Nelda, if you use it, you make your hill (ridge) first, lay the weed barrier over top of it, tuck the edges under the soil (to the weed barrier down) and then you plant your sweet potato slips (cuttings) through the weed barrier.

To plant the slips you would make a hole in the weed barrier where you want your sweet potato plant. Then you use a trowel to make a diagonal hole in which to sink all but the very top of your slip. Push the soil down around the slip and then, if you wish, water it and move on to the next.

Actually, if your soil is pretty moist, the watering is unnecessary, even if the slip doesn't yet have roots. They grow quickly. But, I often water, just to make myself feel better.

I used black plastic when we lived in NJ and didn't get as much sun as was optimal. It REALLY did help. Here in Oklahoma I don't consider it necessary. We have no lack of heat or sun.

Trust you have a GREAT harvest! I started growing sweet potatoes while living in Winona Lake, Indiana. They grew extremely well there. I still have one of the heirloom varieties I found in Warsaw. It's called Red Wine Velvet.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Hey, Nelda, I lived in northern Indiana for about ten years, near Gary, a little town that used to be called "East Gary", and while I lived there, changed it's name to "Lake Station".

Brrrrr, the winters were brutal! Is your snow melted yet?

So do you live in northern or southern Indiana, or somewhere in between? If in southern Indiana, you could probably grow sweet potatoes without the black landscape cloth. But judging from your comment about cooler temps, I'm thinking you're up north.

If you use the black landscape cloth on top of the sweet potatoes, they won't get enough sun. So I'm thinking like George is. If your growing season is over by early October, you may not have long enough growing season. I remember while living there we would have snow by Halloween and the kids always had to trick-or-treat with their coats on over their costumes! --Ilene

Nelda,

Could you put black plastic on top of the ground to warm it up for a month before you plant sweet potatoes and then remove it when planting? Or, do you think the soil would cool down too rapidly after you removed the plastic and planted?

With your shorter growing season, you would have a better chance of success with any of Glenn Drowns' early varieties that he sells at Sandhill Preservation Center. I don't think he ships until June though, which might be the right time for you to plant, although that would be late for me here in zone 7B. Sandhill has a huge selection of heirloom sweet potatoes, including "Indiana Gold" which is an early-maturing variety. Among the sweet potatoes commonly seen in feed & seed stores here is "Beauregard", which matures in about 95 days, or about 5 days later than many heirloom varieties classified as "early" sweet potatoes.

If you plant an early-maturing variety, and you pre-warm the soil, you probably have a good chance of success.

Dawn

George and Ilene, Thank you both for all the great information and suggestions. I will be following your directions to the letter!! :)

Ilene, I know where Gary IN is, my father is (was) a WWII vetern and is buried in the local cemetary where he was born. I live in Mooresville, IN. All our snow is gone thank goodness - we are "finally" getting warm weather, up in the eighties - yipee, yipee!!!! :) We usually have good weather until middle of November - so time wise I am hoping that I will have a long enough growing period - so keep your fingers crossed that I can make it!!! LOL. I will be planting everything in the next week!!

You all come and visit me and my friends on our Indiana farm forum. We have a great time and talk alot about our chickens and our Gardens - we always welcome visitors.

Again, thank you both for all your imput!! You have both really helped me out!!

Nelda

Dawn, I did get the Beauregard - never thought about warming up the soil before planting. That sounds like a good idea also - I will try that and see how that works. I am just very excited about growing sweet potatoes that I can hardly stand it - LOL!! I love sweet potatoes and really want this to work - Crazy Indiana Gal I know!!

Thank you all,
Nelda

Nelda, you're considerably South of Winona Lake. Winona Lake and Warsaw are up on Highway 30 about an hour West of Ft. Wayne. You should be able to grow sweet potatoes very well there.

Something Glenn Drowns told me once, seems to be very true. Don't try to rush your sweet potato planting, if it means planting them and then having them get chilled. They will produce better if you plant your slips after nights are warm. A later planted slip will often out produce an earlier planted slip. My theory on this is that the early planted slip puts down those first roots, which will be the main sweet potatoes, and they get chilled. This seems to set them back and they never grow as fast after that. In Winona Lake I grew sweet potatoes with no black plastic. Weed barriers were unheard of at the time. We got very good crops.

Dawn's advice about Sandhill Preservation is very good. Their early varieties (or mix) would be a very good bet for you. But even the later ones could do well. I'd just steer away from those which say that they require lots of heat to develop.

George

PS. Our memories of Indiana are of warm and friendly people.

Ok, I will try and cool my jets and try for patience :) LOL
But I just wanna tell ya---It ain't gonna be easy! I did say I would follow directions :)

When you all say: "when nights are warmer", how warm is warm? 50 deg.?

George, thank you for the compliment about Indiana - I love Indiana and the change of seasons - I even love the snow!!

Nelda

Fifty degrees is a bit cool. But if it is that the temps occasionally dip down to 50, you'd probably be alright. What I've seen, which sweet potatoes really don't like is when they get put out and then there comes a period of cold rainy weather, dipping down to 50 or below. The best is 60 F. temps at night or higher.

Once temperatures really warm up one notices that sweet potato vines grow almost visibly from one day to the next. I'll often make my first planting and then, a couple weeks later, I'll take cuttings off of those plants ('cause they're growing like crazy) and do another planting. Come harvest time there is very little difference in yield, between those two plantings.

I remember how, in Indiana, I loved the EXPLOSION of life every spring. Seemed like seeds even kinda jumped out of the ground there. I loved fall too. Just thinking of it makes the smells and coolness of the air come to my memory. But winters... well, we handled them!

George

DH worked at GATX (he was a welder) in E. Chicago. He always carried a shovel and a bag of sand in his truck and had studded tires in the winter. He almost always was able to get home from work, but often would stop and help someone so I was never surprised when he was late. A little worried, since this was BCP (before cell phones).

I had a garden while there. My parents came up from Oklahoma one summer and Dad couldn't get over how lush the garden was, while his at home was suffering from the heat. He took a salt shaker out there and ate several tomatoes right off the vine. He said the flavor of mine was better than his, but at the time I knew very little about gardening so they were probably whatever plants I could buy at the store.

What I loved about Indiana was the summers, and the wonderful U-Pick places all over the area.

I did hate the winters though. We got all that lake-effect snow and it was beautiful at first, depressing after time wore on. We would come to Oklahoma to visit family once a year, about in April. We'd leave our house, with ground still covered in snow, and begin to see less of it the closer we got to St. Louis. By the time we got to Oklahoma, we'd find everyone outside, working in their gardens in their shirt-sleeves. I'd be so jealous!

I have to say, though, that people were about the friendliest there as any I have ever known. When we moved back to Oklahoma, even though DH and I both grew up here, our children had a hard time making the transition. Kids here were not nearly so polite. DD remembers to this day the time when someone said something to her and she replied "I don't give a care!" They nearly hooted her off the school bus because she didn't use the word "damn".