Don't sweet potatoes need a really warm climate? Unless you live inland you probably wouldn't have much luck.

I have two beds of regular potatoes in already--one went in 3/21 which was a bit too early and they got frozen back two or three times, but are doing just fine now and put another one in 4/22 which is just beginning to sprout. I would expect these potatoes to be finished long before fall.

We live in East Bay/Central Valley/Tri-Valley area (still trying to figure out this area's jargon), so it'll get pretty warm here... Think it'd be ok to do the sp's now? It'll take me ~2months to get the slips ready to plant in the ground...

A seller at our local Farmer's Market sells 4 kinds of sweet potatoes, so they definitely can be grown here. But I also know there are severe import restrictions, and most online sellers can't ship sweet potatoes to California. Where do you plan on getting your slips from?
They also need rich, fluffy soil (NOT California adobe clay!) so I would plant them in the ground in a hole filled with straight planting mix if I were you.

Carla in Sac

Hi, Carla. Well, I'm gonna try making slips from a beauregard sp I bought at the store... Others have mentioned success doing this, so I figured, "Why not?".

Have you found any sellers who CAN ship to CA? I'd like to find a couple reputable places for when I'm ready to stock up on seeds/plants again.

Also, I'm using homemade "Mel's mix" from square foot gardening (1/3ea of compost, vermiculite, peat moss--though mine is closer to 1/2 compost). I just finished my raised bed, and have extra mix. It's pretty fluffy stuff. No kidding on the clay! I went from VA red clay to CA dry, hard clay! hehe

The previous tenants left a really big, deep clay pot, so I'm planning on using that and trellising the sp vines since I read the sp's can take over a LOT of dirt space.

Also, Carla, when does your market typically have the sp's for sale?

Actually I just found out that Sandhill can now ship to California.

Carla in Sac

Here is a link that might be useful: Sandhill nursery

I live in Livermore (which is in the previously mentioned Trivalley, zone 14 anyway) and did sweet potatoes last summer. Ordered some slips from a place in the southeastern states, though I do remember a number of shops wouldn't send them to CA, they did. Also started a few from a Costco boxed sweet potato. All of them grew about the same, though the ordered taters did taste a little sweeter. Anyway, I got some food but not enough that I'm doing them again this year. Also: I amended the hell out of some soil and only mildly in other soil and grew some others in huge pots. Not much of a difference. Anyway, I put the slips in the ground about the end of May which seemed about right.

The one bit of wisdom that I found true: they like lots of space and water and the vines will grow like crazy (though I might have gotten maybe only 100 taters from a dozen healthy plants). (The only plants that I got no useable food from had a drip go out for a couple of weeks. Plant fine, but taters cracked to hell.)

Mail me if I can give any advice, though I'm mostly a newbie with plants in general. I wish I spent more time on these groups, they seem good.

mustardseed~Thanks for sharing your knowledge! I love hearing about people's experiments with growing things differently.

100 sp's from 12 plants is a lot, IMO... I'm breaking my family down to eating sp's, but for now, I'm the only one who eats them in any way/shape/form (must be the southern blood in me).

I bought two potatoes. One has been in water in a sunny window for a week, and I noticed it's first root this morning. I've decided to put the second potato directly into the dirt to see what happens, and compare how long it takes each to grow. I have a pretty large pot, and although I'd love to trellis, I may just let them roam on the dry clay and see what happens...

Gonna go fill my pot now, actually! weee