It’s easy to assume that all vegetable plants grow from seeds or young plants you buy from garden centers. However, some veggies regrow from scraps, and sweet potatoes are one. Find out how to grow sweet potatoes in a pot by starting them indoors and transplanting them outside.
Before tossing leftover vegetables in the garbage or compost pile, consider regrowing them. Green onions, celery, yams, ginger, garlic, regular potatoes, and sweet potatoes are just some of the vegetables that regrow from sections. Whether you plant them in a vegetable garden or containers, they are fast growers.
The most remarkable thing about growing sweet potatoes is that you don’t need a spacious backyard. They happily grow in large pots, raised beds, whiskey barrels, grow bags, or buckets, as long as you give them the care they want. Harvesting your own sweet potatoes at the end of the growing season is more satisfying than purchasing a bag from the grocery store.
How to Grow Sweet Potatoes in Containers
While you may think that growing sweet potatoes in pots takes some talent, these veggies are one of the easiest to grow, and you don’t need much space to plant sweet potatoes. The season to harvest potatoes is late summer or early fall, so give your sweet potato plants what they need to grow and enjoy a bountiful harvest.
Learn how to grow sweet potato slips indoors and transplant them in pots outside. The different types of sweet potatoes are easy to grow in smaller spaces. Discover what these plants require to thrive and how to use your veggies in a recipe after planting sweet potatoes in pots.
Planting Sweet Potatoes in Pots Indoors
Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are a vine species in the morning glory family. There are many cultivars, including Vardaman, Jewel, and Garnet, and all are suitable for DIY container gardening.
However, before planting sweet potatoes in pots, it’s essential to start sweet potato slips indoors. The slips are derived from the sprouts of a mature sweet potato, and the process is simple.
Prepare to plant sweet potatoes in pots by growing potato slips. Pick a firm, undamaged sweet potato and use a sharp knife to cut it into pieces slightly smaller than the opening of your glass jar.
Insert three or four toothpicks into the middle of each tuber piece, spacing them evenly around the circumference, and balance them on the edge of a glass or jar of water, ensuring that you submerge the tuber’s pointed end in the water.
Set it in a sunny windowsill and check the water level regularly to ensure it covers the bottom half of the seed potatoes. In a few weeks to a month, individual green sprouts begin sprouting from the top of the tuber, and these slips are what create a new sweet potato plant.
Once they start producing sweet potato leaves, gently twist them off the tuber and lay them in a shallow dish of water. Submerge each stem in the water with the leaves hanging on the dish’s edge. Once the roots reach an inch in length, they are ready for transplanting into pots.
How to Grow Sweet Potatoes in a Pot
Once your sweet potato slips begin sprouting, it’s time to begin growing potatoes with eyes. Transplant them in a container and care for your sweet potato vines as they mature.
Before transplanting slips into pots, choose a container with drainage holes and make sure that it is large enough to accommodate their growth. One that is at least 18 inches deep is suitable. Sweet potatoes grow best when they are 12 to 18 inches apart, and a wide container is ideal for planting more than one slip.
Fill the pot with a well-draining, loamy, sandy soil until it is about one inch below the rim, and mix in a slow-release fertilizer. Potassium is beneficial to healthy spud growth.
Make a large hole in the center to cover the slip’s roots, set the plant in the middle, and cover it with dirt. Do not compress it too tightly since sweet potatoes require loose soil to grow. Set the container in a sunny indoor area and water lightly.
After the last frost is over, take the pot outside for a couple of hours each day to harden off the seedlings. Start by placing them in the shade and eventually move them to a sunny spot by the end of the week.
After hardening off your plants, find a permanent spot in the full sun and leave your sweet potatoes outside. Spread black plastic mulch or straw around the plants, water the pot when the dirt feels dry, and prune away damaged leaves when necessary.
Harvest the tubers when the ends of the vines are yellow or before the first frost in the north. Use a garden fork to loosen the dirt 18 inches around the plant, and use your hands to pull the sweet potatoes out of the pot gently.
Growing Sweet Potatoes in Pots – Harvesting
It’s time to think about how to eat them after growing sweet potatoes in pots, caring for the plants as they mature, and harvesting tubers from the soil. For a basic recipe, these baked sweet spuds are right up your alley.
Wash the whole sweet potatoes, poke them with holes, and set them on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Roast them for 40 to 50 minutes in a 425°F oven, or until they are puffed up and soft when you pierce them with a fork.
Allow the potatoes to cool slightly, then slice them open across the top. Spread a pad of butter inside each potato, sprinkle them with salt and chopped chives, and add a dollop of Greek yogurt before serving.
There are many types of vegetables to grow at home, and some take up a lot of space.These veggies are satisfied growing in a pot, as long as it’s the proper size and you plant them in suitable soil.
We hope you enjoyed discovering how to grow sweet potatoes in a pot, and we’d love it if you’d share our sweet potato container garden guide with the gardeners in your life on Pinterest and Facebook.