develop sweet white potato in containers is astonishingly more straightforward than you might reckon .
When it originate in its aboriginal surround , honeyed potatoes are perennials , but they mature as one-year flora in containers .
It ’s severely not to love sweet potatoes , and farm them in your backyard garden is an excellent selection if you have sex them .
Like regular potato , scented potatoes are genus Tuber that take shape and develop underground . So , growing them in container makes double-dyed sense !
One of the most significant difference between growing even potatoes and sweet potatoes is that the latter expect a much longer grow season to reach maturity date . It can take up to 150 days to reach full maturity to harvest , and it also postulate a warmer soil than other case of potatoes .
Growing odoriferous potatoes is a little different than growing veritable potatoes , but if you ’ve grown them , it will make the process a chip easier to understand .
Some of the most significant difference are the harvesting as well as an easier harvesting experience .
If you ’re quick to give growing sweet potatoes in containers a try , this guidebook will show you how to spring up a monumental white potato harvest from tidy sum .
From the right filth to embed the miscue , we ’ll show you everything that you take to know .
How to Start Growing Sweet Potatoes in Containers
Are you quick to learn how to grow sweet potatoes in container ? allow ’s take a facial expression at the step needed .
1. Know When To Plant Sweet Potatoes
No matter whether or not you ’re growing perfumed potatoes in containers , they still prefer to be plant when the days and nights are warm . These are not nerveless - weather crop , and they do n’t brook a ice well .
So , you need to find out your USDA hardiness zona and use that to bump your final frost date . call back , these are averages , and it ’s typically best to wait a week or two after this engagement in case of a rogue frost that could wipe out your garden .
Those things chance !
Sweet potatoes can not be planted or put outside until the dirt has reached60 ℉ , and the nighttime temperatures need to beabove 60 ℉ consistently .
2. Get Sweet Potato Slips
While you could jump sweet tater from seeded player , most gardeners plant slips , which should be usable at most garden centers or plant life nurseries .
stave off using honeyed potatoes at the foodstuff store because you may not be sure what variety they are , or here they grew . Some variations in the store could harbor diseases as well .
Each of the gaucherie should be unblemished and measure 1 ½ column inch in diam . They should each have a sprout on them .
What would a sprout look like ?
If you leave your potatoes in the pantry for too long , they start to produce sprout . Typically , you could rationalize off the sprout and manipulate dinner , but those sprouts can also be used to grow your sweet potatoes .
3. Find A Suitable Container
The next matter you need to do is pick a worthy container . Ideally , you should avoid charge plate or metallic element container . Clay containers or whiskey barrels are two splendid choices .
Another option would be a container specifically create for potatoes is an excellent choice , and they run to be inexpensive . you’re able to find potato grow bag that come in a range of colors . These bags are plan to aerate the roots , proper adequate drainage , and side pockets for pull out small spuds if you need .
If you desire to employ a grow old bag , harvesting is as easy as plunge out the content and classify through the soil .
No matter what you clean , ensure the container has drain holes .
4. Pick The Best Location For Your Container
locating is a massive deal for growing odoriferous potatoes because they ’re quite finical about where you grow them . They require to be in a sunny place at all times of the day and night .
So , pick a localisation that has full sunlight throughout the 24-hour interval , which means the plants need6 - 8 hours of fair weather per day .
5. Prepare The Soil
Now that you have a container choose , you require to prepare the stain for your sweet potatoes . cherubic white potato like well - draining , sandy soil , and it ’s best to tally compost to the ground . Compost adds nutrients to your soil while also increasing the drainage of the dirt .
6. Warm The Soil
recollect , the soil has to beat least 60 ℉ .Before planting , you should wrap up the ground with a black credit card back for several week . Doing this help to increase the temperature of the filth and will help your works grow better .
7. Plant The Sweet Potatoes In The Containers
Once you have the soil ready for planting , it ’s time to plant the sweet Solanum tuberosum in the container . Put around four inches of soil into the containers . Then , it ’s time to put the slip on top of the dirt you just added .
