Sweet potatoes may be the perfect crop for not-allowed vegetable gardens. The plants are lovely, with long, trailing vines and purple-tinged leaves. The late-summer flowers look like pale purple morning glories (no surprise there: sweet potatoes and common, garden-variety morning glories both belong to the Ipomoea family). And, unlike many vegetables (I’m looking at you, exhausted and unattractive October tomatoes), sweet potatoes continue to look glorious right until the moment they are zapped by frost.
What more could we ask for in an incognito vegetable garden? Oh, yeah, there’s that whole edible thing. Sweet potatoes are, well, sweet. They’re also nutritious, versatile and very, very long-storing. Plus, these plants are productive! A single plant will produce 1.5 – 2.5 pounds of edible roots. That adds up real fast when you’re dealing with a plant that only needs a few feet of space. In fact, I’ve read more than once that sweet potatoes produce more calories per acre than any other crop. I believe it.
The only problem with sweet potatoes, in my opinion, is how they insist so stubbornly on growing their edible tubers underground. I’m not sure what your soil is like, but I’m working with the type of dirt that potters swoon over. Thick, heavy, red clay. Not the sort of dirt that inspires root vegetables to thrive. Nor — let’s be honest — the sort of dirt that inspires gardeners to reach happily for their shovels or pitchforks. This is the sort of dirt that inspires bricks. That’s about it.
So, I grew my sweets in bushel baskets.
I purchased about a dozen bushel baskets from my local farmers’ co-op, and planted seven of them with sweet potatoes (the rest were planted with regular potatoes). Each basket cost about $3, and took another $2-3 worth of leaf humus and purchased compost. I filled each basket about 2/3 with leaf humus, compost and dirt. Then, I planted a single slip in the center of each basket. That’s it. I watered when I remembered to, which was probably not as often as I should have (I don’t think it rained once in July). I mulched a few of the baskets with grass clippings, but others spent the whole summer unmulched. Despite infrequent watering and often-dry soil, the sweet potatoes thrived.
Since this is a not-allowed, front yard vegetable garden, looks are important. And, I think these sweet potato baskets looked pretty darn good. Especially once the summer heat really kicked in, and the plants put on some serious size.
And, here’s what I found when I harvested the first sweet potato over the weekend (click on the photos for larger images, with captions):
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A full bushel basket of sweet potato plant
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Sweet potatoes, busting out the bottom of their bushel basket
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The single bushel basket contained five large and lovely tubers. I found a few more in the ground where the bushel basket had sat all summer. In total, this sweet potato plant produced nearly 2.5 pounds of tubers.
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So far, I’ve harvested two bushel baskets of sweet potatoes. One plant (grown in a shady spot, and tormented by squirrels more than once) gave me just 3/4 pound of skinny but usable tubers. The other plant (grown in nearly full-sun, and lightly grazed once or twice by deer) produced almost 2.5 pounds of big, fat, beautiful tubers. I have another five baskets that need to be harvested. Here’s hoping those remaining five plants produce 2.5 pounds each!
I’ll be doing this again next year. Definitely. In fact, I might grow more. Because, really, is it possible to have too many sweet potatoes?
The only hitch is that the baskets barely survived the summer. I’d love to get two or three seasons out of them, so I might try lining the inside of bushel baskets with fabric or cardboard next year. Hoping it’ll help the baskets retain water and slow their decay. We’ll see…
In the meantime, I need to devise a system for curing these tubers if I want them to last through the winter. I’ve read they need to spend 5-7 days at nearly 90°F and in high humidity. I’m going to see what I can do with an incandescent bulb and a large plastic storage bin. Wish me luck!
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Update! If you liked this post, you may love the new Sweet Potato Grow Guide. It’s a 45-page ebook that covers everything from starting your sweets in the spring to harvesting them in the fall, with lots of tips about keeping them happy all summer long. You can get your copy here ––> Sweet Potato Grow Guide.
Hello, and welcome to the Outlaw Garden! My name is Cristina Santiestevan, and I’m the outlaw gardener. I break the rules by growing vegetables in my suburban front yard, even though my HOA (homeowners association) says “no.” You can do the same — explore the site to learn how!
I cannot wait for you to design my garden when we move! Seriously. The kids are going to think their very own sweet potatoes are awesome.
And, I can’t wait to help you design that garden! It’s going to be so much fun, and I’m sure the kids will be a big help. 🙂
Brilliant! I love sweet potatoes. Upon reading your article, I may attempt planting some next year. In the meantime, I’m definitely interested in hearing about the curing methods you find and I’d also like to know the best way to store the ones I’ve purchased from my local farmer’s market. I currently keep them in a 100% cotton sack inside a darkened cabinet…not the best way, I’m sure, however they have kept for up to 3 weeks without spoiling that way.
Oh, you should totally grow your own sweet potatoes, Calvin. Fun and easy and tasty. Bonus: they love summer heat and don’t seem to mind drought. Go for it!
