Mindblowing SWEET POTATO Harvest! Watch How I Did It

[@TheMillennialGardener]

If you enjoyed this video, please *LIKE* it and share it to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 🙂TIMESTAMPS here: 0:00 The Sweet Potato Growing Experiment 1:18 The Secret To Growing Lots Of Sweet Potatoes 3:49 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Containers 6:28 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Raised Beds 9:49 My Biggest Sweet Potato Harvest Ever 10:42 Curing Sweet Potatoes For Storage 12:49 Adventures With Dale

[@Gonzo3313]

How do you deal with squirrels eating all your fruit and veggies? Im getting hammered over here with pests!

[@Jammaster1972]

I use large gallon plastic totes which I drill holes in the bottoms. Works great every year, easy to harvest, just dump onto a tarp and recycle the soil.

[@car507]

This has nothing to do with this video but maybe you should let your community know that party time is back in stock I just grabbed some all because of you thanks man

[@dao8805]

Did you build your raised beds out of regular lumber, cedar or treated? I have read the claims that the treated will not leach chemicals into the soil, but I am skeptical. Do you have a video on how you built yours and the materials you used. It looks so nice and neat.

[@terryjbrown6953]

Did you know you can eat the leaves too!

[@jeannamcgregor9967]

Last spring I followed your lead and planted sweet potato shoots into 4 tiny 5-gallon grow bags since that's what I had. I wasn't sure if it would work because I have very few summer days over 80 degrees here in the SF Bay Area. I was wrong. I've only harvested one bag so far but that little grow bag yielded a LOT of sweet potato! Next year I'll move to larger bags and never buy sweet potatoes again.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

That's outstanding! Double down next year. Or triple down! I am growing to love sweet potatoes so much, and they're so easy to grow, that I think I'm going to dedicate more space to them next year and less space to more challenging crops that give me heartburn here.

[@jonwebb3235]

All those sweet potato greens are just as good as spinach. I blanch and freeze them when I harvest the roots. Great harvest btw!

[@danshelby791]

My family moved from northwest Arkansas to lower Alabama last year. We have never been very successful at gardening so I did some analyzing of our problems and one part of the solution was to make the beds more accessible and easy on our aging bodies. 😉. I ended up building 2 4x8 beds about 33" tall. Best idea ever! They are side by side with hog wire arched over the walkway between. We have roll-down shade cloth for when we need it and we can cover the whole thing with plastic to make a temporary greenhouse in the mild winters here in n zone 9a. Oh, and we built them utilizing Hugelkulture so they will hopefully just get better and better over time.

[@PiedmontFoodForest-kz9fi]

In Nov '23 I heaped my 4x8 raised beds with leaves from our maple tree and the neighbor's oak and pecan trees, and then simply left them over the winter, doing nothing other than to top up the beds with leaves from my compost pile. In late April I lightly buried the leftover Beauregard sweet potatoes from last year's harvest in half (4x4) of one bed, which had already sprouted. I then added a bag of big-box "garden soil" and a cube of peat. Other than watering them (and the rest of my beds) with an overhead sprinkler twice a week, I ignored them all summer and early fall. No fertilizer or other amendments. In late Oct I harvested 72 pounds of beautiful sweet potatoes from that 4x4 bed. I had so many I had to buy another of those clear 95 liter totes from Walmart and a second heat pad and thermostat to cure them. Today I'll move then down to the basement for cold curing. They've hot-cured for two weeks now and we will roast a couple to have with supper tonight. ***72 POUNDS*** 😂

[@gregdoh]

I spent $6 for 2 lbs of local, organic sweet potatoes back in March, grew 60+ slips, in May I planted 5 slips per 25 gallon grow bag, 9 grow bags total, mixed in some organic granular fertilizer (lower in N, higher in P & K) and compost, set a soaker hose on a timer, and harvested 55 lbs in October! First time, they did great, thanks to all the videos I watched back in the winter, including yours. But I plan to reduce nitrogen even more next year to see if they do even better. Thank you, and nice harvest!!

[@danyaivory304]

Yes, you should continue making videos! You are awesome at it! I have learned so much from you!

[@techs120project]

My experience has been the same. This year I didn't plant any slips, and I had volunteers all over the place. I harvested in the middle september, I'm in Texas and now I have a ton of volunteers popping up again in the beginning of November. The best ones were growing in a horizontal layer over my compacted soil where I had lawn, and under a big pile of leaves from last fall. The Roots snake along were the two different mediums met, and I think they enjoyed the minerals from the decomposing leaves, and found such an easy path without having to root down into the compacted soil. Some Roots even grew through ventilation screens along my foundation, and I had tubers in my crawl space!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

The vines will root at the nodes in the organic matter and siphon nutrients to the roots. Sometimes, you'll even get some small sweet potatoes where the nodes root. They are truly a joy to grow. So easy, so productive.

