Garden_gal, nice harvest! Sweet potatoes are such a good, versatile veggie and especially if they are not the common variety.

Silvia

I ordered the purple assortment from Sand Hill Preservation Center and the slips came a little late on a day I was at work. For two varieties only two slips survived and for Tinto I had extra slips. I would order sweet potatoes from them again, but take note that they will not arrive until summer (I think it was June).

I like the purples, but they have more vining behavior and the sweet potatoes wander away from the center. The purple assortment varieties I received were all 120 day sweet potatoes, my other potatoes (crystal white and korean purple) were early varieties done in 90 days. The days are estimates based on heat amounts (the Sand Hill site has some formulas for the calculations) , but are generally true for me. Harvesting my raised bed sweets took so long that the container potatoes had a little extra time. Some people recommend waiting until you see flowers or expect to have a frost. I found that different varieties are more likely to flower than others and all of the purples flowered.

I added some bone meal and slow release fertilizer (3/1/2 ratio with trace minerals) before planting. The volunteer sweet potatoes that came up in tomato and flower pots were in a modified Al's mix and also did well.

Edit:

I think you will be fine with three slips in the 25 gallon containers. If you want to control the vines more you can wind them up a trellis. The leaves are a tasty summer green and the flowers are pretty too.

I saw a YouTube video from a man who planted his potatoes in plastic bags inside WalMart shopping bags, and was sort of impressed! I'm new to growing sweet potatoes in FL. Never even tried in my old house. I am impressed with your yields. I have some NOID dark reds planted in my flower bed, and have some coming up from last year, because I didn't dig them. I also have three slips I've started in water I will be planting out, and will probably just do continuous slips in all the beds so I can get as many as possible. We'll see how it goes.

I grew two types of sweet potatoes last year, a really good, sweet, firm yellow or white-fleshed variety and a pretty nasty orange variety, basically a normal Georgia/grocery store type. This year, I will be growing the same white variety as well as Evangeline, Satsuma-Imo, and possibly Okinawan purple. Satsumi-imo is my favorite variety so far, but only ethnic markets seem to carry them. They claim that Americans don't like the firmer, sweeter varieties. Maybe that's true for most Americans, but not for this one. I went years without eating sweet potatoes because of how much I disliked the standard grocery store types. After tasting the Satsuma-Imo, it was a night and day difference.

Really, I'm planting out the nasty grocery store variety too, in less prime planting locations, but mainly to harvest the tops, for juicing and smoothies.

I'm planting out the nasty grocery store variety too, in less prime planting locations, but mainly to harvest the tops

Are the greens from Satsuma-Imo not as good?

What I meant is that I don't really plan to eat the sweet potatoes of the orange-fleshed variety and was just going to use them for the greens. The other varieties could be used for both greens and the sweet potatoes. To be honest, I've never tried the greens from Satsuma-imo, since this is the first year growing them. Since I will use them for smoothies and juicing, they probably won't have any discernible taste.

The Satsuma- imo looks similar to some of the purples I grew and will probably be pretty tasty. I did not notice a taste difference in the leaves between different colored sweets.

Thanks, xentar and garden_gal.

GardenGal......a question on the planting technique in the bins:

Did you fill the bin and then plant OR

Did you plant low in the bin and then fill as the plants grew (like Irish Potatoes) ? dougandpam

I filled the bins to within an inch of the rims and planted the slips at the top.

Thanks......doug