Yeah or you can let them root. Mine often do.

Dave

Doesn’t that lead to small roots?

I still get huge roots with vine rooting.

That’s all well and good when the vines are only a couple feet long, when they start spreading everywhere , it becomes virtually impossible.

"Check for this by gently lifting the vines every once in a while to keep them from setting down roots along the vine. If they do this, and they will in moist soil, your yield can be decreased to next to zero. The only place you want them to root is at the spot where you planted the original plant."

Never had that experience here. The past few years I've planted my SP slips in one long single row. As the vines spread out from the original row I'll lift them occasionally to prevent random rooting and once they're long enough (2-3' long ) I then prepare 2 parallel rows on both sides of the original row and purposely place/bury the long vines in the 2 new rows to produce a later crop.

After 100 days or so I'll dig up the main row of SPs while snipping the vines close to the main plants and allow the 2ndary rows to continue to grow. These 2 parallel rows continue to grow up until the first frost at which time I'll dig up those 2 rows of SPs. In the end my SP production is increased to almost 2x and it's much easier to find them since they aren't scattered about in a random pattern.

Since we need the space for SP vines to spread out we might as well make use of it.

I am growing bush and semi-bush varieties so I can keep them somewhat contained to my 4x10 raised beds. So far I've been able to keep them within the borders but the Bush Porto Rico are about to spill over the sides.

It’s mostly based on the length of the growing season, I think.

Any root that develops on a vine in my garden today, is only going to have approximately 75 days, at the most, to develop into a usable sweet potato. Not long enough.

This is what I’m dealing with:

Pretty much every little piece of every single vine has roots like this along its entire length. Had about four days of almost constant rain.

Personally I've never had any problems with decreased production by letting them root along the vines. I get good production from the main hills and even a few small ones along the way where they rooted. One year I even got a couple of nerfball-sized ones 4 or 5 feet away from the hill.

It's not that I set out to root the vines but they often do it and it provides additional nutrients to the plant when they do. That can help especially if you have lots of weeds like that competing. My plants are widely spaced in long rows and room to run. Maybe it depends on variety?

Dave

If space is an issue and you just want one hill per plant for easy harvest then maybe this experiment on trimming vines (GW thread below) might work as an alternative.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/4609461/trimming-back-sweet-potato-vines-bad-idea#n=7

I used black plastic 5 ft wide. To help against scurf, I want the ridge to be pretty dry. I have made very small holes for the plants to...again keep the ridge fairly dry. Do the roots [tubers] get very big?...very big even with rootlets on the vines out past the plastic. I figure like Dave that the little rootlets provide water and nutrients to the main plant.

Sheese, I was proud of my little sweet'tater patch (13 hills) ...until a few nights ago. I don't have to worry about air-rooting with these, the deer took care of it.<grrrr>

That stinks DT. Not too long until deer season though so you can plot your revenge. I have some fencing elevated over the top of my 2 raised beds with sweets to keep the deer and rabbits at bay. Soon the vines will escape the raised beds though so I'm going to have to think up something.

Mine are inside a deer netting enclosure, but anytime even the slightest wisp of mine escapes the netting, it’s chopped off by deer right to the netting.

LJ, those thoughts of revenge *have* been dancing through my mind. But, it could have been some of my fault, too...left the fence (4-strand electric) disconnected while the grandkids were using the water (inside the fence) to fill their kiddie pool. Naturally, when I got in from work that evening I forgot to hook it back up.<sigh> But, I bought some step-in posts yesterday and will be running a single strand of polywire 3' away from the original fence and 18" high. The double fence gets good reviews in keeping the deer out....they have trouble with depth perception and can't figure out whether they can jump the gap or not. Hopefully it will work as I'll be planting some beans soon and later some greens. We'll see!!!

I planted Vardaman sweet'taters. They're a bush-type plant. I grew them on a 3' wide row and they were filling about a foot of the 2' wide paths on either side of the row. Good foliage/shade/canaopy. Only a few bush-type sweet'tater varieties, but I knew I needed something that didn't run *too* rampant. I've learned that "bush-types" can start vining...especially in regards to southern cowpeas!!! Anyhow, that might be a variety to grow next year to keep them from rambling too much. I ordered from "Tatorman" over in Georgia....tiny little slips that I figured I'd get half a stand out of, man did they surprise me!!! I ordered a dozen slips, got a baker's dozen from them and everyone of those slips survived and grew really good. I dug a couple of hills to see what was below ground and they were making potatoes...a few good sized ones but we still had a couple of months to go in the growing season when the deer mowed them down. I'm going to wait and see what the remaining stubble does....we'll see. Fried deer meat and sweet'taters sounds pretty tasty!!!!

DT - I'm growing Vardaman (4), Bush Porto Rico (8) , and Betty's (4). They are all very different from each other in growth habit and leaf color and shape. BPR are spreading more than the other 2 so far. I didn't receive mine from Sandhill Preservation until about June 10 so they haven't been in the ground for 2 months yet. It is amazing how those tiny slips with barely any roots can turn into such a robust plant.

Right now I don't have any fencing around my whole garden area. I just try to protect individual beds with veggies that the deer might enjoy with fencing. I plan to put electric fencing up this fall.

Keep me posted on how those three varieties work out for you. I think the Vardaman would be a good one...wish I could've seen them un-compromised at the end of the season.<sigh> I planted them April 10th and this is what (I think) two hills looked like. I added the "I think" part because I planted in a straw line but part of these came from a spot at an angle to that row...not sure if it's where an early vine might have pegged down...??? I'm leaving the rest of them in the ground for a while to see if they try to recoup some leaves. One more month and they'd been in mighty good shape!!!! :(

I grew vards for a few years and their flavor and sweetness was tops. But they seemed a bit too thin to use as bakers, not all of them but many. I'd plant in mid May and dig after labor day to plump them up abit, while hoping for normal rainfall.

hey fellow gardeners. did I plant too many. Beauregard in my large black pots app those 25 gallon black plastic(unfortunately) plastic.? this year just 2 or 3 Bonnie brand ..in those supposedly 25 gallon black pots.?

its the only way here I can do. here at this tiny downhill clay etc lot. place.

excuse my typos etc I hate this blanket blank keyboard and touch mouse on this Mac laptop.. bought the laptop thru the web used . didn't realize that Mac doesn't have a home key, back key etc, Rah... thanks y'all I keep acc losing my cursor. Prefer to use a sep trackball mouse.

I'm no sweet'tater guru, but I'd wager that your probably ok. 12" to 18" spacing is what is recommended *in ground". Keep them watered and not waterlogged and I think you're good to go. If you need more 25 gallon pots you might consider buying some used foodgrade 55-gallon drums and cutting them in half. We get them for around $10 a piece, though I haven't tried doing what I'm suggesting. FWIW. :)

Agree that 2 or 3 plants in 25 gallons should do ok. Of course you'll have vines running all over the place.

Dave