[@lindagilmore8352]

Dale is such a good boy!❤️

[@TheMillennialGardener]

He tries his best 😅

[@PlantObsessed]

I followed tour procedure and had my best year ever. ,👍🏼

[@ashleys637]

I'm not joking when I say I have a binder of notes taken from your videos for each fruit/vegetable you've featured. Hopefully, when I can garden next Spring, my garden will be half as impressive as yours. Also, LOVE murasaki sweet potatoes. They make better fries than standard sweet potatoes, and I can semi-trick my husband into eating them b/c they're white inside (he claimed he wasn't a sweet potato person, but I think he was just used to them being prepared in very sweet ways). As always, great vid!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Aww, I'm glad to hear the videos have been informative! I love Murasaki. They are so much sweeter than the Beauregard's commonly found in stores, and they make the best oven fries thanks to their drier moisture content. If you like them, you have to try Okinawan. They're even drier and sweeter. If you have an Asian grocery store next to you, you can pick up a couple to try. Their purple interior is gorgeous. However, they usually cost $1.50 per potato. They're expensive, but they're worth trying and growing.

[@LadyLiberty_SJ]

lol…same here! It takes me at least twice as long to watch his videos, because I have to replay and pause to get everything down.

[@maikogardner9377]

Dale's "please-eyes" was the everything😂❤. I forgot this video was about sweet potato!🍠

[@TheMillennialGardener]

He is such a master manipulator. He knows *exactly* what he is doing. He pulls his ears and eyelids back and he literally looks like a wounded fawn. He's such a faker 😂

[@TamaraLMJ62]

Stokes purple for the win!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

They’re really good! So sweet!

[@honeybadgers1996]

Wow, wow, wow!! I had NO IDEA how to grow sweet potatoes and curing. Thank you so much for this info. I was going to plant sweet potato this year but never got to. I would definitely plant them next year. My pups love them. I didn’t know they are so carefree plants to grow. Mr. Dale was kind of mad that he was behind the glass from his yummy food. He’s very vocal about it, too. Lol.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

They are easily one of my favorite crops. They are as close to zero maintenance as it gets. Next year, I need to double down and grow more. Dale is very…food motivated 😂

[@georginablumel2852]

I’m in FL and I just started harvesting mine. I grow mine in 25 gallon grow bags and I added some of my native sandy soil to the bags, along with the potting mix I used. And I added bone meal and a small amount of blood, and fertilizer. I harvested some nice ones from the bags I’ve checked so far, a big bowl full. I still have some to finish harvest now that I can get to them from under where the fence fell in Milton! But I can see them popping up out of the top. I had a few I put in kind of late that didn’t yield much, but I cut slips from the vine that I’m going to save and plant in feb/march. I don’t get a freeze here. But I will reuse the grow bags in a week or 2 to plant my regular potatoes. We harvest those pretty early, so just in time to start the sweet potatoes again in them. I just rotate between the two.

[@JD-zb4ve]

Gardening is an adventure!!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Always. That’s why I love it.

[@dianesmith9380]

I love them

[@stevesither7270]

Thanks man ...Such great info.... Well appreciated .

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You’re welcome! Glad it was helpful.

[@terrinegron]

Wow amazing! Love your tips.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thank you!

[@medtronicmom]

Very helpful. I haven't planted sweet potatoes yet, so I will incorporate this information when planting next spring. I had wondered how I would manage to create the best environment for curing--very, very helpful method!

[@jfrrodway8235]

Another great video.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thank you!!

[@DanOnitsuka-yx9zd]

I tried your newer sandier soil mix for sweet potatoes and it definitely was an improvement for me in my zone 7a garden in South Central KY. My harvest from those plastic containers and grow bags using the newer soil mix was much better than two other soil mixes I tried that contained a higher percentage of compost and/or organic matter. The vines in your sandier mix grew less and looked overall punier, but the harvest was significantly better! Thanks for the great growing tips, informative videos and of course ending the videos with a cute clip of Dale.

[@MM-uu2so]

Thanks for the video! I will find out how my sweet potatoes vines did in a few days! First harvest of sweet potatoes:)

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Excellent! It is like a treasure hunt.

[@martinaparrrish5397]

Thanks for your videos Anthony..I am glad you do the experiment and that helps me.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You're welcome!

[@thatonegirl1837]

You should have seen the size of my sweet potatoes! They were massive! I neglected them just right lol. Hi Dale! ❤

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Sweet potatoes love being neglected, unlike Dale, who likes constant overfeedings 😂

[@thatonegirl1837]

​@@TheMillennialGardener😂😂😂

[@baneverything5580]

I did an experiment once and covered an herb bed with newly planted Sweet Potato vines with a sheet of plywood propped up on bricks. After the vines came out one side I put pine straw around the gaps on the edge to block light. Huge tubers grew on top of the ground under the plywood. They looked smooth and flawless and some were gigantic. I got the idea from stored regular potatoes under a trailer that sprouted, rooted in moist soil and vines grew through a crack in the siding in winter and potatoes formed on top of the ground.

