Long story short - it was by accident! I was just going to grow this sweet potato vine for leafy greens. Yet one large sweet potato beneath the vines grew to weigh 16 pounds / 7.3 kilograms.
How To Grow Sweet Potatoes
The easiest way to grow sweet potatoes is to get some sweet potato slips, which are simply live sweet potato vine cuttings. The best time to grow them is when the weather gets warm. They are very cold sensitive. Therefore, any temperature near frost point will kill their vines.
- Start by inserting the root-end of slip into a 3-inch pot filled with soil and leaving it in the shade so it won't dry out by direct sunlight before growing roots.
- It will only take one week or even less before you can see roots almost coming out from the bottom holes of the pot.
- Then, it's time to transplant it into the soil at a full-sun location. Sweet potato tuber needs room to grow so the soil will need to be loose. They don't like standing water so the soil needs to be able to drain water quickly after heavy rain. I have sandy soil in my garden so there is no problem because they are loose and can easily drain the excessive rainwater off.
- Cover the soil with organic matters. I use wood chips from the waste stream. As the organic matter breaks down, it gives nutrients to the sweet potatoes and retains moisture for them to use.
- In a hot and wet tropical or subtropical climate, it only takes 3 months for them to reach normal harvest size. If you don't harvest them, they will continue to grow into odd shapes as seen in my previous post. The good news is they don't become fibrous. The bad news is bugs can start eating them and turning them into humus - good for the bugs and your garden, but not for you if you intend to harvest them to eat.
- If you live further north and do not have a hot summer, you can experience growing them in a greenhouse or a poly low tunnel to speed up their growth or to prolong the growing season for them to reach a good size.
How Did One Sweet Potato Turn Into a 16-pound / 7.3-kilogram Giant
- Instead of harvesting tubers after 3 months, we were harvesting the leaves to cook. Therefore, it had one whole year to grow to that size.
- It was next to a Hugelkultur, made of wood logs and wood chips, which broke down into humus slowly and fed it day and night.
- It was next to a volunteer nitrogen fixer, which fed the nitrogen to it constantly.
The largest darker purple one in normal shape on the bottom right is 1 lb 12 3/8 oz (or 805 g) while the giant one on the top weighs 16 lb / 7.3 kg!
I showed how I cooked this giant sweet potato in my previous post. Thank you for stopping by today. I'll see you next time.
Wonderful. Thank you. Where can one get slips from? :) We may just have to get seeds. I thought sweet potatoes were tubers like regular potatoes, but it seems like these things grow on vines like tomatoes or cucumbers. So that changes my whole outlook. I appreciate the clarification. Thank you.
You're very welcome! You can grow them from seeds too. If you want to try to grow them from slips, I can mail some slips to you when you are ready. Just let me know.
The slips would survive on their trip here? We live north of Edmonton, Alberta. We may just buy seeds. But if you are willing to mail slips up, it is worth a try. We can connect when it is warmer and we are ready for them. Thank you
My pleasure! We never know if we never try. Let's connect when it's warmer and you are ready. :-)
Hi there. If you are open to some feedback ... you are voting too much. Your voting power is down to 31%. If you are not aware, visit steemnow.com and put in your user id. It will give you some information to help you manage your voting power. Right now it will take 83 hours to recharge your account. That way your votes are worth more. I'm not sure if you were aware, but too much voting diminishes the value of your votes. I hope this helps.
Thank you so much for your advice. I need to control my tendency of voting too much in order to bring my voting power up. This helps!
I was also thinking that when it comes to the sweet potato shoots, mid june is when the frost risk leaves. However, in the greenhouse it is about mid April. Just so that you know. :)
This is wonderful, I never knew tuber of potatoes can weigh as high as this neither did i know it can be so big like this.
Though you really took your time and you put in much efforts before this could be achieved.
Thanks for guiding us on how to go about having something like this.
regards @funkylove
You're very welcome. And thank you for your compliment.
This looks more like my new born nephew instead of a sweet patato ⚆ _ ⚆
Haha ... I bet it's heavier than your newborn nephew ;-)
Hahaha! Probably!
That is absolutely incredible/insane.
Thing looks like an alien creature... Amazing.
Thanks for all that advice tho on how to grow these guys, I think i bought some of their seeds for next season. Trying to start my own garden. Yee Haw!
It does look like an alien. :) Best wish for starting your own garden! It has been a very rewarding experience for me.
I had no idea you could eat sweet potato leaves!
This is why I can’t write as many posts as I want to. I learn so many things reading the excellent posts in my feed, I have to just keep reading!
Have a great weekend!
Thank you! We all learn from each other. I bet you must have known something I don't even have a clue. ;-)
Well, watch for my posts and give me a hollar if you learn anything! :)
was something that large actually good? wow. ususaly when they are too big they get woody. but I love sweet potatoes. awesome and interesting post
Surprisingly, it doesn't get woody at all. The old monster is still as tender as a baby. ;-)
wow... that is so awesome
That is HUGE! Is it a record?? lol...can't believe that you ate it...
It's a record for me, but probably not an all-time record. It could have grown larger if I didn't dig it out and ate it. ;-)
What a nice post friend 😉thanks a lot for sharing, so interesting... If you want check my new food post and Upvote 🙏