Each transplant that you apply should be placed 12 inches apart . verify the sprout is placed upward towards the sky , and then cover the slips with grime . Be certain to add three to four inches of soil on top of the potato slips .
You should keep the potted sweet potatoes indoors for the first 12 calendar week before prompt them outside if you live in a location that does n’t have 150 frost - gratuitous days . Put the pots outside four week after the final frost date .
After you move the plants outside , you do need to protect them from cool evenings . It ’s quite well-heeled for temperatures to dip downbelow the 60 ℉ without you realize it .
The best thing to do is to keep your pots extend with garden fabric for three to four hebdomad later on .
Not only does keeping your containers cover speed up other growth , but it also cut the stress that is placed on your plants due to temperature variation .
How to Take Care of Sweet Potatoes in Containers
Now that your sweet potatoes are growing happily in your containers , you have to have intercourse how to take care of those plant .
1. Water Regularly
You should water your potted unfermented white potato at least once a hebdomad or as needed , free-base on rainfall . You must n’t overwater your plants ; they do n’t like stand piddle .
2. Use Fertilizer Weeks After Planting
You ’ll need to add fertilizer to the container several calendar week after constitute . Some gardeners have success with an constitutional fish emulsion .
Another pick is to use a 5 - 10 - 10 fertilizer in your container . It should have mess of tincture minerals as well as NPK < , but be sure the nitrogen amount is n’t too high !
3. Mulch Around Your Plants
Another crucial task that you postulate to do to keep your plants happy is to mulch around the plant .
you could use dark plastic or any case of mulch that you require . The goal of the mulch is to keep the soil as affectionate as possible . Remember , sweet potatoes want warm territory .
Mulching also stops the vine from setting down more roots as they develop . That could take away some of the Department of Energy need for tuber formation .
Sweet Potato Pests & Diseases
perfumed murphy are know for several different pests and diseases . Here are a few that you might encounter .
Alternaria Leaf Spot
This fungus creates brown lesions on the leaves of the sweet potato plant life that looks like to a target . A yellowish annulus might surround the lesion , and over prison term , defoliation might occur .
you may not treat this fungus once it takes position . When you harvest , verify that you destroy all of the residual . The following year , assay establish sort that resist this fungus .
Fusarium Root And Stem Rot
Here is another frustrating fungus that you might encounter . It lead to the swollen and distorted base of stems , and the hogwash go into the cavities of the works .
You might also happen a white mold on the flora . septic transplants typically spread it .
Typically , these diseases are n’t a monumental issue if you trace the right health sanitization methods .
Be sure to practice crop rotation and try regale the seed roots with an appropriate fungicide before establish .
Bacterial Wilt
If your novel sprouts are wilting and have bag that are turning yellow to brown , you know that there is a problem .
Bacterial wilt disease infects the vascular system of the sprouts , infecting once a healthy transplant . In hard causa , there might be lesion on the rot surface .
Rotating sweet potato crops is a bright mind ; never use the same container year after year or scrub it out with a dilute bleach solution . Also , try growing the plant in cold stop of the year to help deflect the disease .
Sweet Potato Stem Borer
When you ’re conduct with mellisonant potato radical borer , the larvae bury into the stems , leading to problem .
The pests start to feed at the crest neighborhood , which lead to wilting , yellowing , and the dying of the plant . you could often name this gadfly by the bearing of fecal affair on the ground aerofoil .
seek to keep the sphere around the flora weed - free . Switch container and change the soil out of the container each twelvemonth ; the larvae can overwinter inside of the soil .
White Grub
fortune are you ’re familiar with whitened chuck and might have make for with them as kids ; you might screw them by the name rolly pollies .
grub like to feed on the clandestine parts of plant life , which admit the radical , ancestor , and tube-shaped structure of the sweet Irish potato plant .
Grub activity can lead to wilting and dying of plant . It ’s all important to take precaution of the problem as tight as you’re able to .
verify you do n’t permit any standing water in your containers , which will encourage the development of white-hot grub . You also can judge to spray the plants with Bacillus popilliae .
Harvesting Sweet Potatoes
It can take up to 150 days after you get going your sweet potatoes for them to reach maturity . So , whether you reach the maturity duration or the first hoar , harvest home odoriferous white potato vine is a fun project for families !
Something to roll in the hay is that the foliage of regular white potato works will go bad back when it ’s time to harvest .
Sweet murphy are not that way ; they ’ll carry on to develop until the temperatures are too chilly . You do need to countenance them originate as long as potential .
verify you recognize the maturity length for the sweet potato variety that you grow .
All sweet-smelling potatoes need to be harvested before the first heavy frost . Cold temperature can damage the sore tubers in the ground .
All you ask is a garden fork or to ditch out the containers . It ’s like a sport hoarded wealth hunt , searching through the dirt to find the hidden sweet Irish potato .
It ’s a fun thing for kids to do in the garden , and these are easy to dig up than regular Irish potato because the tubers run to be more clustered together powerful at the stem .
Be sure that you treat the Tuber gently when you dispatch them from the dry land . The hide on sweet murphy is thin , and the physical body will bruise or nick easy .
Curing Sweet Potatoes
You do need to allow the potatoes to heal before run through . It ’s a unproblematic mental process that dries and cures the potatoes for foresightful terminus storehouse .
Find an area with a temperaturebetween 80 - 85 ℉ , such as near a furnace or a southern - facing window in your home . The orbit that you use for curing needs to have high-pitched proportional humidity as well .
If you need to increase the humidity , you could put the sweet potatoes in loge or crates , then cover them with a paper towel or cloth . Another option is to store them in perforated plastic bags .
Storing Sweet Potatoes
After you glean and cure the sweet potatoes , you require to store them in a nerveless , dry place with a temperaturebetween 55 - 60 ℉ consistently .
Another pick is to freeze the sweet potatoes , but you do need to blanch them before stack away them to aid soften them up before unfreeze and preparation .
you could safely can sweet potatoes , so long as you do n’t strain them . mellifluous tater are good for tin if you cube them without skins and use a pressure level canner . you could not safely can honeyed potatoes without a press canner .
The Best Varieties of Sweet Potatoes for Containers
For years , those who know in northern climates were unable to grow sweet potatoes because the growing season for these areas was too short . The gratifying potatoes were ineffective to reach maturity before the first icing .
now , there are short - season sweet potato form , as well as ways to warm up your soil , which makes it possible for anyone to mature this harvest if you love them .
Here are some varieties of sweet potatoes that turn well in pots .
Portio Rico
This is one of the most popular picks for people growing this crop in pots . It ’s often referred to as bush or vineless , and it ’s ideal for lowly garden or container gardening . This cultivar has forgetful and summary vine , two qualities perfect for maturate in pots .
Vardaman
Here is another excellent choice . This variety is named after a town in Mississippi , and it ’s live for its shaggy-coated habits and reined - in vines .
Final Thoughts
If you think you could n’t rise this crop without a lot of room , you now get it on that you ’re wrong ! grow unfermented potatoes in containers are potential , and it ’s easy to get back a considerable harvest year after class .
Written By
Amber Noyes was born and lift in a suburban California town , San Mateo . She holds a master ’s arcdegree in horticulture from the University of California as well as a B vitamin in Biology from the University of San Francisco . With experience function on an organic farm , water preservation enquiry , farmers ’ marketplace , and industrial plant baby’s room , she sympathize what makes plants thrive and how we can better understand the connective between microclimate and works health . When she ’s not on the ground , Amber loves informing citizenry of new ideas / things related to horticulture , especially organic horticulture , houseplants , and growing plants in a pocket-sized place .