[@thatonegirl1837]

@@baneverything5580 You're kidding?!? No I have to try that!

[@baneverything5580]

@@thatonegirl1837 There weren`t a whole lot of them but a couple of them were the biggest sweet potatoes I`ve ever seen. And the skin looked perfect because they grew in air instead of dirt.

[@ChristyThorington-zp6dx]

Awesome! Good to know!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thanks for watching!

[@daveaway]

Great info

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thanks!

[@richardeicholtz4868]

Yeah....Compost. That's what did me in. I'll be better prepared next year. Congratulations on the amazing haul!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I think a little is good, but you have to be careful. Less is more with sweet potatoes.

[@jujubee7351]

Dale is so cute and listens so well!I can’t wait to grow sweet potatoes next year! Your harvest was huge. I’m going to follow your instructions and buy the items you pinned.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Dale listens well when it benefits him. When he doesn't want to listen, he turns his head and looks in the other direction. He is the definition of a "stinker," so we call him Stinker Pot.

[@ChristiLynnOutside]

Looking forward to trying my hand at potatoes and sweet potatoes next year. Thank you for the tips.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@user-cy4fs5li5c]

Anthony, same! After a pitiful harvest a year ago, I took your advice and ignored my sweet potatoes this year. Best harvest I’ve had! Thanks for the advice. I would never have figured that one out on my own 😊

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Excellent! Trust me, I learned that lesson the hard way 😅

[@amyt2444]

This is encouraging! I only planted a small section of sweet potatoes in hard soil. I was pleasantly surprised at my results. I plan to do an entire bed next year.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Every time I harvest sweet potatoes, I grow more the following year. They're just so fun and easy compared to many other plants.

[@rcgkreations]

This tip is great for me. Plan on doing what you recommend! Thanks

[@puopg]

Sweet potato leaves are really tasty cooked with some garlic and oil! So even if you get foliage, its still useful!

[@dao8805]

I have never grown sweet potatoes but now you've got me interested! I am so impressed with your massive harvest and they are known to be super nutritious. p.s. Dale is SUCH a polite boy; love seeing him in these videos :) Now I have to look up where I can get some Stoke's Purple!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

They are so easy and fun to grow. Every harvest is like a treasure hunt. And they’re totally disease proof here in the South. I can’t say that about anything else 😂 Dale tries so hard to restrain himself. He does his best.

[@baneverything5580]

Leaves are very good too. The skin of sweet potatoes should be eaten too or at least some of it if possible.

[@SilverCreekHomestead]

Love the comparison!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!

[@lisakruger5289]

That's what I love about gardening too - every season there are a few surprises...and it's a bonus when they are good surprises! :)

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Yep! It is actually exciting.

[@laurashivers3320]

I so enjoy your videos and have learned a tremendous amount from you! First year with a big garden and I considered it successful due to what I had learned from your videos. Please keep them up. Sweet potatoes will definitely be tried next year.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Congrats with your garden! It's always fun to expand. I'm doing some garden rehab and upgrading this winter.

[@randyo6019]

Was waiting for this! Thx so much! My sweet potato vines are growing like wild fire. This is my first time so I’m praying for at least a couple for now 😅

[@TheMillennialGardener]

It's about that time to harvest! Sweet potatoes are like hunting for buried treasure.

[@nitababcock3977]

That's awesome!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thank you!

[@OnceUponATalita]

That’s awesome!!! I live in the low desert south Cali and I don’t know when to pull them out!!! Any advice? Been in the ground since late June

[@beverlylogan6398]

Very impressive. I’m trying that.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Awesome!

[@lorenstribling6096]

Dale is such a sweetie.

[@docgrowsfood]

Looking forward to harvesting my root crops (Sweet potatoes, cassava, taro) to see what kind of yield I get this year. Just waiting for it to cool down a little bit more so it's comfortable to work outdoors. It's still blazing here on the gulf coast of Central FL.

[@wdsjrmd1]

just an excellent video. will follow your instructions completely. the key will be neglect lol. looking forward to a great harvest. Love the Okinawan

[@TheMillennialGardener]

The bone meal and AP fertilizer, I think, is also important. They still need P and K to develop roots.

[@chunliyu6815]

I like your sunroom, you can use it for green house

[@ZBillions23]

Great video! I now need to find room to grow sweet potatoes. lol I have a question Anthony. The raised bed you had that was neglected for 2 years, produced more sweet potatoes. You picked them now, and now will it grow more next year? Maybe not as much as this year? I'd be curious how long that happens for. Super cool to know.

[@jfrrodway8235]

Great video. Side note. Purple sweet potato greens are edible and sold in Asian markets. The are a staple in many African countries as well.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I ordered Okinawan slips online 2 or 3 years ago since the Okinawan sweet potatoes at markets are almost always imported and sterilized. Now, I just save my inferior potatoes for rooting in February.

[@mbonney62]

Great information! Two questions: where do you get your slips? Also, the last two years my sweet potatoes have had black holes all over them. I grow them in grow bags; any idea what could be causing that? Thank you!

