This past year I decided to try growing sweet potatoes. I bought an organic sweet potato from Lucky’s Market. Cut off the tips grow slips and eat the remaining. Two slips later I had four buckets of sweet potato vines. After six months I had sweet potatoes. The leaves and flowers are beautiful. I cut off slips off from the buckets to plant the vines for orientation.

I learned sweet potatoes like sand, love warm weather and require less watering.

In my research about growing sweet potatoes, I came across Bob Hall, Hallsome Farms, who had great tips on growing sweet potatoes in bags. He suggested:

• Sweet potatoes need to be cured to turn starch into sugar. This process takes about 4 days to two weeks depending on the warmth and humidity of the environment. To finish off the curing process store them at 55-60 degrees for 6-8 weeks. Mother Eart News offered these suggestions for curing.
• You can eat the vines and leaves of the sweet potato. New Entry Sustainable Farming Tufts University offers recipes.

This year I’m going to try growing my sweet potatoes in bags to see if there is a difference from growing in buckets.
February-March is the time to begin the process of planting so that the sweet potatoes are ready by October.