Comparing the Sweet Potato Harvest in Raised Beds, Ground Beds, and Containers
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- Опубліковано 2 сер 2024
- If you're considering growing sweet potatoes, you may wonder whether to grow them in raised beds, ground beds, or containers. After trying all three methods in my garden this year, here are the results of all three harvests.
Plus, at the end, I share tips for knowing when to harvest as well as how to cure sweet potatoes for the best storage life.
Learn more on growing your own garden at the Beginner's Garden Podcast: journeywithjill.net/podcast
Note: I garden in the southeastern US in zone 7b. I have a long, hot growing season, which is what sweet potatoes love. I planted slips in late May and began harvesting in late August through mid-September. - Навчання та стиль
Jill. I know you’ve experimented with straw bales... you have GOT to grow your sweet potatoes in straw bales! I poked in about a dozen slips between cabbages, kales and a couple of determinate tomatoes. And then neglected them. 😬 You cannot believe how huge and productive my sweet potatoes were. And talk about easy to harvest! I think you will love it. Thanks for sharing all of your gardening tips with us.
I was actually thinking about that the other day. I've been contemplating how to use my previous year's straw bales and sweet potatoes occurred to me. My only concern is I know they don't like a lot of nitrogen, but it sounds like you didn't have that problem. So good to know, thank you!
Beginner's Garden - Journey with Jill yep, no problems at all. I actually plugged them into first year bales with other crops so the nitrogen was still pretty high. They were enormous and I didn’t have any of those potatoes that grew in wiggly shapes that make peeling difficult. I’m convinced and will always grow them in bales. I hope you have lots of success with them!
Biggest problem with straw bale is herbicides put on them will inhibit growth
@Pet Pawteek how many starts did you put in each Straw Bale? I'm feeling like to Prevail would give enough room for lots of potatoes to grow that was wondering your experience before moving forward.
@@coramdayo I find two plants to be my sweet spot. Once the vines start to take off into the paths they will set down roots so be sure to look for stray potatoes there too😊
I can't believe they can last a year! So great. Creation is amazing! God bless!
Amen
Hi, harvest was good but you don't have to use your potatoes to make slips, the slips or vines that you cut from the potatoes when you are harvesting can be used. Just cut the slips about 12 to 18 inches and plant them and it will grow potatoes.
For those people that don't have 'planting space' to do either INGROUND or RAISED BEDS, this shows you can grow them in containers. If you give them the same attention you give the other methods you can get enough potatoes for your family. If you have a SMALL family these two bags properly cared for would probably give you enough to fed yourselves for a season.
I agree. I really didn't do much of anything with these. If I had, I'm sure I would have seen a different result. I also believe I planted too many. For bags this size, I think two plants would be the max, though one might even be better.
By far the best explained sweet potato growing video from beginning to end and there are 100's out there. I'm done watching any more after about 15 because of this video.Time to plant the slips I have in my one giant raised bed. One half has marigolds around the perimeter. I will use the other end. 92F and chance of thunderstorms every afternoon from now till Halloween. Thanks for your hard work and easy to follow instruction and observations.
Some Japanese Sweet Potato slips are on their way. I'm using 15gal Grow Bags that can be moved around, since I'm 'solar challenged' in suburbia and 'a rookie'. Thanks for your videos!!!
Hi Jill, you showed up on my recommended list. I clicked since it was on gardening.
My first impression is you have a great teacher's voice based on my stereotypes of what a teacher should sound like.
Even broken sweet potatoes will store for a year. The starches will seal the wound and it will be fine after curing.
Our growing season in MN is pretty short. I plant Beauregard.
Awesome presentation.
Store for a year - how? a root cellar, or...?
@@robotnik77 I'm guessing basements in Minnesota can get pretty chilly, if unheated.
I'm in Buffalo/Niagara Falls area, I think around 42.9 Latitude. How do you cure yours?
You did a really nice job on reviewing the harvest times, etc. based on a specific area. I've grown sweet potatoes for years successfully and you nailed it in this presentation!!!
Thank you! With only two seasons behind me, I'm still very new at growing them myself!
@@thebeginnersgarden j
Thanks! Last year in Virginia I grew sweet potatoes in grow bags, large containers, and directly in garden beds. The grow bags did really well and the containers were okay. The in-ground beds produced impressive vines and leaves and flowered well. Right before harvest, some critters dug in and got most of the roots. Such a disappointment! This year I'm sticking with the grow bags and containers. Thanks for your comparison and excellent talk through the process!