[@ObsessiveAboutCats]

Did you stop watering the grow bags for a few days(?) before you harvested them? What will you do (if anything) to amend those grow bags' soil for next year's sweet potatoes? I have a month or more before I need to worry about harvesting mine. I hope I have at least something of a good harvest. As always I appreciate your videos!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

No. I did have to water the grow bags daily. They dry out quickly in my hot summers. I put two 1 gal/hr drippers in each bag and ran them for 15-20 mins a day. That's all they needed. I will plant them exactly the same way - bone meal and 5-5-5. I did, however, buy a bag of triple phosphate on Prime Big Deal Days on clearance, though, so I'm going to try giving it some 0-50-0 next year and see what happens. Not organic, but I like trying new things.

[@DaliaCastello]

You seem to be back to your old self Love it, also I only planted 2 slips didn't pay too much attention to and got about 15 lbs approximately 11 jumbo a couple of medium sized ones, just enough to eat in a few months. Im glad you had success ...sending a hug and kiss greetings to your family.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

We had a terrible late summer. Terrible storms, absurd rainfall, my yard was inundated with possums, etc. Just problem after problem. Since then, we'd had less than a tenth of an inch of rain in 40 days, and the weather has moderated nicely. It's been a nice break, and it's been good for energy recovery. That is an absurd amount of sweet potatoes from 2 slips. I suggest you plant 10X that next year!

[@bobbun9630]

I didn't grow any sweet potatoes this year. I got about 250lbs from 50 row feet in the garden last year, though, on very vigorous vines. I don't recall fertilizing them, but I have clay soil so likely there are lots of minerals available to them. The quality isn't nearly as good as it would be in sandy soil. They don't naturally climb, but I do like to trellis them manually on netting to save space. I find that they keep well at room temperature in cardboard boxes without curing. They tend to dry out rather than actually spoiling, but can be rehydrated even when fairly dry for making things like pies and cakes.

[@joshuahoyer1279]

Wow, that's totally crazy! I think I had similar results in one spot of our garden. I planted a few slips in front our citrus trees against the house, and they had the absolute best roots of all, and I didn't directly give them much fertilizer besides compost. I've been using your curing method for a couple years, and it definitely works! One thing I noticed, though, is that it seems the roots at the bottom of the pile get somewhat cooked from being too close to the heat mat. I keep our thermostatic controller set to 85, and each year have had a few go super squishy right where they made contact with the bottom of the box. I'm considering putting some sort of buffer layer at the bottom next year. Have you had this happen before?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I think your curing setup may be a bit too dry. There isn't enough humidity, so maybe they're drying out? I could be totally backwards, though, and maybe it is too humid and wet. I would suggest moving them around here and there throughout the process. I don't think I've had this problem, but I always have a couple sweet potatoes that don't quite cure properly and get a little soft. A few I dug up were soft, too.

[@joshuahoyer1279]

Yeah, it was pretty weird... All the rest of the sweet potato was rock solid. The only part that went squishy was the surface that was against the heat. It smelled almost cooked, not nasty like some of the soft ones I pulled from the ground. I wonder if part of it is because I cured in our garage where it had been cooler, so the heat mat has to stay on for longer. Maybe I'll try in the corner of our bedroom next year...

[@hdwoodshop]

I also followed your in ground grow video and I grew (or tried to grow) sweet potatoes. Long story short, I harvested maybe 10 lbs of pathetic potato. My soil is clay, and dense. They were hard to harvest. And most rotted😢. Now, almost 2 yrs later, they still show up as volunteers. I’m tempted to try your grow bag method. Btw, Dale looks lean. I guess his diet keeps him in shape.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

The problem is likely the clay soil. Too much moisture among other things. They like growing in sandy junk soil that drains like a colander. I recommend you try the grow bags with the mix I made. I bet you'll get way more sweet potatoes with much less work. We cook 80% of Dale's food, so he eats very well.

[@jacksonakson8224]

My sweet potatoes got plenty of neglect this year, other than a woodchuck decimating the foliage from time to time. Looking forward to a banner harvest!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I had some bunnies do that years ago. 3 weeks later, the vines were all filled in like nothing happened. Sweet potatoes are BEASTS!

[@robbinhartman4361]

First year growing sweet potatoes got some good size ones, but I also have a lot of small 2 to 3 inch size ones. If I go ahead and replant the smaller ones will they just come back in the spring? I’m in zone 7a Virginia mountains.

[@sparks6666]

amazing video... how do you know when they are ready for harvest?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thanks! The only way to know if sweet potatoes are ready is to dig around them. However, I never check. I plant them May 1 and harvest them November 1. It's exactly 6 months, and it's always great timing. Sweet potatoes are roots, so literally, the longer you wait, the bigger they will be. You can let them sit all the way until frost. The frost will kill the vines, but the sweet potatoes underground will be fine as long as it doesn't freeze.

