How to Plant Sweet Potato Vines: A Detailed Guide to Planting Time and Methods

Do you know how to plant sweet potatoes? Sweet potatoes are generally grown from sweet potato vines. First, let old sweet potatoes sprout slips, then prune the slips. Usually, a slip with two to 3 leaf nodes can be planted as one sweet potato start. If you want to propagate new plants, you can use the sweet potato vines cut the first time, or use the vines harvested this time and replant them for propagation. Let's take a look below at what needs attention when planting sweet potatoes.

Soil: Loose loam that has been mixed with organic matter several times. (As long as the used soil has no pests or diseases, either Yangmingshan soil or potting mix can be used.)
Container: A round pot 40 cm deep and 30 cm in diameter. This time a tall, deep pot was used; the roots grow downward and form tuberous roots, so 4 plants already appeared crowded.
Cuttings: From about 4 to 5 nodes down from the tip, cut off strong branches and insert them into the soil. One node must go deep into the soil for roots to grow. The leaves that grow from sweet potatoes are very large, almost 3 to 5 times larger than those of sweet potato leaves grown for eating. Because they feel rough, the leaves were not cut in half, in order to reduce water evaporation.
Fertilizing: Because the container is relatively deep, it takes quite a distance for the cuttings to grow roots, so organic fertilizer was applied at the very bottom as a base fertilizer. After that, fish emulsion was applied weekly, and organic fertilizer was applied every two months. The growing period is 5 to 6 months, so fertilizer can be given in small amounts more often, or a full amount can be given once every 2 months.
Watering: When the sweet potatoes were pulled out, fine and thick roots filled the entire pot, so the soil surface often appeared short of water. Be careful to supply enough water to avoid old leaves turning yellow and dropping, which would affect growth due to excessive leaf loss.
Harvesting: On 10/5, a small sweet potato was found floating above the soil surface, because the surrounding space had already been filled by other sweet potatoes and it could not go deeper into the soil. The growing period is generally 150 to 180 days.
Note: The leaves that grow from sweet potatoes are very rough and not suitable for eating. If the leaves are frequently picked, nutrients are instead used up in growing leaves, which may prevent the underground tuberous roots from growing large.