Growing Sweet Potatoes In Beds VS Containers: What Is Better? Surprising Results!

Have you ever wondered what's better, growing sweet potatoes in raised garden beds or growing sweet potatoes in containers? This video answers that question. I grew sweet potatoes in containers and in garden beds and compared the results of the sweet potato harvest. The results were surprising and will forever change how I grow sweet potatoes.
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How To Grow Sweet Potatoes From Slips: • Turn ONE Sweet Potato ...
How To Cure And Store Sweet Potatoes: • This Genius New Way Of...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Intro To Growing Sweet Potatoes
1:02 Compost: Sweet Potato's Enemy
3:20 Container Grown Sweet Potato Tips
4:01 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Containers
6:07 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Raised Beds
7:42 Containers VS Raised Beds Results
9:29 Sweet Potato Growing Conclusions
12:42 Curing And Storing Sweet Potatoes
14:05 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about maximizing sweet potato production, want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and "how to" garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8A
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© The Millennial Gardener
#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #sweetpotato #sweetpotatoes

[@TheMillennialGardener]

If you enjoyed this video, please “Like” and share to help increase its reach! Thanks for watching 😊TIMESTAMPS here: 0:00 Intro To Growing Sweet Potatoes 1:02 Compost: Sweet Potato's Enemy 3:20 Container Grown Sweet Potato Tips 4:01 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Containers 6:07 Harvesting Sweet Potatoes In Raised Beds 7:42 Containers VS Raised Beds Results 9:29 Sweet Potato Growing Conclusions 12:42 Curing And Storing Sweet Potatoes 14:05 Adventures With Dale

[@Ms.Byrd68]

Plus if you are growing for a small family those two buckets maybe 'doubled' are enough for fresh eating, storing till next season and regrowing your 'slips' when your space both _outside & inside_ are limited. What I hear, for the first time, is that certain veggies are actually INVASIVE and their growth should be controlled just like you do MINT or STRAWBERRIES. Good to actually be TOLD, thank you!

[@myurbangarden7695]

I typically grow in containers. My mother used to plant potatoes🥔 and sweet potatoes 🍠 in ground beds. 3 years later we were still digging them up. Even when she needed work on her septic system and pool, we found sweet potatoes and potatoes

[@livingtherufflife]

Now it makes sense why i had the best sweet potato harvest in central FL. It was horrible soil, and nothing grows in the summer so everyone said plant sweet potatoes to cover the soil and loosen the soil for the fall. We moved 3 times since and although this is my first year again ti grow sweet potatoes, I got lots of green but little roots. I thought i grew too late. But your explanation makes more sense. I’ll be growing sweet potatoes with cheap, dirt in grow bags and save my compost for the green veg and tomatoes.

[@IrisAzalea]

I followed your slips starting video and used 1 purple Japanese sweet potato. I harvested 14 lbs from one bed. Thank you thank you thank you

[@TheMillennialGardener]

WOW! Awesome work!

[@al451f]

What was the size of the bed?

[@kodiak1984]

I'm in the UK and growing sweet potatoes. Weather this year has been awful, not as hot as last year and was msuch wetter too. I use containers and have experimented with them over the last 3 years. My take is looking at the vines in the raised beds, they still look healthy because the soil is very fertile. Point is, they werent dying back. Much like regular potatoes, letting the plant die back will end up transferring all the plants energy into the tubers, hence get bigger. My take, the sweet potato vines in the containers had seen better days and perhaps were sending all their energy to the tubers whereas those in the raised beds still had some life. I think if you gave the sweet potatoes in the raised beds another 30 days, they would have been the same size as those in the containers. I did that experiment last year with murasaki sweet potato, I harvested a container on 90 days, another on 100 and another on 110. Those from 110 days batch were nearly double the size of the 90 days.

[@kaikai2meripng]

Thanks for this. I had heard that you harvest after the leaves die back so I was wondering the same thing.

[@kodiak1984]

@@kaikai2meripng you can harvest the leaves at any point. I dont think there is any nutrional value once the vines die back but if you find the vines and leaves growing well or overgrowing, pick the leaves and put it a meal. Its a good spinach substitute so where you would use spinach, you can use sweet potota leaves. The vines are also edible, some cultures eat them too as long as there are.not too woody in texture

[@vlunceford]

Sweets have to be harvested ahead of first frost. Possibly he would have been up against frost if he had wanted another 30 days. I had that issue and harvested yesterday, but my sweets that I planted in mid-July yielded close to 50 pounds out of 2 raised beds. We are expecting a hard freeze tomorrow overnight. Zone 7b NW Georgia, planted in clay soil topped off with compost. The potatoes are HUGE.