[@tonimarieheron1529]

Thank you for such a great video. Are you able to advise how long a summer you have and how hot? We are in Marlborough NZ, and have very hot summers but they are shortish. I was unsuccessful with Kumara last year but I grew melons, which makes me still think I should be able to grow kumara. I've done a lot more research this year :)

[@missbhaavin]

Have you ever planted in prepped straw bales (prepped as in pre conditioned with nitrogen to break down a bit) I’d be interested in your thoughts on this if you have.

[@valoriegriego5212]

Howdy, MG! 👋 Great sweet potato harvest!👍Dale's gonna be eating on some delicious sweet potatoes for a good while.😃

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Dale is *definitely* gonna get some sweet potatoes! Maybe I'll make him some unseasoned oven fries tomorrow. He will *love* them. Fresh sweet potato fries are just *so good!*

[@DavidA-uk9bm]

I enjoy your videos, even a life long horticulturalist like me learns new things from your videos and I thank you. This past winter I followed your instructions to a T with sprouting sweet potato starts and planted them in my vegetable garden in western Washington. I noticed they didn't grow very vigorously and was very disappointed to find upon digging them that there were no roots on them any bigger than my thumb. I guess they need a warmer climate? Any thoughts would be appreciated, I am very disappointed :(

[@LadyLiberty_SJ]

Did you amend the soil to grow the collard greens or was the bed completely left alone?

[@helena_maria_._._]

Thanks for info. I would have liked to know the comparison : growing size area/volume of the ground grown sw.potatoes with its yield in weight -compared to/versus- the grow pots total growing area/volume and its yield. Great videos!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🎉🎉

[@jamistokes5333]

How does the flavor of stokes purple compare to the others? Thanks

[@emkn1479]

We needed to move the sweet potatoes to in ground beds because they were taking over the walkways in the raised bed garden. It was a good move! I sprouted the purple potatoes from an Asian market and used the runts from last year’s traditional types as well. I also just threw last year’s leftover tiny tubers in the ground and got a ton in return! I created a deep mulch bed and used triple phosphate fertilizer at planting of the sprouted slips, plus wood ash was sprinkled there too. They could be bigger, but I’m thrilled with the size of the harvest, especially for how low maintenance they were. The soil is still very rough clay, so I’m going to mix in the chopped vines and some leaf mold, along with bone meal, more wood ash plus mulch, just so the soil can loosen up and allow for more growth and easier harvesting. But there were lots of tiny guys left behind so I’m really hoping for volunteers nest year! PS Did you rinse the tubers before curing?

[@daninraleigh]

From an earlier video, my notes say, "Don't rub the dirt off. If you tear the skin, it can mess them up and they won't store as well"

[@emkn1479]

@ yes that’s what I thought too but they also looked rinsed or wet in the bin

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You may want to try an arch trellis or a teepee trellis like I made. It keeps the vines out of the walkways. You have to initially train them, but once they grab hold, it really cleans up the area. I bought triple phosphate on clearance a couple months ago. Next year, I'll experiment with it. It isn't organic, but it's somewhat natural-based and if it doubles my yields, hey, less food from the store. No, I do not rub off the dirt or wash them. I do not want to scratch the skin. If you really want to clean them up, lay them out on a tarp in the sun to try for a couple hours, then blow them off with a leaf blower or air compressor. Don't rub the dirt off. The skins are very fragile after harvesting until you cure them and they toughen up. Scratching them will lessen their shelf life.

[@emkn1479]

@ they’re in ground now so the vines sprawling aren’t an issue. And yeah I didn’t wash mine, but the tubers looked washed or wet in the video, which is why I asked…must have been a play of light. The plot was amended and mulched and is ready for next year 👍

[@kathyfry1821]

cute socks😄

[@BarbieSalzie]

Yum

[@mama-cant-dance]

I'm going to try my sweet potatoes in a raised bed next year. I feel like my grow bags didn't get watered enough this summer because most were not very large and we really didn't get as many as last year when we did keep them watered every few days. I think you can neglect them but not too long.

[@eck311]

Love you channel I have a quick question I live in South Carolina zone 8a and wondering when I should prune my orange,lime and lemon trees any instructions would be greatly appreciated thank you and have a blessed day

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Not until after you harvest. Most citrus are in the process of ripening right now, so it isn't a good time to prune. You want to prune immediately after winter harvest to give the tree time to settle and bud in spring. I have a video on it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZ-8YWNvetiebLssi=L4PMo9IETqDGZ__g

[@eck311]

@TheMillennialGardener thanks you're awesome have a blessed month

[@robbinhartman4361]

First year growing sweet potatoes had a relatively decent harvest with several large tubers. I also had several very small tubers 2 to 3 inches and maybe an inch in diameter. Can I replant those in the ground and will they come up next spring? I live in zone 7a in VA mountains

[@TheMillennialGardener]

What you'll want to do is store your sweet potatoes over winter in a cool, dry place after you're done warm curing them. Then, save the inferior potatoes, which will likely partially sprout by late February, and you can root them like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZprKoWh_r7RlZ8ksi=ZZSdXjzHTz2IFpA6

[@tamyraparker5829]

I just planted 6 slips about 2 months ago just to see if they would grow and they are. Not sure if they are just vines or will have sweet potatoes in a month or so. Basically in mid December. This will be fun.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Unless you live somewhere very warm, I wouldn't expect too much. It's possible you'll have some root development, but for me, it takes a solid 6 months to get a good harvest. They go in May 1. They come out November 1. That has been my ideal timing, and it consistently works well.

