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Vegetable Gardening

Sweet Potatos not growing, need advice

16 years ago

Hey everyone. :-) I planted SP slips on June 24th. Which according to my local extension service is the right planting time. The slips were about 8" long, and I planted them about 5" down in the soil. They are in 30gal rubbermaid containers with drain holes drilled in the bottom. I am using Earthgro potting soil. The soil drains well, but stays fairly moist. They are in an area that gets about 7 hours of daylight.

The problem I have is that they have only grown 1" in the past month. They are sprouting new leaves and are healthy, but not getting any higher. It was my understanding that they are supposed to grow like gangbusters. I want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong here. At this rate, I'll never have potatoes by Turkey day!

Also, if it makes any difference, these were slips I started myself from a potato I bought at my local farmers market.

Thanks for any info!

Seraki

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Comments (8)

Violet_Z6
16 years ago
"fairly moist" sound like too much water to me. How often are you watering?
billv
16 years ago
Something sounds odd here and I may be missing the point.
My sweet potatos don't get "higher" they run horizontally. And they run horizontally a lot which is why I can't see them in a container. Are you growing one of the "bush" varieties? I agree with Violet that "fairly moist" - at least all the time - would be more water than I provide mine (growing on plastic with irrigation) but I am not sure it would hurt anything.
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OK, I think they're actually a really easy crop to grow. Last year, I had a fantastic crop, about 2 bushels from 15 plants, and when I was reworking the ground a few weeks back to plant peas and fava beans, I found the frozen, mushy remains of at least 12 big sweets I never found when I was digging last fall - that was a bummer. Some of the keys -- loose, sandy soil, lots of water, lots of fertilizer. Here in Michigan, I use black plastic because we need the extra heat, but that isn't an issue in Georgia. Last summer was very, very dry for us (but nothing like you're going through in the Southeast). I watered my garden very deeply once a week, letting the sprinklers run for 4 to 5 hours, which probably put on 2 to 3 inches of water. And, I fertilized 4 times -- early June, mid June, early July, and mid-late July, with Bayer Advanced all-purpose fertilizer, which has a time-release formula. Because I was planting through black plastic, I didn't hill them up -- never have done this with sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, for that matter. And yes, I would say about 10 potatoes per plant was what I got last year, or close to that, maybe more like 8, I'm not really sure. A lot of mine were what I would call a "jumbo" -- really big, like the biggest ones you'd ever find in the supermarket, if not larger. One was so big it was almost scary -- I bet it was 2 1/2 lbs.
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A gardener who doesn't like playing in the dirt??? ;) Unfortunately root crops like potatoes, whether sweets or Irish, need to be dug out of the soil - even when those potatoes are grown in straw. All you need is a potato fork to dig them up with. Dave
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g'day halfandhalf, couple options wait for slips to grow to around 4 to 6"s then cut those sections off the tuber and plant them, or plant the whole tuber now. you are coming into winter that is when sweeties go dormant/die back, you could just leave them grow through winter then plant when the soil warms in early summer. the slips could end up very long by then but that means you could then take cuttings and stand them in water and they will root. have a look at our presentation mean time. if you do plant them out now be sure to heavily mulch around them to keep the ground from getting cold. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens growing sweet spuds and pines
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To follow up, Gurney's finally contacted me back after about a week. They're sending a replacement order which is fantastic. Thanks for suggesting to get in touch with them! As for my slips, half just couldn't make it, but the other half are starting to make new leaves and I think I'll be planting them soon. Murasaki's seem to only need 100 days, and in Texas weather, I've got plenty of time. As for the Okinawan I bought from Baker Creek, they seem to require nearly 180 days, so it'll be cutting it pretty close for those as they're taking quite a while to ship those. Thanks so much for suggesting to contact gurney's. Glad to see some company's still care about their customers. I'm so used to a "tough luck" type of response for most other things, that it didn't even occur to me to contact them.
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1fullhouse
Original Author
16 years ago
It stays like a well wrung out washcloth. I will let them dry out a bit more if you think that is best.

I didn't have any of my veggie beds built when I did this. I did a TON of research on here about sweet potatos, and found several others that had grown them in containers.

sweet potatoes in containers
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0614520324855.html
1fullhouse
Original Author
16 years ago
bump
Violet_Z6
16 years ago
Container growing isn't necessarily consistent from person to person or even container to container. There are far too many variables. But your roots require oxygen equally as much as they require nutrients and water. They need to be able to breathe. You never answered.... how often are you watering and via what method(s)?

Have you fertilized? How often, with what, and how much do you use each time?
1fullhouse
Original Author
16 years ago
When I first planted them, I watered them in with MiracleGro vegetable fertilizer. I haven't fertilized since then. The potting soil I am using also contains compost.

I've been watering daily via a watering can. The first 1-2" or so dries out daily, so I water enough to moisten it again. I'm not sure of the exact amount. Sorry.
chaman
16 years ago
I have similar observation of my sweet potatoe plants.Vines are not growing vigirously as usual.They are grown enough to give some tubers.In my opinion this could due to lack of right proportion of heat and moisture.At my place there is not enough rain but the temp. is higher than normal at this time.I fertilize the plants regularly.
1fullhouse
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks chaman. They have perked up over the past few days. We've been getting more rain, and the temps have been highs of around 100. I'll try giving them another shot of ferts, and see if that helps too.

Thanks again.

Seraki

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