Hello, I have grow bags I want to start today. I do not have slips. I have some purple Okinawan potatoes and potting mix. Any suggestions?
@@rlanders6 You'll need to grow slips from your Okinawan potatoes. Gardener Scott has a 11-3-22 video on how to grow and root the slips and then plant them. He follows on with harvest and curing. He even cooks a batch to complete the process. Video is called "I planted a supermarket sweet potato". If you plant the sweet potatoes directly into the soil, I think they'll just rot. It's early in the year, so use his tips on how to grow your own slips. You're getting an early start and should have good luck once you've got the slips planted. It's not a quick process (seven months or so), but it's pretty easy and you're growing a high-value, healthy, and tasty vegetable. Good luck!
What a good harvest you have especially imo your raised bed. I can’t wait to harvest mine as well. Those sweet potato leaves are good for salad, soup ang even for sauteing.
I love garden of vegetables, flowers and Herbs…Green thumb. 👍🏻🙏🙏🙏🙏🤟🏻🤟🏻🤟🏻❤️
Hi Jill from the UK. Your channel came up so as am growing a tub of sweet potato for the first time I thought I would have a look. Hope I get the same size harvest from my pots as you got from yours.
You have some great videos on your channel that I am looking forward to watching. I have a few videos up on my channel but nothing like yours. Take care and be safe.
You have been informative. Thank you for helping to teach me about curing. I would never have known.
Awesome harvest! We would go through that easily within a year! I eat it a lot as a snack and in soups!!! 😁
She 's a good chef and great sister , she care for everyone in her family , Hao's friends are lucky to try her food the first time :)
Your information about sweet potatoes is the best I have heard in regard to harvesting. I know a little bit about sweet potatoes it depend on the variety indeed there are sweet potatoes that can be harvested in six weeks after planting also some that can be in four months after planting and the longest can be harvested six months after planting. What I find out on my own is that when the sweet potatoes are flowering it is good to leave it until the flowers drop before harvesting your information is very good 🙏🙏👍👍
Great video. I love that you did a comparison trial. Thanks for sharing 👍🏼
The broad lead herbicide the hay farmers are using is called an aminopyralid. Scott Head over at Black Gumbo Southern Gardening channel has some in-depth videos on the subject. Also David The Good talks about it on his channel as well. Lucky for me I watched one of Scott's videos about it before I made the same mistake. Aminopyralid is some bad stuff and should be outlawed.
Yes, Three years of not being able to plant in one of my garden beds. Took me a long time to figure out what was wrong. Very upsetting.
Jill, you can eat the sweet potato leaves, it's a super vegetable in my country, you can add them in some soup, or just steam little bit, add salt or shrimp sauce with lemon or vinegar, as a side dish for fish and meat. or you can include it in some vegetable - okra, stringbeans, squash, eggplant, sauté in olive oil, garlic and onion with shrimp - asian cooking. Sweet potato leaves can cure a lot of diseases in my country.
Thank you for making this video made it so much easier for me I was thinking about doing it in those draft cloth bags now I know it’s not a good option I really appreciate it I’m going with the raised bed
Great video. Made me decide to go with a raised bed for my sweet potatoes 😊
Sweet potatoes are my best friends, the one crop that has always done well for me.
Very good video Jill. I've experienced similar results over the years with my sweet potato ( and regular potato) comparisons. Comparing raised vs non raised (ground) its all about the quality of the soil. I've experimented with bags, containers, and other portable vessels but never get decent yields. Same with regular potatoes so I no longer plant them this way. I notice they require more watering and the soil Temps in containers may get too hot compared to conventional methods. This is especially true with regular potatoes. Thanks again for the great video. Keep them coming.
Informative video. I'll grow them in the ground bed , being a beginner. Thank you and I subscribed.
Watching this while eating sweet potatoes 😋 It looks like the soil in garden beds is more loose. That might be the reason for size difference. The ground soil seems to be more clayey. I might be wrong though, anyway very nice harvest! Much love from Europe, keep growing 🍀
Yes it definitely is more clay!
Aunty, great content. Very entertaining. I enjoyed your post production and editing.
Thank you ,good job
I enjoyed watching,hope to see more videos.🤗
Very good , thanks for the comparative information.
