started from slips–rooted sprouts–purchased at the garden center or from a seed catalog can be harvested in about 100 days, even less. Short-season sweet potato varieties include ‘Beauregard’, ‘Centennial’, and ‘Georgia Jet.’ These three planted from slips will be ready for harvest in 80 to 90 days. Varieties…
How to Grow Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are tender, warm-season perennial plants grown as annuals. Sweet potatoes require a long, warm growing season, usually about 4 months of frost-free weather to reach harvest. Set sweet potato starts or slips in the garden after all danger of frost has passed, usually 4 weeks after the last average frost date in early…
How to Cook Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes can be cooked and prepared in just about every way a potato can. Two Types of Sweet Potato There are two main types of sweet potato (although there are more than 400 varieties): one has orange flesh and becomes soft and moist when cooked, and the other has white flesh and becomes relatively…
