That's wonderful crystabel! I'm thinking about doing that next year, but not in the sfg. Thanks for sharing the photos and information.

EG

I'm all over sweet potatoes; tell me more. Seriously walk me through it from seed to harvest.

OK, how did you do it? I see where you have to plant "slips", but I'm not too sure what slips are! I threw out two sprouting ones, actually buried them in a bare section of the garden, and I ended up digging them up and potting them because they were so pretty. I LOVE sweet potatoes, and would really like to grow a few next year.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

That looks like a lot of potatoes for just 3 squares! I am impressed!!!

Thanks! I absolutely love sweet potatoes.
We made some of our own slips from sweet potatoes from the store. We cut a sweet potato in half, hung it in a jar of water (propped by skewers) and waited for the stems to sprout off the top - the green ones with pretty leaves, not the roots below in the water. Then we just popped those sprouts off and planted them. I also bought slips online and planted those because I didn't trust my own LOL, having never done it before. And in one box I simply planted the whole potato after I saw some sprouts grow. It will be interesting when we harvest that one.
They all grew wonderfully, although because they spread all over the garden I can't tell which potatoes came from which slips.
It was impossible to contain them and they tried weekly to overrun everything else in the box, so next planting they get their own box. Also, my boxes are 12" deep so they had plenty of room to grow. Some of them were actually almost a foot long and had grown sideways. I thought I was keeping them in their 3 squares by keeping the top vines from rooting, but they rooted deep and long from the ones inside the squares.
Basically though I just planted those slips and let them do their thing until it was time to harvest (about 4 months). I cut the vines back when they got unruly but that was about it.
I have two more boxes to harvest and I'm going to wait until next week or the week after to get those.

Here are what the slips look like.

I think the ones in the left bottom corner are the "homemade" ones.
Here they are a few weeks later

When I cut them back to get ready to dig them out the vines were 6 feet out of the box. And I had cut them back several times during the last few months.

You just break off the sprout that's growing out of the potato? Or do you cut it off with some of the potato attached to it? I just moved my potted one yesterday, and the fine white roots had grown out the bottom hole of the pot and spread along the top of the soil beneath. I know there won't be room in the pot for any tubers to form, so I wonder just how long I can keep it as a potted plant...it's awfully pretty, many of the leaves have a purple tinge.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Yep, I just broke off the sprout.
I think you can keep it potted as a plant for a long time. I took a sprout and put it in a long neck bottle of water back when I planted these in June and it is still alive (no soil, no food, just water). Here's a pic, check out those roots that it put out! I kind of forgot about it, guess I should give it some more water since I haven't filled it in a few months.

I planted four squares, but I haven't dug them up yet. I hope they do as well as yours did.

I planted one plant in a EarthBox knockoff and it did pretty good.

{{gwi:1285808}}
These came from only one plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chery's Square Foot Garden

Awesome Cheryl!

And what an awesome blog, Cheryl! I can see I'll be spending quite a bit of time catching up on all your blog posts today. I hope you don't mind that I added it to the favorites on my blog.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Way cool! That's one to stick in the back of the brain -- I love sweet potatoes!

Thanks for the cudos. As you can tell, I love gardening. My neice tells me I'm obsessed. Well, yeah.

And, Granny, I'm thrilled to be added to your list. I've been stopping by your blog too. Love the recipes and the tidbits of information. When I take the time to figure out how to add other blogs to mine, I hope you don't mind if I add yours too.

In my search for short season tomatoes I came across Mapple Farms in PEI, Canada who has developed short season Sweet potatoes. wingate@nbnet.nb.ca

I had never thought about these but I am going to try these next year.

Link to someone trying them

http://ottawahortiphilia.blogspot.com/2007/09/sweet-sweet-potato-success-for-northern.html

---------------------------------------
Info from an Email that they sent me...
---------------------------------------
SHORT SEASON SWEETPOTATOES (Ipomoea batatas)
Sweetpotatoes are among the most rewarding of vegetables to grow. These light feeders tolerate both acid soils and drought, and they store exceptionally well. As a food, theyre nutritional powerhouses. And theyÂre among those vegetables, like tomatoes and carrots, that taste immeasurably better home-grown than store-bought.
For the adventurous gardener with a 100-day frost-free season, short season sweetpotatoes are certainly worth a try. At Mapple Farm (Zone 5), we consider them an easy and dependable crop.
Since the 1980s, weÂve continually selected for earliness and productivity to provide you with the best sweetpotato planting material possible for northern, short season conditions. WeÂre proud to be the first and longest serving mail order sweetpotato stock supplier in Canada.
Not grown from seed, sweets are propagated by rooted cuttings or slips--small plants that grow from the tubers themselves and are then transplanted.

