If the strip is narrower than 10 -12 ft, you will have to do some pruning or redirecting to keep the sidewalk clear. If you're willing to take that on, it might work.

Like Mulberry said unless you are selective about the variety you grow. I've grown one in particular and can't remember the name but the vining habit was more controlled than that of most sweet potatoes. I'm sure I bought it from Gary. He might know which variety it was. I will look at my notes when I have time and see if I wrote it down. The taters weren't as large under it but had a nice amount of average sized taters. The vine spread was probably 5-6 ft. While many of my others were 12 ft or more across. Jay

I'm with Jay and Dorothy on this. Unless it is a really wide strip with ample room, you'll end up with an unruly sweet potato patch that might tick off your HOA. You'll spend a lot of time pruning back foliage, which might interfere with potato development in the long run, and your plants would crowd out/shade out anything you try to plant in that strip with them.

If you have a stripe that is 5' or 6' wide, you could grow one of the less rampant growers in that space, like Bunch Porto Rico. It is the most compact sweet potato variety I've ever grown.

You could e-mail Gary at Duck Creek Farms and tell him the size of that strip you want to use, and I bet he could tell you if it would work and, if so, which variety he would recommend. You won't find a better source than Duck Creek Farms for sweet potato slips in Oklahoma, particularly if you're wanting to grow heirloom varieties.

I also worry you'll have trouble keeping the sweet potatoes' soil moist enough on a consistent basis because of the concrete roadway and sidewalk that will surround them. The reflected heat from all that concrete will create a pretty hot environment that may dry out more quickly than you expect.

Some varieties of SPs grow and produce well in clay, but I am not sure which of those also would be fairly compact. I get the best yields, even in highly-amended clay, from the rampant growers. So, if growing in that strip restricts you to the bushier forms of SPs, it also may negatively impact your yields.

Dawn

I would think that SP in the strip would be sure to tick off you HOA and then they might be really strict about what you plant everywhere else. I have heard that in some towns you are not allowed to plant anything in those strips except grass.

I will show you my front bed for this year. I got more potatoes from 15 slips in 2010 than I got from 36 slips in 2011. I trimed around mine slightly with the lawn mower to keep them from looking uneven and grassy s

The 2010 crop was better. The raised area in the center is the bed, the outter part is the vines trying to take over the lawn.

Larry

this is how wide one single row got in the garden with out trimming.

Its a good 12 wide even with the deer eating off part of the left side.

Larry

All I can say is WOW! I had no idea sweet potatoes could get that big - or produce that much! The poor things I was trying to grow last year were obviously not getting what they needed. They were probably suffocating in that clay soil, not to mention the heat. I was reading on Duck Creek's website last night that after last summer he realized that it is possible to get too hot even for sweet potatoes. Sounds like that may have had something to do with it too.

Anyway, I will be purchasing another batch of slips from Gary again this year and will try this again in looser soil. I think I will scratch the idea of planting between the sidewalk and the street though. You all brought up some very good points. Thank you for saving me from what would probably have turned into a big mess!

I grew them next to my deck and let them over take the railing last year. Looked pretty and I got a good yield. Perhaps a small piece of pvc trellis attached to some pvc pipe and slid over some rebar to keep it contained to the trellis instead of overtaking the yard.

You can use clear pvc primer and cement to connect it all, and nail polish remover will remove the printing off the pvc pipe.

one more tid-bit of info - yesterday DH was catching the Oklahoma Gardening show on PBS and they said that SP do not do well with additional nitrogen which makes them grow more foliage than roots. It was an "Ah-Ha" moment for us. Last year we grew onions according to the Dixondale recommendations and then put SP in that spot as a follow-up. The results were gorgeous foliage...and only 4 potatoes from 16 slips. Yeh...not good. So keep this in mind if you're doing "succession planting". I know I'll plan differently now.

Sheesh!

I use very little fertilizer of any kind, my favorite is liquid fish, but I think the onions did not get enough last year, plus I may have harvested too soon.

Last year I planted Beauregard (the only one available locally)and they did relatively well, but my space is limited - 25' x about 3.5'. The question I have is - did the Bunch Porto Rico produce well with a similar size potato and did you like the taste?

Beauregard produces big, fat, heavy potatoes and I don't know that Bunch Porto Rico could match their yield. However, Bunch Porto Rico does produce very well.

As far as availability of sweet potato slips, I am going to link the Duck Creek Farms website for you below. Gary offers an astonishing number of sweet potatoe varieties, with a special emphasis on heirloom varieties. He begins shipping in mid-May, once the soil temperatures and air temperatures are warm enough to plant sweet potatoes.

Every sweet potato variety from Duck Creek Farms that I have planted has performed very well for me, and I don't even have the ideal, sandy or sandy loam soil they need in order to perform to their best potential.

If you want to know which varieties would perform best in your part of the state in limited space, you can e-mail Gary at Duck Creek Farms and I am sure he'd be happy to tell you which varieties he has that would be best suited to your needs. Just be patient while waiting for a reply, because he is very busy all the time.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Duck Creek Farms