We love sweet potatoes, nice harvest thanks for sharing this love it... From philippines
Nice crop. I had a gardener tell me to make a raised bed with used tires about 3 to 4 high then at harvest time you can just kick the tires over to get the potatoes.
I know a lot of gardeners do that, and it's a good way to recycle. I am not a fan of risking the leaching of whatever the tires are made from in my edible crops, personally.
Thanks
Nice comparison! We just harvested ours out of the raised beds, and I was happy with the outcome.
Thank you! So glad you had a great harvest from your raised beds as well!
Jill I think you did incredible...great video and very motivating...thank you for sharing I just subscribed to your channel...I am a new gardener and can use all the help I can get....all the best from NY!
Thank you so much!
Glad I finally found this.
Lovely video
Super nice harvest
Outstanding! Great job. Im a new subscriber. Looking fwd to your updates
Love all your videos!
Thank you great info 😃🌻
That was a great harvest👍!And you know you can cook&eat the greens just like other greens&they have a lot of nutrients in them,so.try them next time,I didn't know it either til I saw another youtube farmer cook them(I think it was off Grid with Doug,his wife was cooking them&talked about the many nutrients in them,I'm growing some splits in water now seeing roots&I can't wait to plant them in my containers(small patio)cause I love sweet potatoes&pie Lol!Happy Harvesting All
Great informative content
Looks awesome 👏 Happy Thanksgiving
Great job...👍
Amazing growing in rasied bed this is my first time growing sweet potatoes I hope mine does do good in my rasied bed
What a good harvest. 😍😍😍😍 We have a garden with sweet potatoes as well in our province and I just enjoy harvesting them. 😀
They are fun to harvest! Like digging for treasure!
I thought you could have waited at least a few more (3-4 weeks) weeks waiting until the leaves start to yellow a bit more...youll certainly get more growth...hopefully youll update us next year!
Awesome
Hi😊 am a new subscriber..
I love gardening too..
You just earned yourself a new subscriber 😊 I really like your content, I am a Beginner gardener, I was wondering about raised beds vs containers vs Groud and you answered y question...Thank you so much for making this video... You made it look so easy....made so many mistakes and trying nit to give up especially as I a doing it organically (like you). I will now be leaning in you...😜
Thank you!
Nice job! I tried sweet potatoes for the first time this year. Will definitely be trying it again. I heard you say Arkansas....good to find another Arkansas channel here! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! Nice to meet you -- will be following your videos as well! It is nice to connect with someone local and compare notes.
@@thebeginnersgarden Absolutely! Glad I found your channel.
Jill was it you that did a video of planting sweet potatoes in containers. Start with a thin layer of soil on the bottom, let the vine grow, bury the vine with soil, let it grow, bury it, etc until the pot is completely full of soil? I’m trying to find who made that video! Thanks!
I did sort of, but it was for potatoes, not sweet potatoes.
What beauties ‼️❤️
AMAZING harvest. Q for ya. Have you planted different varities of sp to see how different their yields are? I'm wanting to try all different varities/colors, but am growing for food shortages, so don't want to grow less than needed. Thanks. And, super videos!
I just grow the two, so no I haven't tested others. I'm happy with them, but with other plants, I do enjoy growing new varieties. I typically plant almost enough from the ones I know do well, and just a few of the new ones "just in case."
Wow money sweet potatoes may dream small garden
Nice. Thanks for the video. What kind of soil and fertilizer did you use in your raised bed?
Mainly compost with a bit of topsoil mixed in. No fertilizer was used in the raised bed.
Thanks for the helpful video! One question- what size were the grow bags and how many potatoes (with the slips not cut off ) did you plant in each bag?
I believe they were 7-gallon bags, and I probably put 2-3 small potatoes with slips in each one.
Impressive! Appreciate you sharing. Please tell us about the soil you used in the raised bed. I’d also like to learn about “curing” the potatoes. TIA
Most of the soil these potatoes grew in was straight compost I bought in bulk from a landscaping company.
I knew your voice sounded familiar! Ive been listening to your podcast for months! Located just south of you in Little Rock :)
How neat! :)
We just harvested our 24 plants and got around 300 pounds, one ended up being 9 pounds.
Was that in a raised bed? If so, what dimensions?
What fertilizer you used please?