CULTIVARS

GEORGIA JET-By far the most popular type we carry . . . and with good reason. Of the dozens of varieties weÂve tried, itÂs the hands down leader for earliness and yield among the orange-flesh strains.

TAINUNG 65-Light pink skin, creamy interior. Large tuber potential and high yielding-- often rivaling Georgia Jet for early tuber production. Its purple stems and bronze leaves also make decorative houseplants or hanging baskets.

FRAZIER WHITE- White and very sweet. Bulks up well, especially easy to harvest.

CARVER-The variety we started with and still a favorite. Tops in sweetness and flavor. Copper skin and moist, orange flesh.

SUPERIOR-A copper-skinned, moist orange-fleshed type with striking ivy-like foliage. Most appreciated by Great Lakes region growers.

REGAL-Developed in the Carolinas. Attractive red skin, orange-fleshed and delicious.

JAPANESE YAM- Burgundy skin and cream colored flesh. Very sweet with a hint of cloves.

We continue to trial EXCEL, GINSENG RED, KOREAN PURPLE, TRAVIS, BEAUREGARD & HANNAH.

Minimum total order: 12 plants For XPressPost option,*
Minimum order per variety: 6 plants add to $9.95 shipping:
12 slips/$12.95 $4.50
24 slips/$22 $4.50
60 slips/$48 $4.50
120 slips/$85 $9.00
240 slips/$155 $13.00 per 240 slips

* We ship plants from April (weather permitting) through mid-June via Canada PostÂs expedited parcel service. For faster delivery, we offer Canada PostÂs XPressPost service, especially recommended for destinations west of Ontario, particularly if youÂre far from a major centre.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Note: The larger (more than 24 plants) quantity listings are primarily for Georgia Jet and Tainung 65. We donÂt have sufficient supply in the other varieties to fill large orders. WeÂll do our best to fill your order exactly as you specify. However, if your order arrives at a time when weÂve run out of a particular selection, your choice in marking the "sub" (substitution) or "no sub" boxes helps in guiding our order handling. If you mark "no sub" and we canÂt supply, weÂll simply refund. If you mark "sub," we will if we must and according to your preferences; e.g., feel free to tell us what your sub choices are (by name, by flesh color or whatever and weÂll do our best to oblige).
-----------------------------------------------------------

Timing the Plants Shipping
Usually, youÂll want your plants after the weather has settled to the stage when peppers and eggplants are normally set in the garden. WeÂve always tried to ship plants at the proper time; that is, when weÂve thought our customers needed them. This can be tricky especially when (e.g., in B.C.) planting zones can vary so dramatically within relatively short distances. Also, a gardenerÂs requirements may differ greatly depending on whether a greenhouse or other protective techniques are used.
So, if you know when you want plants, fill in the "When To Ship Plants" line on the Order Form. Otherwise, weÂll decide for you when itÂs best to send them.

Shipping Plants Versus Tubers
WeÂre often asked why we donÂt supply tubers instead of plants. For one thing, plants can handle colder conditions than tubers. A tuber exposed to temperatures below 10ºC./50ºF is subject to chilling injury and may rot; plants remain okay if kept above freezing.
Given that youÂd need to have tubers at least 2 months prior to transplanting time in order to grow the plants youÂd need, itÂs simply too cold then to have them shipped.
Also, plants are far lighter (so less costly) than tubers to ship.

WhatÂs in a Name?
YouÂll notice that we refer to "sweetpotatoes" all in one word. As if the confusion over yams isnÂt enough of a trial! (Some commercial sweetpotato producers refer to the moist, orange-fleshed cultivars they grow as "yams" to differentiate them from the drier, white- fleshed types.) Of course, yams (Dioscorea genus), a tropical crop, arenÂt, botanically speaking, even related to sweetpotatoes (Ipomoea genus). . . and neither are potatoes (Solanum genus). So, the thinking goes, the recent move to "sweetpotatoes" instead of "sweet potatoes" helps to distinguish "our favorites" from "the common spud."

