Sweet Potatoes

Upon Arrival Open the box immediately. If your slips arrive looking rather poorly, don’t panic! Slips ship in dormancy, and it is common for them to arrive with dry wilty leaves, and oftentimes no visible roots. This is normal and should not impact their growing ability.

If possible, plant your slips the day you receive them.

If you are not able to plant immediately: Remove slips from their packaging, wrap the root ends in a moistened (not sopping wet) paper towel, ensuring the foliage stays dry, and store them upright in a warm place out of direct sunlight. Make sure paper towel stays damp. They should be fine like this for about a week.

If it will be more than a week, you can buy yourself a few more days by removing them from the moist paper towel and setting the root ends in moistened soil-less coir media.

Growing Sweet Potatoes

If you can grow butternut squash, you can grow sweet potatoes! These vines need warmth and prefer rich, slightly acidic soil high in potassium. Sweet potatoes like a loose soil bed with plenty of organic matter and micro-nutrients—think Kelp Meal and Azomite.

• Planting Out

  Wait to plant until after danger of frost has passed, when soil temp is above 60°. Northern growers may consider covering beds with black plastic mulch or a silage tarp for about a week before planting to expedite warming the soil.

  Transplant slips at a depth of about 3"—ideally with two nodes in the ground and two leaves above—spaced 12–18" apart in rows 36" apart, hilled up or in raised beds covered with IRT plastic mulch.

  For extra heat, cover with slitted plastic row cover over wire hoops. Once they start vining, you’ll need to remove cover so they can sprawl.

• Fertilize regularly with Fish Hydrolysate with Kelp.
• Harvest and Curing

  Dig tubers immediately after frost kills the vines. Handle gently; tubers are easily damaged before curing, and badly damaged tubers won’t store well.

  Sweet potatoes don't taste great right out of the ground: they're not sweet! A brief curing period allows them to sweeten, and also improves how well they store. To cure for storage, spread them out in a warm place (ideally about 80° with 85% humidity) for a few weeks. Once cured and dry, wrap unwashed sweet potatoes individually in newsprint (or store in a breathable covered container), and keep in a cool room-temp place (55–70°). They’ll keep for many months.