Thanks for the very well done video !!!!I A very nice harvest, especially in the raised bed. What did you fill your raised bed with ???? Right now i am still eating Sweet potatoes grown last year. They were given to me, but my friend cured them well. If a person does not have the weather to cure them outside in a building they can find a small room or closet to put them in with some kind of heat and humidity. Planning to harvest mine next weekend.
Thank you! This particular raised bed has a mix of native soil from my property and topsoil and compost from a local landscaping supply company that I bought in bulk. From what I can observe, the high quality compost was the biggest contribution to not only the sweet potato harvest but also everything else that has grown in that bed. Thanks for the tip on curing if you don't live in a high humidity area like I do.
@@thebeginnersgarden Thanks for the information. It is helpful to me.
Do you cure them in a single layer, or a pile with air circulation?
Hi that's good explanation. Straight forward.
Wat soul do you have,and what veriety is that.
Do Yu have a tropical climate?
I have a clay based soil in my ground beds. I live in the southeast US. Not tropical, but we have a long growing season.
The scared ends will heal over and store.
I have to try sweet potatoes next year!!! Where did you get those oval baskets/totes? Those look very handy.
Actually they were in the dollar area of Target, believe it or not! They were meant to be decorative, I'm sure, but all I could think of was harvest baskets! :)
Hi Jill. I grew my first sweet potatoes in 2021 in Ontario Canada. we are zone 5. anyway i grew them in a mix of wood shavings and course concrete sand 3/1 and not as deep a mix as i plan to use in 2022. I did get about 60 pounds and I did cure them as well as I could. I will follow your advice in producing my own slips this year. please tell me what soil mix you used in your raised bed for sweet potatoes. I have 4x8 raised beds that are 16 inches deep and sub-irrigated that I used for tomatoes in 2021 but I would like to try sweet potatoes . My raised beds are mostly triple mix soil and I wonder if that should work. I really enjoy your videos as a new 75 year old gardener.
Hi Fred, my bed was mostly compost with a bit of topsoil from our local river bottom, but it was definitely more compost than anything.
Sweet potatoes can't grow as well in dense soil. Like your ground area
Great video. Thank you for the info. I have one question...How many inches of soil do you need in your raised bed for the sweet potatoes to be successful?
The ones I grew in were probably 12" of soil, but they could probably grow in less.
@@thebeginnersgarden Thank you.
Jill did you know you can eat the leaves?
You didn't leave them growing long enough. In a Straw Bale you don't have to do any work at all!
Have you try to grow ginger, turmeric & galangal? If not yet, give it a try. Sweet potato, ginger, turmeric are tropical plant with same growth requirement. So i guess you should have great harvest
Tips: young ginger (4 or 5 month from planting) are great for ginger tea. While the mature ginger (8 to 14 month) mostly used for spice or ginger beer
Thank you! I'm growing ginger right now and haven't harvested yet. It's in my greenhouse.
How many months to harvest sweet potatoes
Was looking for a link to your hand shovel. Where did you buy that?
It came with my soil testing kit from SOILKIT.
So Raised Beds was the best method!
It was my favorite. Next year I'm planning on only growing sweet potatoes in them.
@@thebeginnersgarden Nice! But they seem hard to make
Good size SPs !! If you don't sell, or give them, they won't last long, so how long can you keep them in the earth before you *have to* harvest them?
Before a freeze, is my understanding.
I live in Kansas where it is just hot and dry. Very little humidity. How would I create a humid environment?? Thank you
I've heard putting them in a bathroom might help.
So how did u start you slips? Can I use store bought sweet potatoes
I started mine this year by putting a whole potato horizontally in a tray of moist potting soil, half buried, half exposed to my grow light indoors. I kept the soil moist and the slips grew from there. Then I snapped them off the main potato and transferred them to potting soil where they grew until I transplanted them outside. I used organic sweet potatoes from my store once, and it worked out well. But I live in the South, where pretty much any variety can grow easily. If you're further north, you'll need to try to buy slips from a variety that has a shorter growing season requirement.
Sweet potato vine cuttings can be planted and produce tubers.
What was the fertilizer and the amount you used in the raised bed? It was an amazing harvest 😁😊💗
It was compost only! No fertilizer.
I just now found your channel. What area of the country are you growing in?
Arkansas
Bersahabat dengan bumi.terbaik.
How big was the area you planted the 5 plants in the raised bed?
