Florida summers present a challenge to food gardeners: what will grow in the heat, humidity and swarms of insects? Sweet potatoes love the heat as long as they get enough water. One hundred degrees is just fine for these aggressive vines. But don’t expect to be eating sweet potatoes after 60 days. You need at least three months of hot weather to grow some potatoes, then after you harvest, you need to “cure” the potatoes for a couple of weeks so they can fully develop their flavor and sweetness. If you eat them fresh out of the ground you may be disappointed.
Here’s my sweet potato adventure, step by step:
May 16, 2014, I built a raised bed out of decorative garden edging stones. I just happened to have these laying around. They don’t make the sturdiest container since I just stacked them without mortar, but they did the job. Hey, it was an experiment! No need for permanence. Notice that I lined the bottom of the bed with thick cardboard to keep the weeds down and to help keep moisture in. Also notice the wheelbarrow full of old branches. That goes in next.
My raised bed ready to accept planting medium.
I have a very old grapefruit tree in the yard that has been slowly dying. I sawed off some decaying branches and had them laying in the yard collecting fungus and bugs. In an attempt at creating a hugelkultur bed, I put the citrus branches and loose bark on the cardboard. This is supposed to be a good thing.
I’ve added old rotting grapefruit branches to the bottom of the raised bed.
Next I added some trimmings from a sweet viburnum hedge and some handfuls of weeds and what-not to get some green stuff mixed in with the brown stuff.
Now I’ve added some green to the brown.
Next I added about six to eight inches of mulch that I got free at the local city landfill. The city shreds yard waste and tree trimmings and lets residents come and haul it away to use in their gardens. No charge. I’ve already paid for it anyway via a charge on my utilities bill.
Here I’ve added the mulch. In the wheelbarrow are topsoil and composted manure which will go on top of the mulch.
After adding the soil and manure, the sweet potato plants and the starter potatoes are ready to plant.
I bought the sweet potato plants at Home Depot. This variety is called Beauregard.
I bought these “gourmet organic” sweet potatoes at Publix supermarket. There are several varieties and as you can see some are already sending up sprouts.
Immediately after planting.
By July 11,2014, two months after planting, the vines had filled the bed and were overflowing into the yard.
By mid October I saw the first sweet potato vine flowers opening. Not many; just a few.
By November, the vines were growing several feet outside the bed, despite having had several encounters with the lawn mower over the summer. You can’t keep a good vine down.
Our first sweet potatoes harvested in mid October.
Our next harvest, mid November.
I put the taters into a 5 gallon Homer bucket with a lid to rest for a week before washing them and storing in a cool place to “cure” till after the first of the year.
Here’s my video of the entire operation from planting to harvest:
