Vegetable · Root crop
Sweet Potatoes
Ipomoea batatasSweet potatoes are grown not from seed but from rooted slips, which sprawl into generous vines over a long, warm season before swelling into sweet tubers underground. They thrive on heat and neglect alike, needing little beyond space and sun. The one rule: never rush the planting, since cold, damp soil rots slips before they can take hold.
Sow depth
4 in (slip depth)
Spacing
12 in · rows 3 ft
Sun
Full sun
Germination
N/A (grown from slips)
Time to harvest
90–120 days
Difficulty
Moderate
When to sow sweet potatoes
- Sow from about 2 weeks after your last expected frost until about 6 weeks after your last expected frost.
Plant slips once soil is reliably warm — cold ground causes rot.Bury each slip so several leaf nodes sit below the soil surface.Water in well immediately after planting to settle roots.
Let vines sprawl freely — they root at nodes and need generous space.Water deeply but infrequently to encourage the roots to search downward.Lift vines occasionally to stop them rooting excessively along their length.
Dig before the first hard frost — cold damages tubers still in the ground.Loosen soil carefully with a fork to avoid piercing the skins.Cure tubers in a warm, humid spot for a week to sweeten and toughen skins.
Companion plants
Keep fromWinter squash
Sprawling sweet potato vines make a living mulch that suppresses weeds around more upright companions.
Watch out for
Sweet potato weevil — Adults lay eggs near the soil line and larvae tunnel into tubers. Hill soil high around the base to block egg-laying access.