-----------------------------------------------------------
SWEET POTATOES FOR THE HOME GARDEN:
With Special Techniques For Northern Growers

Following his popular article in Harrowsmith #96 (March/April Â91)
on sweetpotato growing in Canada, Ken Allan released, in 1998, the definitive book on the topic.
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
2. The History of the Sweet Potato
3. The Patron Saint of Sweet Potatoes:
George Washington Carver
4. Chilling Injury
5. Slips Production
6. Location, Soil and Fertilizer
7. Soil Warming & Bed Preparation
8. Planting and Care
9. Growing in Pots
10. Curing and Storage
11. Pests & Problems
12. Northern Sweet Potato Climate Zones
13. Putting It All Together:
size and yield records
14. Varieties
15 Anatomy of the Sweet Potato Plant
16. Sweet Potato Breeding
17. Cooking with Sweet Potatoes
18. Bibliography

We offer this 204 page softcover @ $20Âshipping included
-----------------------------------------------------------
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
-Margaret Atwood

I am an old man but a young gardener.
-Thomas Jefferson

We will be known by the tracks we leave behind.
-Dakota proverb

The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.
-Abraham Lincoln

===========
Pages 10 & 11
===========

GROWING SHORT SEASON SWEETPOTATOES
-----------------------------------------------------------
Please save these instructions. Our intention is to save paper and trees by displaying them here rather than including them with each shipment.
-----------------------------------------------------------

On arrival, sweetpotato plants might look somewhat tired (yellowed or browned) from their trip to your house. DonÂt be disappointed; they have a will to live.
If you canÂt (or conditions donÂt allow you to) plant them outside fairly soon, place them in a clear jar or glass. Put enough water (at room temperature) in the container to cover the plants rooted area.
Better still, heel them in; that is, place the plants temporarily in a seed flat and hold them in a bright warm place.
THE PLANTING SITE should be the warmest, most sunny, and weed-free place you can provide. Wide raised rows or beds help speed soil warming and give the sweets loosened earth to grow in. Some go further to enhance soil warming by covering the beds with plastic mulch 2-3 weeks in advance of planting.* The plastic is anchored with earth around its perimeter.
THE SOIL should be somewhat acid (pH 5-6.5) and, ideally, light . . . but Mapple FarmÂs isnÂt--we get by with clay soil.
Sweetpotatoes are light feeders; they like a little phosphorus and a little more potassium-- a dusting of bonemeal and a sprinkling of wood ash will suffice. Avoid over-feeding nitrogen which favors vine at the expense of tuber growth, and leads to spindly rather than chunky tubers.
Sweetpotatoes wonÂt stand frost. Transplant them outside after the soil warms to at least 13ºC./55ºF.
ON TRANSPLANTING DAY, if using plastic and weeds are growing beneath, lift the plastic, hoe and replace plastic. Cut holes (about 9"/23 cm. diameter) through the plastic every 18 to 24 inches/46 to 60 cm. Draw some soil within the cut circle to anchor the plastic perimeter of the hole. You now have a saucer-shaped depression. Transplant through the hole, allowing only 2 or 3 leaves to show above ground. Water them in.
After transplanting, provide some shade during the first few days if the sun shines brightly. **
Sweetpotatoes are among the most drought tolerant vegetables. But youÂll get best results from regular watering.*** Those saucer-shaped basins will help to catch, hold and direct water to the roots.
GROWTH seems slow at first; the plant initially concentrates on root development. But by mid-summer, the vines take off. In the final stage, the plantÂs energy is devoted towards tuber growth.
Vines extending over bare ground will sometimes try to root along their lengths. If you notice this happening, lift the vines to direct the plants growth to tuber development instead.
HARVEST when frost turns the vines black or when the soil temperature falls to 10ºC./50ºF.
CURE the tubers by keeping them in a warm (27ºC./80ºF.) , humid state for a couple of weeks.
STORE them in a cool (18ºC./60ºF.) but not cold room. DonÂt clean the tubers until ready to cook them.
ABOVE ALL, sweetpotato plants appreciate warm soil. Row covers (of, for example, slitted clear plastic or porous spun-bound polypropylene) provide a beneficial space.

* Heat rays penetrate clear plastic mulch to warm soil at greater depths than black plastic. But black plastic (unlike clear) blocks the light rays weeds need to grow.

** "Help, my leaves fell off!"
WeÂve heard this complaint a few times and suspect that perhaps shading wasnÂt applied. If the plants move directly from the dark confines of a shipping box into a bright field, shedding leaves is an appropriate survival mechanism.
If time permits, gradual exposure of the plants to increasing amounts of light (as part of the hardening-off process) is ideal. Transplanting on cloudy days or late in the day is the preferable method.
Regardless, the plants most often recover since new growth will develop as new leaves form along the stem where the old leaves fell off--much like tomato suckers.