Probably about 2.5 feet by 4 feet, give or take.
So, when planting sweet potatoes in a raised beds, what are ideal plants that can share space with them? Can sweet potatoes be planted with okra or eggplant? My raised beds are pretty deep... 2 ft deep. Also, when planting sweet potatoes in raised beds, do potentially missed sweet potatoes that get left in the soil cause problems in subsequent seasons? I've heard it can be a hassle?
Okra would do well since it grows tall. Eggplant maybe. I didn’t have issues with leftover, unseen potatoes in my raised beds like I did in the ground.
@@thebeginnersgarden good to know. Thank you
How do you keep moles away from in ground plants?
Not really sure. Haven't had much of a mole problem in the garden. We see them occasionally in the yard, so I don't know why they don't get in the garden.
How long does it take before harvest, from planting to harvesting?
I plant in May and harvest in September/October.
What variety did you plant?
Beauregard was one; the other I'm not sure.
What did you put in soil?? Before slips?? And did you fertilize after planting??
I didn't put anything in the soil, and I didn't fertilize at all. In the raised beds, the soil is a mixture of topsoil and compost. In the ground bed I let wood chips break down season after season and let the chickens "fertilize" it in the winter.
I’m guessing here since it wasn’t described that curing means letting them sit at a certain temperature? And what if it you don’t have that specific temperature? Are they in edible, and when can you eat them?
Yes, when you cure sweet potatoes, they need to be at a warm temperature with high humidity (I can't recall exact, but I believe it's around 85F temp and 80% humidity) for a few weeks. This allows the starches to convert to sugars and heals any wounds. Basically it allows them to sweeten up and "keep" for longer. Cured properly they can be eaten in a couple of weeks. If you don't have warm weather and high humidity at the time of harvest, you could re-create that environment in a bathroom or closet, basically trying to raise the temperature and humidity artificially.
Look up curing in plastic grocery bags. Lay them single layer not touching each other, in a grocery bag, on a sunny windowsill (put something under to protect your windowsill, like a plastic lid to a large tub of lettuce from the grocery store). Cut slits in the bag. Tie the bag closed. If it's not sunny or is chilly at night, cover the bag with a hand towel to keep it warm. The potatoes will become humid in the bag. After 10 days they should be cured. Have not tried it myself, but have seen and read about this for people without humid environments to cure them. Afterward store single layer in cool room or garage. Some wrap them in newspaper, others just cover with newspaper in a box. Do not pile them up, they can bruise.
I've been trying to grow sweet potatoes for a very long time, but I never get any production. I tried the slips methods but still I would get 1 or 2 potatoes only. I planted them for about 4 months. Please help.
I've only grown them for two seasons, but from what I've seen, perhaps the issue is the length of your growing season. I live in the southeast US, which gives my potatoes plenty heat and a long growing season. If you live in a cooler area with not as long of a hot period, that could be the problem. If you live in a hot area, then my second bet would be the soil.
I lived in a tropical island summer all year long people here grow them well, but for me, nothing. Thanks for your reply. Rita
Did the garnet variety bloom?
I’m pretty sure they all did
@@thebeginnersgarden Awesome, thanks. Going to start a sweet potato breeding project soon. I am compiling a list of varieties that are most likely to bloom.
What is curing your potatoes mean?
I hope you read this. What kind of potatoes did you plant?
The orange-y ones are Beauregard. I'm not sure about the red ones because I bought them organic from my grocery store.
Ok your location is Arkansas
Hey 👋 fellow Arkansan
Howdy! :)
What was the size of the in ground bed? It seems as though, per square foot, the raised beds had the best yield. Just eyeing it, the in ground looks like 60 sq ft, and the area in the raised bed looked like 10 sq ft. That would be like .8 lbs per sq ft in ground and 2.2 lbs per sq ft raised. Anyway, thanks for the video, was great. I’m gonna get back to planting instead of binging UA-cam sweet potato videos lol…
The ground bed was a 4x28, and you're probably right on the raised bed. I'd estimate about 8-10 square feet.
@@thebeginnersgarden wow, thanks for sharing. Raised bed yielded almost four times as much. Amazing.
Seeing you put the slips in the ground and not bunches of the slips. We
I think your marigolds are allopathic.
Subb!!
Was that your wife helping you?
No, she's my friend and now she works with me as well.