[@tamyraparker5829]

@ thank you for the information. I’ll just wait in a couple of months and we’ll see what happens. I’ll let you know if the sweet potatoes grow.

[@zPhilll]

My sweet potatoes molded when trying to cure them like that. Think I had too much humidity? Too hot/cold? I didnt have a thermometer with my heatmat, so I couldnt keep it perfect.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Probably too much humidity and not enough venting. You need to leave the lid cracked. I usually take it off once a day to air it out, too,

[@Kac210]

One more thing may I add to your list that affected me a lot. Don't plant them in virgin soil( land that have not been farmed on for years or ever been farm on at all. Furthermore, that had a lot of trees over it). I did corn, sweet potatoes, eddoes, squash, pumpkin and sorrel. Everything i did very well but sweet potatoes. On top of that I didn't use no fertilizers, and the corn the was the best, their growth were really fast and plentiful. When I saw the corn out come how they loved that ground, I knew I made a mistake with my sweet potatoes that year. Harvest time come for them, I barely found any. I perceived after seeing the corn growth that the soil had a lot of organic matter and nitrogen.

[@catc1238]

Dang breakfast looked pretty good

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Dale is a lucky guy 🐶

[@mw1327]

I buy laundry baskets at the dollar store and line them with cardboard instead of using bags. Works well. I did grow SP in a raised bed, got lots of greens. When I harvested I collected way more June Bug grubs than potatoes!

[@teresadelgado1372]

Question: can you plant slips from the sweet potatoes that you just pull out? Of course put them in water for like a week so you get some roots.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Yes. I do recommend putting them in water, because it only takes 3 days for them to grow roots. However, it isn't necessary. BUT, you DO need to keep the area around the slips very moist for several days for them to take. I show you how to do it all here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqTHaKV3o6aSm8ksi=Y2NdVRc5eHWwVTS7

[@daninraleigh]

I missed the size of bag you were using. I had some 7 gallon bags and was struggling to haul those around. It looks like 25-gallon bags will hold up to 300 pounds! of soil, so I don't know if I'll go that route. Out of 4 bags, this year, I got about as many sweet potatoes, as one of your 25-gallon bags.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

25 gal. Yes, they were quite heavy, especially since I used play sand. But, they were moveable. You can also get plant dollies to wheel them around.

[@Livingsamsara]

7:52 And THAT, folks, is how you do regenerative gardening -- the lazy way. "Sweet potatoes thrive on neglect." 😎😴🥰😇 This is also not a one off or a joke. I've referenced my friend before who calls himself lazy. He has the sandiest soil & never fertilizes anything; but if other crops fail (not enough water, birds, rabbits, etc) his sweet potatoes - CONSISTENTLY - are a sure thing. He's a vegetarian and lives on them throughout the entirety of fall and winter.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

If you have lousy, sandy soil, and hot, wet, buggy summers, sweet potatoes are for you. I struggle so badly growing "traditional" summer crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. in my miserable summers, but sweet potatoes are a joy.

[@mpsorrentino]

I have to rethink my tuber growing strategy, mice chewed through my grow bags and ate all the sweet potatoes of decent size and did the same with a bag of regular potatoes as well, along with my carrots...

[@TheMillennialGardener]

That is annoying. Can you get yourself hardware cloth and wrap the outside of the bags? That will stop them. You could also get a roll of aluminum screen and rig something.

[@geoideas07]

I had a groundhog that ate most of the leaves from my sweet potatoes this past summer. I almost dig them out from my grow bag but forgot to. 2 weeks later the vines kept growing with barely any watering. Nonetheless, I still had an amazing harvest without giving them much love too.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I had something similar happen. A couple bunnies squeezed through my garden fence and chewed down the vines. I gave them a few handfuls of fertilizer, and the vines were back in a matter of weeks. Sweet potatoes are tough.

[@debrahansley]

Wow! Are you the sweet potato pie guy for the entire winter?! Now I know what to do in the spring here in Virginia 8a😂

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I usually cut them into fries. I do like sweet potato pie, but I’ve never made it. I don’t grow the orange Beauregard’s due to their high water content. I’m not sure how well these varieties would do made into a pie since they’re much drier.

[@debrahansley]

@TheMillennialGardener awhhhh, sweet potato fries!!! Thank you for your help and valuable information!