*** "Some of my sweetpotatoes have cracks!"
This is sometimes a genetic trait we canÂt do anything about but often irregular watering, by the gardener or from the sky, gives uneven growth--much like what happens with split tomatoes. Proper curing will heal cracked sweets.

-----------------------------------------------------------
To shade our new planting (all new plantings) we use flower pots, which we cut the bottoms out of. We get them from the Cemetery because I am the Administrator. Any cemetery should have them. We leave them on until the leaves grow out of the top.
Dennis Ballance, Napanee ON
-----------------------------------------------------------

If youÂve ordered more than one variety, the names will be coded on the plastic covering the plants roots:

GJ-Georgia Jet
65-Tainung 65
C-Carver;
S-Superior;
R-Regal;

FW-Frazier White;
JP-Japanese Yam;
GR-Ginseng Red
E-Excel;
KP-Korean Purple
B-Beauregard;
H-Hannah;
T-Travis
-----------------------------------------------------------

RECIPES

Sweet Potato Latka (potato pancakes)
Peel sweets and grate coarsely. For every 2 cups, add an egg and 2 Tbsp flour. Season to taste with salt. Experiment with other seasonings--suggestions include grated onion, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, cayenne, cinnamon or sesame seeds. Drop by the spoonful into hot fat (pref. oil) and fry until golden on both sides. This recipe is approximate since moisture content, size of eggs, etc., varies. These are wonderful hot but okay cold too. Try them with maple syrup, or sweet & sour chinese style dip or cool, crunchy garnishes like cucumber & pineapple.

Jerusalem Artichoke Latka
Mix grated artichokes with flour, egg & salt as in the above recipe & season with onion & garlic. Fry as above and serve with a squeeze of lemon. Tres gourmet!

Sweet Potato Fillings & Stuffings
Mashed seasoned sweets make a fabulous stuffing for wontons, ravioli or perogi. Vary your seasoning according to the ethnic specialty; i.e., ginger & cayenne for wontons, riccotta cheese & basil for ravioli (with a sprinkle of parmesan), carraway and sour cream for perogi. No measuring here--just keep adjusting to taste.

Submitted by Maria Kasstan, Toronto ON

Sweet Potato Soup
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 T ginger root, minced
1 T curry powder, minced
2 T oil
4 medium sized sweet potatoes
salt & pepper to taste
6 cups of vegetable stock
Sauté first 4 ingredients in oil for several minutes. Tehn add sweets, peeled and cut into cubes or slices. Sauté a few minutes more. Add stock and salt & pepper. Cook covered for 25 minutes, puree half, then add back to the pot. Re-heat before serving. Garnish: yogurt & sprinkled cheese.

Submitted by Margie Anne Boyd, Douglas NB

Gosh, Mike..after that we'll all be growing sweet potatoes! Thanks, I printed it all out.

I'm moving two whiskey barrel planters to the back, up against the wood fence. I've been wondering what I'll plant in them, and it sounds as though sweet potatoes would be just the ticket! It looks as though they might take well to trellesing?

Granny

Holy moly....i'll have to get a new print cartridge for all of that.

Crystabel - you have inspired me to grow some next year. I won't plant them in the sfg, but have an alternate plan. It'll be interesting for sure....

Thanks to everybody for making contributions to this thread, it'll be good reference material when I try mine.

EG

I was really impressed with the results that the gardener in the link provided as I know the weather in Ottawa....

I think I will dedicate one of these square foot boxes in the creek garden to sweet potatoes.

{{gwi:112273}}

If I could get results like either the original poster in this thread or in thelink I would be very happy .

I am taking a break sitting at the computer swearing as I just whacked my head good while doing some home repairs in the crawl space! Owwww!

Who ever designs homes with crawl spaces should be made to weed gardens forever!

Thanks Mike! I had to laugh because sometimes I call them sweetpotatoes in one word and sometimes I separate the words because I'm not sure what is correct. But I never call them yams LOL.
Also, looks like we're both busy on the home maintenance front. I'm taking a break from cleaning the AC coils. I can't get the AC unit back together so I'm sure my husband is going to be thrilled when he gets home LOL, as I'm notorious for taking things apart and not being able to get them back together.

