Grow: sweet potato

Turn a humble sweet potato into a productive garden crop. Learn how to grow slips, plant them out and enjoy a harvest of roots and leaves.

Sweet potato

Ipomoea batatas

• Climate: tropical, subtropical, arid/semi-arid, warm temperate, cold temperate
• Height: 20cm
• Width: Up to 3m-long spreading vines
• Full sun
• Harvest: 18–20 weeks slip to harvest

Sweet potato is such a multipurpose crop. Both the tubers and leaves can be eaten and the sprawling vines double as a living ground cover.

New plants are started from cuttings, which are referred to as ‘slips’. You can buy potted slips from nurseries but you can also grow your own. To grow a slip, suspend the pointy end of a sweet potato in a jar of water and place in a warm spot. In a few weeks, roots will form followed by little sprouts on top. Once sprouts have 3–4 leaves, carefully snap them off and pop them in water to root. These are the slips, which can be planted into soil enriched with organic matter, once frosts have passed.

Sweet potatoes prefer a warm and sunny spot, and regular watering. If you’re main goal is to harvest tubers, allow vines to sprawl horizontally and send extra roots into the soil for extra vigour. If you’re just growing to eat the foliage, train plants vertically to keep leaves clean.

In cooler climates, plant in spring and harvest tubers in autumn when foliage dies down. In warmer climates, plants can be grown all year round and harvested 18–20 weeks after planting.

Orange fleshed varieties grow quicker and are great for temperate climates. White and purple fleshed varieties grow slower and are better suited to subtropical/tropical areas.

Pick up Issue 168 of ABC Organic Gardener in stores now to read the rest of this story on sweet potato, currants and scabiosa, or subscribe at mymagazines.com.au to get every issue delivered straight to your door.