[@sewhealthy560]

Oh my! That’s a ton of sweet potatoes. Did I ever make a mistake with my sweet potatoes this year. In a grow bag, I planted a single sweet potato in all compost soil. It grew beautifully. About a week ago, I decided to dig up what I thought was going to be a great harvest. Just like you said, I had one sweet potato and about 25 sprouts. I was so disappointed. I do have a question. Now that I know what to do , can I replant the sprouts? They are currently just in my garage. If so, should I dump the compost soil back in the compost bin and add the new mixture to the bag and replant them now and keep them in the garage or will they keep until the spring out of soil. I guess my question is how to store them or even if I can store theme. I live in southeast PA. I don’t know what I didn’t watch how to plant them before I tried. I do subscribe to your channel because you always give great advice. On another note, I pruned my fig tree the way you suggested and I got a ton of figs this year. Thanks for that video, you’re the best.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Don't despair. Just chalk it up to a learning experience. Now, you'll never make the mistake again, you know exactly the problem, and from here on, you'll only get more harvest. So, in theory, yes, you could re-plant the slips, but sweet potatoes hate weather colder than 50 degrees, so they'll never make it through the winter. What I recommend you do is start rooting a sweet potato around Valentine's Day and make your own slips. I have a detailed video on how to do that here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZprKoWh_r7RlZ8ksi=8hw2zDfdS9heytps Glad to hear about your figs!

[@sewhealthy560]

Thank you, you’re the best and please, please, please don’t stop making videos. I would be totally lost without your help.Thank you, I will take your advice.

[@scottroberts5492]

Was a good year for sweet potatoes, ended up with 186 pounds, with one raised bed left to harvest..

[@TheMillennialGardener]

That's a lot of sweet potatoes. 2 pounds a day for the next 3 months.

[@JacobHarrisOC]

😲🤯😲

[@gwenbush6184]

Question please… I planted white sweet potato’s in May. Planted them and walked away…. It was too hot this summer to work in the garden so I had very long vines take over a lot of garden space. They jumped out of bed, went across walkways and took over another bed that they weren’t planted in but the roots took hold in the other bed and walkways. My question is, will the vines that dug in create sweet potatoes too? I’ve since cut the vines way back separated them between beds and checked the potatoes and they were small assuming because there was so much energy going into the vine growth… so hoping now that I’ve cut everything back maybe the potatoes will get larger in the next couple months. Just wondering where all I need to dig for potatoes, just the original bed they were planted or basically everywhere?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Yes, the vines will make sweet potatoes anywhere they root. In my experience, the bulk of your harvest will come from the initial slips planted, because those roots have had the most time to develop. If you lived in a tropical climate where sweet potatoes can grow indefinitely, everywhere they root along the node can develop big clusters of roots provided enough time, but because we live in climates with killing winters, the rooted areas usually don't develop enough to make large potatoes. A couple of the smaller potatoes in this video were from rooted nodes, so you'll probably get some. However, the majority will be from the initial planted slips.

[@gwenbush6184]

@ thank you! I’m in Florida zone 9B. 1st time growing them. I have a feeling they’ll now be popping up everywhere for eternity 🤓.

[@dorothyfu7540]

How much sun were they getting? Can they thrive in semi shade environment?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Full sun. 8-10 hrs uninterrupted. Probably longer in June at peak day length. Sweet potatoes like heat. They are a vine, so they will grow in shade, but I don’t know how well they’ll yield. I would try it if I had no other option.

[@FullSailEVE]

Or here in southeast NC you wait til November and use the hot weather outside to cure them. 😂😂😂 Can’t believe how hot that week was for November!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

The problem is we don't have basements here. If you harvest them and cure them outside, now you have nowhere tool and dry to store them. I wait until it cools down so my garage is cool and dry to keep them.

[@baneverything5580]

The ancient sea travelers like the Polynesians planted sweet potatoes all over the place. It`s a very interesting history. I found out about Sweet Potatoes with shorter vines this year. I`m not sure how to find them or what they`re called. I have a ton of clean sand in a wash nearby. I`ve been experimenting with growing leafy greens in some of it I put in cardboard boxes then added a couple of inches of better soil on top. I have all winter to collect sand and make a spot to grow some Sweet Potatoes. It would be nice to have a harvest of those to go with my dry Red Ripper Peas & Butternut Squash in winter. I want to avoid commercially produced foods as much as possible for better health but I need higher calorie garden produce that grows & stores well.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Sweet potatoes are the king of storage crops, in my opinion. Very calorie dense, very delicious, and mine easily store until March in my garage. I will say I'm growing a new squash this year called Red Kuri. So far, it's a very tough and productive vine. Very beautiful.

[@markzuckerberg3128]

How do you get slips? Do you order them online?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

It's easy to make them yourself. I have a how-to video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZprKoWh_r7RlZ8ksi=USQaypOGJJXUiLQx

[@wnshelton]

How many slips did you use per 25 gallon grow bag?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

6-7. See the video in the description for how to plant.