Granny - I'm not sure about the trelllising - depends on how many you'd want. The vines they send out have roots on them that want to tap into the soil to grow more potatoes. You could let them root up to a certain point then train the extra up the trellis for beauty. :)

EG - can't wait to see what your "interesting" way of planting sweetpotatoes will be :)

Crystabel - oh...it won't be too weird. Not this time anyway! BTW - if you're doing routine annual maintenance on that unit, make sure you add a few drops of oil to the fan motor bearings......

EG

Crystabel, the article says "Vines extending over bare ground will sometimes try to root along their lengths. If you notice this happening, lift the vines to direct the plants growth to tuber development instead."

So does that mean I should let a few root but lift all the others? Maybe it would just be better to let them cascade over the sides of the barrels, and make sure those that hit the ground below don't take root.

I'm very determined to grow these next year!

Granny

Granny - that's what I did basically. I let a few root, but instead of trellising I cut the extra off. You could easily just run those up the trellis instead.

I hope I can trellis, because now that I have the barrel in the garden I'm thinking there's not a lot of room on the ground without getting in the way of the raspberries I hope to be picking next year! I'd be stepping all over sweet potato vines.

Granny

Crystabel - how do you think these will do for growing sweet potatoes?

EG

EG what did you do with the bottoms??
crystabal i really do like them there sweet taters!! i know i have to grow some next year just for the sweet tater pie!! WOOO HOOO!! that's the one reason i love thanksgiving!! LOL
~Medo

Medo - the bottoms are converted into aeration benches for the swc.

EG

wow!great pics. this was my first year planting s.p.'s. my only problem is curing them. those conditions just don't exist here in ct in october! so it was cook and freeze for most of them.....does anyone here eat the leaves? they are delicious lightly cooked, like spinach. the young ones are good raw in salads. i did plant some slips indoors and they're doing ok, so far. hope they survive til next june (if they don't go for salad greens first!)

Really? The leaves are good to eat? I had a potted plant (for decoration, not for potatoes) that had to have the vines clipped weekly, and I just composted them! You mean I could have been eating them all that time? Cool!

Granny

Wow! I was just thinking about reviving this thread, because of the information in it. Thanks for doing the searching for me! :)

I'm definitely gonna make my own slips, and plant them in my frugal containers I threw together. Planting time here is May/June. I never knew that about the leaves, that's pretty interesting.

EG

Crystabel - Wow! Great harvest, great pics, and great instructions. Thanks SO much!

Cheryl - All of those from just one plant? Wow! Thanks for sharing! I can't wait to hear how the plants you are growing inside this winter will do.

Mike - Ummmm... who needs to buy the $20 book when supplied with all that information and this thread? hee hee

EG - I, too, would like to know how they'll do in containers. Although, I'm not sure now that I think about it that you're are still considered containers. It's more like a SFG without bottoms, right? :-)

HoneyBunchy - Oh, if I wasn't convinced already, now I am! I would love to grow them just for the greens! It sounds like you get plenty of them, too.

Granny - None of those clippings took root and grew in the compost pile? I've hesitated putting some things in my compost pile just because I was afraid the vines/leaves would take root and grow taking over my compost and/or SFG soil. I got scared! I only want what I plant in my SFG or containers coming up! hee hee

Blessings,
Angela

Angela - I guess you're right...they are slightly modified sfg/bottomless/tater growing thingamajigs. How's that sound?

EG

Angela, yes they did take root and begin growing, but they were in my new box where I wanted to plant the spinach and lettuce. I dug them up and potted them, because there wasn't enough time for them to make mature sweet potatoes. Daughter Amy is visiting the plant every two weeks (when she checks on my house) and taking it a drink of water. Maybe it will survive the winter on my coffee table and I'll have ready made slips when I get home next spring! I told her to keep the vines snipped off, or they might be covering the sofa by the time I get home! I wonder what happens when the potatoes try to form in a small pot.

Granny

I don't know, but it'll sure be cool if the plant survives, so you can tell us, Granny! I'd really like to know, to tell you the truth. (Not that I'd do anything else! LOL)

Blessings,
Angela

I like sweet potatoes. They're just so easy to grow. They're also extremely easy to propagate. Cut off the end of the vine trim off the lower leaves and stick it in some water. In a week or two you have another sweet potato ready to plant. Or just take an old sweet potato prop it up halfway in a jar of water. If a few weeks you'll have a ton of short pieces of vine ready to be plunked into water to develop roots before planting. My mom has been propagating her own sweet potatoes like this for longer than I've been alive. From one leftover tuber you could grow a whole large garden worth of sweet potatoes. Heck just for the heck of it I cut a 1' vine off the end of hers before it froze, took it home, and stock it in a jar of water. The jar is now full of roots. I'm thinking about potting it and seeing what happens. The only bad thing about them is that they will absolutely take over a smallish garden if you don't trim them back.

