Common Name Sweetpotato (or sweet potato)
Scientific Name Ipomea batata

Uses Edible root crop; stores well; eaten whole, in muffins, mashed, fries, chips, etc. Leaves are also edible, but not typically consumed.

Crop Timeline

• Seeds: Sweetpotatoes are not grown from seeds.
• Transplants: Obtain slips (bareroot, vegetative cuttings) for planting in late May to early June. Stick slips in loose soil and keep moist for about a week while roots are established.
  • Watch a video on How to Plant Sweetpotatoes

Planting tips

• Fertilizer: Incorporate a complete organic fertilizer in the soil 2 weeks before planting
• Number of plants per square foot: 1 slip per square foot
• Growing structures: raised beds, in ground, containers
• Frost protection: None; sweetpotatoes should be harvested before first frost.

Harvest

• 100-120 days after planting
• Each slip may produce 3-5 sweetpotatoes
• Find where the vine was planted in the soil and carefully dig around the stem
• Use plastic trowels to loosen the soil trying to avoid damaging potatoes. Use hands to dig once soil is loosened.
  • Watch a video on How to Harvest Sweetpotatoes

Pests 

There are no major pests of concern for sweetpotato in the school garden environment. Generally speaking, a good practice for all crops is to use crop rotation from season to season to break the life cycle of insects and soil pathogens.