[@dollyperry3020]

How would you apply this information to strawbale gardening?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Growing sweet potatoes in straw bales would be difficult for me. When I tried straw bale gardening, the bales decomposed almost entirely by the end of July due to our heat and rainfall, and sweet potatoes need to grow until October/November to get good size and productivity. Unless you live in a climate where the straw bales don't decompose quickly, I would stick to growing them in grow bags. Regular potatoes would probably do better in straw bales since they take less time and can be planted sooner while it's cool out. You can find my straw bale gardening playlist here: kzbin.info/aero/PL1gY7BoYBGIHSGzSTntDC8ToTvOBuCCN_&si=R994lwIb-xG-xHrd

[@bobobaggins95]

Its one of them moments that you ask yourself "shit, now if I maybe DID do something to the free bed, could I have gotten EVEN more?" Then the following year you do too much and ruin it all 😂 i seriously need to plant some out now, I keep hearing they're meant to be much easier than potatoes and I think this has really shown me why haha

[@bieckerchick]

This is the first year I had sweet potatoes grow (past two years I grew slips and the squirrels would eat them down to the nubs) I am hoping for some this year, but didn't realize they'd grow like crazy. If not this year, hopefully next. I have beautiful flowers though...

[@TheMillennialGardener]

If you have a small space, a trellis for the vines helps a lot. Sweet potatoes are in the morning glory family, and the vines have morning glory flowers.

[@bieckerchick]

@@TheMillennialGardener Oh they love the trellis! and the fence...and the other raised beds. I couldn't get to this part of the garden for a while (house renovations...long story) so they made themselves at home. The vines are plentiful as well as the blooms:) I didn't realize they were part of the morning glory family until they started blooming. Appreciate all the videos- thanks to last year's info, I planted round two and have loads of healthy tomato plants until we eventually get a first frost!

[@darthwolverine747]

Certain plants do better in ground left to their own devices 😁. I’m a lazy gardner so this is encouraging lol.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

The ones that don't like a lot of nitrogen and organic matter certainly do. We have a habit of giving too much care and loving our plants to death.

[@JuliePascal]

Where did you get Okinawan slips? I could NOT start them from the "Hawaiian" tubers I bought. I even bought one with tiny sprouts and it wouldn't grow.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

The Okinawan sweet potatoes are almost always imported and sterilized, so they won't sprout. I had to buy Okinawan slips online for my initial planting. Then, I just reserve a couple old potatoes and start sprouting them in late Feb/early March to make slips for a May 1 planting.

[@patriotoftruth-v1w]

Just harvested my sweet potatoes here in South Central PA (zone 6) and it was a $27 investment and its was absolutely dismal 🥴 hopefully I learn what I did wrong after watching this video 🤞🏻

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Try growing them the way I did here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqTHaKV3o6aSm8ksi=FFsOJtNq8H6I1DH4 If you must grow them in ground, don't amend the soil with compost. Give some bone meal, some organic all purpose fertilizer with no more than 4-5% nitrogen, and mostly ignore them after they establish. Water only to get them through drought.

[@buttonenfuego]

Wish we got rains here. In California they'd just fry in the sun

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You think that, but believe me, if you moved here, you'd want the dry weather back. Drought and heat can be challenging, but it can be managed. Mulch thickly, run drip irrigation, install shade cloth overhead and you have a wonderful, controlled environment. You just can't do anything with rainfall and humidity. Everything just drowns, rots, gets covered in diseases, plagues of insects, etc. It is pervasive, and it destroys everything. The best harvests I've ever had is during hot, dry periods of drought.

[@shalomtoday]

Wait till you move to Florida and plant them. Will make this seem like a small harvest.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I’m excited at the prospect of 2 crops there. That soil is gross sand. Sounds like perfect ground cover.

[@chasgilfillan]

I have to tell the story. This year, as an experiment, I put a store-bought sweet potato and a store-bought potato, in a 15-gal grow bag with a small amount of raised bed soil but mostly filled with grass clippings, and pretty much left it alone. When I "dug" it up (I harvested the potatoes when the plant died earlier) the vines has a little frost damage but were still alive and producing flowers, but there was a 3-pound sweet potato in the bag with some smaller tubers. Also, there were a couple more normal sized sweet potatoes in the lawn where the vine rooted. Weird. I have to figure out how to cook the thing. and what the heck happened.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

The sweet potatoes are the roots of the plant, so whatever happened, it was in an environment that forced root production. My theory is that if a plant has poor soil and lacks water, they need to produce more roots to search for nutrients and water. Meanwhile, if a plant has plenty of water and nutrients, they don't really need to produce much root mass, so they can afford more vegetative and flower growth. So, for that reason, starving sweet potato plants = more roots. Makes sense, right?

[@paul.mcguinness6075]

Do you eat all of them?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I will. I will reserve some inferior sweet potatoes to root next late winter for more slips.

[@feralkevin]

The problem with that grow bag method is that it probably cost more to fill the bags than you got worth of sweet potatoes. Also, compared to in the ground I don't find that yield to be anything significant. I have been growing Stokes purple for years in the ground.