As for curing and storage… I’ve read that a tiny and tight closet with a 100watt incandescent bulb will often do the trick (for curing). I don’t have a whole closet to spare, so I’m going to try to build some sort of contraption out of a big plastic tub. After they are cured, they want to be stored at around 50-60°F. Below 50°F gets a bit too chilly for them, so the refrigerator is definitely out. Mine will spend the winter in my basement, which stays in the low 60s. I’ve read that they can store for several months like that. We’ll see!
Your sweet potatoes look amazing. I tried to grow them a couple of years ago when my mother gave me some plants as a present but they never took off. You have inspired me to try again next year.
i am confused as to the “not-allowed” front yard vegetable garden part. how is it “not allowed”?
Good question, Holly! I’ve shared the explanation here, but should probably link to it more often in my posts.
The garden is literally not allowed. I live in an HOA community, and one of the only clauses that limits home owners is their gardening clause: All vegetable gardens must be in the side or back yards. That’s fine, except my side and back yards are densely planted with mature trees. No gardening there. So, I’m sneaking an “outlaw” garden into the front yard. I expanded the front bed, replaced the foundation plantings with edibles, and am mixing flowers in to create a cottage-garden-like jumble. So far, it’s getting nothing but compliments from the neighbors.
These kind of HOA restrictions are pretty common, unfortunately. Some HOAs are very very strict. Mine is fairly chill, so I’m lucky. Ultimately, I intend to push for striking that clause from the HOA papers. For now, I’m just gardening, making friends with the neighbors, and sharing a bit about the whole experiment here.
Thanks for asking!
Thats great! I’m glad things are working out for you! It just seemed odd that they were not allowed but that makes sense now with the HOA rules. I live with my mom and she is very proud of her lawn, so she gives me all the bed space to work with, which is somewhat limiting, but I’m experimenting with vertical space and container planting this year to get a bit more room 🙂
lots of areas do not allowed you to grow vegetables in your front
there are a couple of cases her in wonderful Michigan, that the one
lady almost or did can’t remember which anyway almost went to jail
but people rallyed in favor of the lady and the case was dropped
haven’t heard what happen to the other case, I’m sure you can find them
online……
but area’s do seem to begin to understand and are changing some are even letting people now have a few chickens (no roosters) in their yards
so everybody keep up the good work, and we can win and get some things changed…….
Thanks, Sue! I think you’re right; it does seem that more and more neighborhoods and communities are beginning to value homegrown again. We’ve got a long way to go, but at least we’re going. 🙂
Great article on sweet potatoes.
Thank you so much for the awesome articles about planting sweet potatoes. I just started my process to get slips from an organic sweet potato that started growing tiny slips in my kitchen drawer…
I have a question about bushel baskets though. I see that the bottom of your bushel basket is broken during the harvest. Will you be able to reuse the same bushel basket for next planting? Or do you have to get new ones for future planting?
So glad these posts are a help, Jacq! And, yes, the bushel baskets don’t last long. More than half lost their bottoms over the course of last summer (purchased new last spring). I’m reusing them all this year. The missing bottoms might mean I have some sweet potatoes escape into the ground, so I may need to do some digging at harvest time. But, hopefully not too much. I do expect I’ll have to replace them all next year. At about $3-5 each, it’s not a huge investment.
Good luck with your sweet potatoes!
Cool. I will go to my local farmers market and see if I can get some baskets. Thanks!
How many sweet potato slips did you plant per basket?
One or two slips per basket seems to be about right. I think three slips would be too many for the bushel baskets (but would probably be fine in something larger, like a half whiskey barrel).
Can’t wait to try this. I just planted my square foot garden. whiskey barrels will fit in perfectly.
Hi! I’ve got my slips growing but wondering about planting them in a very large heavy duty plastic ‘tub.’ My hubby can drill some holes in the bottom for drainage. I would guess the size is approx. 3′ (long) x 2′ (wide) x 2.5″ (deep). Any feedback for this?
Have you found that allowing the container to thoroughly dry out before watering is best? I am from just above the Seattle, WA area and I know these babies like warm weather, so planting them above ground in a container that will absorb the heat (like plastic) should help.
I talked with a grower in CA and he got me started but I neglected to ask these couple of questions.
Thanks!
Is the container only 2.5 inches deep? I’m afraid that’s much too shallow for sweet potatoes. You’ll want to use something that’s at least 12 inches deep; 18 inches is ideal. Other than the depth issue, that sounds like a great container. What about using it for shallow-rooted plants, like lettuces?
As for watering, I only water sweet potato plants if they start to pout in the midday sun, if their soil is completely dry on the surface (probably still holding some moisture below the surface), or if we’re in the midst of a summer heatwave.
Your plan for growing sweets above ground to maximize heat is perfect for your region. Many garden centers sell whiskey barrels, which could easily hold three or four sweet potato plants. Or, any large container that’s at least 12 inches deep about 12-18 inches across in both directions. Sweet potato roots can get large — they need their space!
