Prices, Promotions, styles, and availability may vary. Our local stores do not honor online pricing. Prices and availability of products and services are subject to change without notice. Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Lowe's reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted.

How to Grow Sweet Potatoes in a Home Garden

Lowe's Editorial Team

By Lowe's Editorial Team
Published October 30, 2024

Sweet potatoes are nutritious crops that can easily be grown in your home garden. Their vibrant-colored vines also add beauty to your garden. In this article, you’ll learn how to grow sweet potatoes in your home garden.

Tools and Materials

Tools

Materials

Preparation of Soil

The first thing to know if you want to learn how to grow sweet potatoes is that they are a warm-weather crop, so start in early summer. So prepare the soil beforehand.

Soil Test

Sweet potatoes grow well in slightly acidic soil, so their pH should be between 5.8 and 6.2. If you want to perform the test at home, you can collect a sample of your soil in a container and send it to the lab, or you can use a soil pH test kit.

Raise the Bed

If you choose to plant the sweet potato in the ground instead of a basket or a container, make sure that the bed is raised so that the drainage is proper.

Type of Soil

We need porous and fertile soil for these. Avoid using clay soil, as it can be too heavy and clog the pores, so the nutrients might not get through to the roots.

Preparing the Slips

Before growing sweet potatoes you need to plant the shoots grown from a mature sweet potato. You can buy some from a nursery. If you want to grow at home here are the steps.

Planting

  • Grab the containers in which you want to grow the slips and make sure they are spacious enough to plant 8-10 sweet potatoes.
  • Now, put about an inch of soil in them and then place the sweet potatoes inside the container, not too far apart or too close. Then, we will cover them with four to six inches of soil.  

Temperature

  • If you are planting them outside, make sure it is sunny and warm or the slips won’t grow properly. If you want to plant in a greenhouse or somewhere with less sunlight, use heat mats and keep the temperature from 80-95°F. You can use a soil thermometer to measure the temperature.

Pulling the Slips

  • Keep watering them from time to time, but do not drown them. Keep this up for 6-8 weeks and then you will see vines coming out. Pull out the vines from the sweet potato and you will see the slips and roots at the end, which are slightly red in color.
  • If the slips or roots are not completely grown, put them in a water container for two more weeks and the roots will develop properly.

How to Plant Sweet Potatoes

After the slips are ready, we will get to the main part of this process.

Planting the Slips

Loosen the soil using a garden fork before planting the slips in our container or into the ground. Using a hand trowel, place them 12-16 inches apart and deep enough so that roots can develop.

Mulching and Fertilizer

  • After placing the slips, it is important to keep them fertilized. We should also keep the sweet potatoes mulched with a heavy layer of mulch-like leaf mold that will keep the soil moist. It will also help to keep the sweet potatoes warm.
  • Sweet potatoes do not need much fertilizer, so use fertilizer once in 2-3 weeks. Ash fertilizer is also good, make sure the fertilizer you use is low in nitrogen. Use a garden fork to spread them deeper and into the soil.

Trimming

Keep watering them and after 3-4 weeks, it will start growing vines. Make sure to keep the vines trimmed to about five or six feet to let the sunlight through.

Harvesting

This process will be done after 15-18 weeks, and it will be late September or early October, which is the perfect time to harvest the sweet potato. Dig out the sweet potato slowly to keep it intact.

Tip

keep the sweet potatoes outside in the sun, in a humid environment, for a week before eating to make them firm and increase sweetness.

Maintenance and Storage

Now that you have learned how to grow sweet potatoes, it is important to know how to maintain and store them.

Maintenance

  • To avoid pests in roots, plant them in a different place every year 
  • To avoid rotting of roots, make sure to raise the beds for proper water drainage. 
  • Use row covers to protect the plants from early frosts if you have started planting late.

Storage

  • After you are done growing sweet potatoes, the next step is storage. Do not store them in refrigerators, as they can lose their sweetness.
  • Make sure the area they’re stored in is a little humid so they won’t dry out and properly ventilated to avoid molding.
  • The area should be ventilated properly to avoid mold.
Related Tags: