Here’s what I do: Buy a sweet potato at the grocery store, dig a shallow hole somewhere in the yard, and bury the tuber. Then I forget about it. I don’t even remember exactly where I buried it. It doesn’t matter. In the spring it will send up a bunch of little vines and I’ll say, Oh yeah, I buried a sweet potato there.
The other day I bought the sweet potato in the photo above and buried it at the edge of the canopy of my orange tree. I also buried a purple sweet potato near there that I had grown last year so I can grow more next year.
Cass enjoys digging up purple sweet potatoes while wearing my gloves.
What I’ll do next spring is use the little vines that the sweet potatoes shoot up in order to grow additional sweet potato plants through the summer. It’s ridiculously easy. Essentially, you clip off a section of vine about as long as your forearm and stick it in the ground. (Here’s a short video showing how to plant sweet potato “slips.”) Give them water through the summer. Come fall — voila! — you’ll be digging up sweet potatoes that look like the one you buried last fall (now).
So if you want to grow some sweet potatoes next summer, pick up a tuber next time you’re at the grocery store and bury it.
Greg,
When do you bury your sweet potatoes? Same time as your regular potatoes?
Hi Walter,
I bury them any time, but they won’t put up sprouts unless the soil is warm so just keep that in mind if you’re burying one now.
none of the instructions i find online for curing sweet potatoes make sense for me in southern california. i am ready o harvest but wondering what other southern californians do for curing?
I have the same problem as CEE. I have no where cool enough or humid enough to cure properly. I don’t have a root cellar or basement. Even my store-bought potatoes sprouted while they were waiting to be cooked.
Hi Fran and Cee,
I too have no special place to control the environment in order to cure sweet potatoes as some of the instructions advise. I just put mine in a crate in my garage. Simple as that. I use a crate so they get airflow around them. I put them in my garage because it is shaded and cool (especially in the fall or early winter when I harvest the sweet potatoes). I don’t grow too many so we eat them all before they sprout, usually. They’re still fine eating after they start sprouting too though.
Greg,
I’m new to your site, but so thankful I’ve found a knowledgeable gardener in SD County that I can learn from. I’ve been reading through your posts related to situations and issues in my small backyard raised beds and containers garden.
In mid-September, I planted two whole Okinawan sweet potatoes in a 15gal pot, watered periodically (except for the past 3 weeks due to all the rain). There are leaves EVERYWHERE! I can’t see the soil at all – I’m guessing that’s a good thing.
I’ve read that growing time is 120-140 days, and the older leaves are starting to wilt and turn brown, which I believe means I should turn over the pot for the harvest. I’m concerned that the potatoes may have rotted due to all the rain, and like many others, I’m not sure how or where to cure them.
I’ve read that the leaves only (without any potato) can be planted to start new potatoes. I’m still reading through your posts and very helpful comments, but is it possible to plant some of these sweet potato leaves in the 15gal pot to grow more potatoes?
Also, I have a dwarf meyer lemon, a fuji apple and a minnie royal cherry tree in the ground (1 year royal lee is currently in a 15gal pot). I have the horrible thick clay and boulder rock soil. Can I plant Okinawan sweet potatoes under these trees, in the ground, and expect a good harvest?
Thanks.