Oh and deer love them so if you have deer around you have to protect the vines until they're established or they will eat them to the ground every night.

jeremy - that is great information! Thanks! How many sweet potatoes do you think could be grown from 6 slips?

EG

To tell you the truth I'm not exactly sure and it depends. My mom is the primary sweet potato grower, but I know it can vary pretty wildly depending on the year and the plant. This year I think there were plants with about 10+ lbs worth and the next plant over wouldn't have a whole lot maybe 3ish lbs. She did get some monsters this year though. I think the biggest single potato was 6lbs.

If I can find a place I may give one plant a try. My yard is pretty small and I only have one 16'x4' raised bed so far with all of the space already booked. Although my mom grows a whole row of about 15 plants every year so she always has far more than she will ever use. They are definitely more about space than difficulty though. She plants them and gives them about 10' in width where they can spread out without over running something else and forgets about them until harvest. Unless the deer are eating them down to the ground before they have a chance to get established. Then she just puts out some bars of plane ivory soap to deter the deer and then forgets about them until she digs them.

I do wonder if you could trellis them though. It'd eliminate the space issue.

oh and obviously loose soil makes a pretty big difference just like with any root crop. A really hard clay soil can really gimp them.

Thanks, jeremy. I'm definitely gonna give it a go next year.

EG

OK I just got this email about the short season Sweet Potatoes. You can contact him at the email and I am sure he will email you the brochure..

Mapple Farm (wingate@nbnet.nb.ca)

Hi Mike,
It's ready! Please see the attached 2009 Mapple Farm brochure you've requested.
With thanks for your interest,
Greg Wingate
Mapple Farm
129 Beech Hill Rd.
Weldon NB Canada E4H 4N5

Opps.... Also wanted to put in this recipe that I made on Monday as I wanted to try it out before I serve to some people for Holiday dinner.

I got it from the Toronto Star Newspaper.

The sweet potato selection in the grocery store was pretty bad but it turned out good.

Sweet Potato Kugel

6 small sweet potatoes - grated
3 apples, peeled, cored and grated
1 cup raisins
1 cup brown rice flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups water

Topping
1 1/2 cups raw pecan halves, chopped
2 Tbsp maple syrup
pinch of salt
pinch of ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Mix all ingredients (not topping)
3. Mix topping ingredients
4. Place in baking dish for 35 minutes
5. Remove and add topping- bake another 20 minutes.

This recipe can be cut into single servings and frozen.

My whole garden is in pots and I raise sweetpotatos as perrenials in large pots. When my collards or chard are thin and I need to flesh out a pot I throw in sweet potato leaves. The stores usually stock Beauregards, if you are starting grocery store potatoes. My Oak leafs were very prolific. If you get low on minerals they grow monstrous, mishappen woody tubers so if you keep them in the same beds like I do be sure to give them iron, phosphorus, bone meal and a tad bit sulfur in the spring- and some of my roots grew out the drain holes and the tubers formed on top of the ground. If you let the vine send lots of little rootlets down you have a plant that is not putting energy into producing tubers. My purples, cooked, look like beets but taste like s.ps.I buy mine from Sandhills Preservation Center.

Follow Up:
Ok, so it is already April 09 and I haven't been here in ages. But here is a little story about my sweet potatoes.

After the harvest in this post we planted other things in Jake's garden - mostly sunflowers. Today I was out checking his box and I saw two little sprouts. "Hmmm", I said to myself "those look like sweet potato vines". So I dug into the soil and what did I find? Yep! A big old sweet potato, and it was sending out slips to do its thing again this year.
I think it is still edible- looks perfect! It has been in that box since Oct/Nov 08. Any thoughts on that? Looks and smells just right. I remember reading somewhere that with sweet potatoes you could leave them in the ground and harvest as you go. But I don't know what to think about 6 months!! LOL.
I have a new box for sweet potatoes this year so I snagged the two slips and planted them in that box. So I guess these are truly my own sweet potatoes this year as I grew the one that is now sending out slips to grow again.