So you planted these in mid-june and harvested them around October 11th? Is that right? I live in Ohio and hope to follow your timeline. I also have a wedding this October and hope the plants look pretty (not wilty and dying). When do you know when to harvest them? do the leaves start turning?? thanks.
One of my very favorite things about sweet potatoes is that the plants look AWESOME right up until the day you decide to harvest. Two possible exceptions: (1) hungry deer can wreck havoc on a pretty sweet potato plant, and (2) if a frost hits, your plants are toast (though, you might squeak by if you protect them with a blanket). In short, as long as frost and deer don’t decimate your sweets, your plants should be looking just fine for your October wedding.
And, yes, I plant out around early- to mid-June. The trick will be nighttime temperatures. You want to wait until overnight lows are consistently in the 50s before planting your sweets. They really do not like to be chilly at all. As for harvest timing… I generally wait until just before the first frost warning, which is typically mid- to late-October around here (USDA Zone 7a). The roots will continue to get larger as long as you leave the plants in the ground, so the longer you wait, the bigger your harvest will be.
Good luck with your sweets! And, if they’re still growing strong for your wedding, I’d love to see some photos of how you work them in with the rest of the wedding decor!
Hello! Love your site and all the info about sweet potatoes.
I purchased local slips last week and planned to put them in the ground right away, but now there are frost warnings until next week! I have them in water now. Does anyone know what I should do for another week? I am afraid they are going to die if I don’t get them in the ground and I have heard mixed responses about whether to pot them indoors.
Also, we have had good luck curing our sweet potatoes by letting them sit in the sun for the first day after harvest (mid October in our zone 6b garden) then moving them to garbage bags that we slit with lots of holes (for breathing). Then we put the bags in cardboard boxes next to the furnace. Doing this kept our sweet potatoes good until we finished them in March.
I’ve had great luck potting young sweet potatoes in 4-inch pots, and then transferring them outside once it gets warmer. There’s a bit more information here about how I do it: http://www.outlawgarden.com/2012/04/25/grow-your-own-sweet-potatoes/
If you’re still receiving frost warnings, you probably want to wait a while longer before moving your sweets outdoors. The rule I follow is to wait until nighttime temperatures are consistently staying at or above 50°F. Around here (northern Virginia) that’s generally early- to mid-June.
Thanks so much for the advice! That’s really helpful and I will try it if the forecast continues to look chilly. Sweet potatoes have become too important to risk losing! Happy gardening year!
Why not go ahead and invest in some beautiful huge pots? Or make your own from hypertufa? I don’t think you will regret it and the sweet potatoes would love it!
I am growing sweet potatoes this year and I found your site researching about sweet potatoes. I like the fact you grew them in baskets. I need to find a way to do that next summer. Great information-thank you! robbie:-)
Can you tell me why my sweets are different colors?From yellow to deep orange when all the plants (slips) were the same?
Huh. I have no idea, Lynda. Were they grown in different locations, or different conditions? Only thing I can think of (if you’re sure they’re all the same variety) is that there was a difference in soil nutrients that is reflected in the roots’ coloring. But, honestly, that’s just a guess.
Luckily, the color shouldn’t affect their taste at all! 🙂
I’ve heard that empty milk crates lined with landscape fabric work well for container gardening. Would they be big enough?
I think that’d be a fine size for one sweet potato plant, Ruth. If you give it a try, I’d love to hear how it works out for you. Good luck!
Water is the enemy of your wooden bushel baskets. You might try painting them with an exterior paint, or polyurethane, to keep them dry. Best of luck!
Last year I planted sweet potato slips that didn’t flower, but I believe the flowering kind are better. Do you know any mail order sources for the kind that flower? I planted mine in my garden and they did great, this year I”m going to try your strategy and plan in my side yard – they’ll provide beautiful foliage. I’m also going to try kale! Thanks for your site! Susan in Des Moines, IA
Very nice! What size bushel baskets did you use?
Cover a 5 gal bucket with burlap……….fill with soil……..replace the burlap instead of a basket (=
I like it! 🙂
Hi if anybody can help me here if where i can buy this kind of sweet potato seeds?
Thanks.
You actually grow sweet potatoes from slips — young plants that are sprouted from the tubers of the previous year’s plants. You can grow your own, or buy them from an online nursery. I’m a fan of both Johnny’s Seeds and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, both of which sell sweet potato slips.
My father cured his sweet potatoes in a hill of pine straw covered with dirt. Gets hot in there!
Brilliant!
Do you think it would work to half-fill a plastic gardening trashcan with pine needles and put soil on top (as long as there is about 18in of soil)? My thought is that if the potatoes need more room, they can grow into the pine needles, without me having to spend the money on filling the bucket entirely with soil. I like the barrel idea but dont have a place to put it on the ground (I am gardening on a sunny porch) and already have this plastic trash can (I’m trying to save money).
Thanks!
Seems worth a shot, Arielle. I imagine you could also cut the bin down to the height you want, and then skip the needles. Either way, you’ll want to add some holes for drainage.