I'm glad to hear your sweet potatoes are doing well.

In general, they do not bloom like standard potatoes. Occasionally you will see a flower on one, although flowers seem more common on the ornamental sweet potatoes than on the edible ones. I don't do anything special when they bloom.

You can just let them run all over the ground. A trellis is not necessary. However, research has shown that you shouldn't let the vines root into the ground except at the original point at which they were planted. Why? It is believed that when they do this, the formation of a secondard crop where the leaves root into the soil draws nutrients away from the primary crop and reduces its size and maybe even its quality. To prevent them from rooting into the soil, mulch heavily and, also, use your hands or a rake to gently move around the foliage a little bit every 7 to 10 days to keep them from rooting in.

Sweet potatoes generally are ready to harvest about 85-110 days after the slips are planted, and it varies depending on the variety. There is not specific time at which they are "ripe". Rather, you just dig them when they reach what you consider a usable size. Didn't you plant Beauregard? If so, it is one of the earlier varieties to reach a usable size and I think its tubers are usually a usable size at about 90 days. There's no real outward sign they are ready...the vines don't change color or die back, they don't bloom to let you know, etc. Instead, when your plants have been in the ground about the right number of days for that specific variety, just take a trowel and gently dig away the soil around a plant or two. If you find a good number of decently sized potatoes, they are ready to harvest. If there aren't many of them or they still seem small, push the soil back up around the plant and wait a couple of weeks and then check again.

Since there really is not a point where they are "ripe", there also is not a point at which they are, technically, "overripe". You can leave them in the ground into the cooling fall weather as long as you get them dug up before the soil temperature drops to or below 50 degrees. As long as the sweet potatoes are in the ground and their top growth is healthy, they'll continue to grow larger, a process often called "sizing up".

Your concept of a lot of water there in Indiana might be different from our concept of a lot of water here in Oklahoma. Actually, once they are established and actively growing, they do not require a lot of moisture. Often, depending on where you live and how much rain falls there, they can survive just fine on rainfall. The key to raising good-quality tubers is to keep the soil moist--neither bone dry nor sopping wet. It is somewhat common for their foliage to wilt on very hot days, and that is not necessarily a sign they are too dry--it is just a form of heat stress. When they wilt from the heat (somewhat common here, may not be common there), they usually bounce back in the evening as the sun is setting. If they don't bounce back, then they do need to be watered.

Once the roots start sizing up, do your best to avoid big fluctuations in soil moisture levels because they'll crack as a result of uneven moisture. Also, very heavy irrigation or rain while they are sizing up can give you very rough and misshapen roots. I always withhold water about 7-10 days before I anticipate digging the sweet potatoes. Why? First, it is more pleasant to dig in dry soil than in wet soil. Secondly, they will cure more quickly after being dug if they are not overly wet. Third, cutting back on the watering keeps them from getting rough or cracking.

Dawn

Dawn, Thank you for all the information-I will keep this to refer back to :) I have them hilled up just like I do with the potatoes and have done an irrigation system so that I would not have to water as often-(I have valleys inbetween each row of SP and Potatoes). You have answered all my questions and I am grateful for your expertise! You mentioned that I should mulch them heavily, what do you suggest?

Thank You

Nelda,

You can use whatever mulch you have. I tend to mulch with hay or straw because we have a lot of copperheads and several kinds of rattlers here and they blend in with leaves or wood chips but are pretty easy to spot on top of (but not underneath) straw or hay. Otherwise, I'd just chop and bag autumn leaves every year and use them. You also could use grass clippings if you have a grass catcher.

The mulch is great at keeping weeds down which means that you don't have to weed as often and you don't have weeds competing with your sweet potatoes for water or nutrients.

And, by the way, they grow down into the soil just fine as long as it is sandy loam or sandy soil, so "dirting" or "hilling them up" the way you do with regular potatoes isn't necessary.

Dawn

Yikes! Snakes, hate em' Shiver me timbers :) I am glad that we do not have those kinds of snakes here, we have garder and black snakes mostly. I have some cypress mulch that I am not doing anything with so I will use that. I would use the straw that we have but it is kinda weedy-but I will remember about the leaves and will bag some up this fall to use next year.

I only hilled up one side of the SP because I was not sure about how to do that part-however, my soil is neither sandy or loamy but is very loose-I will see about correcting that problem next year also. Hopefully I will make out ok with the soil as it is. next year I will look into putting into practice all that I have learned here.

Thanks again for all the information and come and visit us at the Indiana farm forum :)

Nelda

Nelda,

I am very, very close to the Red River so we have all kinds of wild things....some are fun to have around and some are creepy. LOL

If you want to use straw or hay that seems weedy, just lay down cardboard or newspaper (8-12 pages thick) underneath the hay or straw and it will keep any seeds that sprout from rooting down into the soil. I do it all the time.

I don't think the hilling hurt any....just that it was unnecessary labor.

I will come visit you one day at the Indiana farm forum.....and I'll post a message that says something like "Nelda....how are your sweet potatoes doing?" and then you can tell me what lovely plants they are......

Dawn

Hi need some advice first time planting so

I have them planted in buckets and cut tires have a couple are blooming once they reach each bucket they are rooting should I cut them once they root

One plant is reaching about 6 ft and going strong very beautiful and full foliage plants