SALT LAKE CITY — Sweet potatoes are delicious, nutritious, and easy to grow if you want them fresh. Here’s how you can get started.
First, choose your varieties
While sweet potatoes and yams are often used interchangeably, they are not related.
Because sweet potatoes are not a traditional crop in Utah, they’re a little hard to find locally. They have to be imported from the south, according to KSL Greenhouse host Taun Beddes.
The good news is you can always order them online.
“You want to look for varieties that ripen in fewer than 110 days,” Beddes said. “… There are several varieties, Georgia Jet, Beauregard, Mayhon … that ripen in 90 to 110 days.”
It’s essential to order and plant them early in the season because they take a long time to grow.
“When you order them, they almost always come in what are called slips. And you’ll get this bundle of little stems with a couple of leaves on top, and they’ll be a little bit wilted. That’s okay,” Beddes said.
Next up, plant them
You can start the planting process by either putting the seeds in water for a day or two or by direct planting them.
If you’re using the direct planting method, stick the sweet potatoes in the ground a few inches deep so that the leaves are still above the ground. Within a week, new leaves and roots will form.
“As long as you get them in the ground within a day or two of receiving them, you’ll have probably 100% success at growing them,” Beddes said.
When it comes to the soil, Beddes recommended planting them in loose or sandy soil.
“If you plant them in more of a clay soil and don’t amend the soil, they have a tendency to grow one large tuber right underneath the plant that might weigh a pound and a half to two pounds … To get the market-quality sweet potatoes, you really need the loose soil.”
Beddes said you could also try making furrows.
Those furrows should be about 2 feet wide and 6 inches to a foot tall, and the rows should be spaced at least 3 feet apart. Make sure you incorporate a lot of compost. Once those furrows are ready, plant the slips every foot in the row.
Don’t forget these care tips
Sweet potatoes are quite drought-hardy, but for maximum production, they should be watered to a depth of 6 inches or a foot a few times per week.
“Of the vegetables you grow, they’re one of the heavy feeders because of how fast they (grow). And so, to maximize production, you do want to fertilize them,” Beddes said.
Then what?
All you can do is wait, specifically until late September or October.
“Our first light frost is when you want to dig because the longer you can wait, the bigger those tubers are going to get,” Beddes said.
Read more from the KSL Greenhouse show:
KSL Greenhouse is live on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