[@Cynthia_Robinson]

I grow my own slips. Using a potato from last season. So if you have a left behind potato. Leave it. That will produce a vine that has hundred of slips. Clip or break off where you see little nodes at the base of each leaf take the clippings and grow in water until you have a good root system. I use 4 cell seed trays for that. Once the leaves are growing and new vines appear. I transfer to containers to finish out. Young sweet potato leaves are delicious. Old saying a potato grows slip. Slips grow potatoes. If you don’t have pot ash as he recommended. Buy natural organic fertilizer. 3-4-3. Sprinkle into your container or bed mix into soil before planting. Water in new transfer slips until the whole bed or container is wet soil. Then water weekly or wait for rain. You’ll be amazed at your potato production. Other way to get slips is when a harvested potato starts to chit Allow that to grow about 3-4 inches. Then clip it off or break it where it attaches to the potato. Then move to water and watch it grow. Once it has leaves and roots. Transfer.

[@pnmholdings4635]

​@@Cynthia_Robinson awesome info. Thanks

[@bobbun9630]

I grow my sweet potatoes in the ground, in clay soil. They grow great in clay, but digging them can be tough. The harvest was 256 lbs this year, and about half that came from a single 25' row with trellised plants (the vines have to be trained to climb a trellis, but it saves a lot of space). Lots of roots in the 3-5 lb range. Curing helps develop sweetness quickly after harvest, but they do sweeten up slowly in storage anyway. Curing is not necessary for storage, in my experience. Mine keep for about a year without it. I don't cure, as I prefer the roots to be less sweet.

[@sunniharrison9639]

Do you live in AZ?

[@bobbun9630]

@@sunniharrison9639 Nope. Arkansas, hot (not as hot as AZ), humid summers, just barely in zone 7 if that's relevant to you. I think you would need to irrigate regularly to grow them well in Arizona, even if it's not always obvious they need the water.

[@mamamuzic]

I love your scientific experiments!who would have thought the containers would do twice as well?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thanks! It depends on the soil. I think my raised bed soil is just too rich in organic matter and nitrogen. In my case, containers helped me.

[@nathanbales3702]

Dude, you're the BOMB!! I've been gardening for 40 years and still learn good info from you! I had the same problems with sweet potatoes but never figured it out! Thanks!!!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You’re welcome! I’m glad the videos are helpful. The best way to learn is to make a mistake 😂

[@randbasic]

I’ve grown stokes in the ground before and had lots of huge success. I’m in a desert area now. I tried growing stokes , Murisaki, and a pinkish Asian variety in fabric pots. I got vines that went everywhere huge vines everywhere. However all the potatoes were small and nowhere near as many. I think. I must have used too much compost. That’s why I had the forest of vines and dinky tubers. Congrats on the harvest and thank for sharing the info! Keep on grow’n on! 😂

[@pauz9776]

I love sweet potatoes also. I started out drawing them for their leaves as an artist also I found out as I learned, In Vietnam sweet potato greens are a daily part of the people's diet. And I also learned or took an interest in sweet potatoes as a food for people with diabetes or kidney and liver damage. There are many reasons why I would we might eat sweet potatoes and they're called a superfoods, please understand I'm a student and learning to the best of my knowledge everything I said is true. Thanks for all the important tips like the heat match and wealth of knowledge.

[@laurab8547]

I got 46 lbs of sweet potatoes in one 4x4 raised bed that is about 18 inches deep. The last two years I had dismal attempts trying to grow them in ground (in our hard, compact clay soil here in NTX) so I was thrilled to pull out huge potatoes that equaled about 45 lbs! I still have a second 4x4 bed to harvest because I planted that one several weeks later. All that to say, I do think the depth and composition of the soil really makes a difference in how well the sweet potatoes grow. Hope Dale feels better soon!

[@rebeccawatson9284]

Thanks for showing us the information from your experiment!

[@Livingsamsara]

I love your experiments because I learn so much. Not harvested mine from the plot, yet -- that had, yes, organic matter -- but I bet I'll be trying them in the grow bags next year! Something else to validate your findings is my friend who basically has sandy dirt [South Carolina, Zone 8a ] and his potato patch is only slightly larger than your raised bed in this video. He doesn't fertilize. He does nothing to anything, ever. [He plays fast & loose in my opinion but damned if he doesn't have enough goodies to bring me!] ANYWAY, he gifted us about 50 lbs of sweet potatoes last year [seriously; one I brought back was the size of a large pumpkin] - that kept us stocked for months - and he lived on his own taters through the fall and winter as well. He REALLY likes sweet potatoes. He didn't turn orange though, which surprised me.

[@carolscabinas]

Thank you! I've looked for this info forever. Finally I understand. 😊

[@user-sv7pe5pp5x]

I had an amazing harvest of sweet potatoes in grow bags this year. Thank you so much for showing me how to create the humidity necessary to cure them. It works fabulously!

[@kodiak1984]

Also thought of 2 other reasons why your sweet potato in your raised bed didnt do so well. It came to me as i picked my sweet potatoes today. Firstly, did you cover the ground in the raised bed? If the vines of the plant had touched the soil, it possibly re rooted. So the plant spent energy producing another root system, instead of concentrating on developing the one it already had into tubers. Secondly, how dense is the soil? Sweet potato like loose soil to allow the tubers to develop. If the soil is tight, they will not form and if they do, wont get big. And if they get big, they'll be slightly deformed. These 2 reasons may have contributed to your low yield from the raised beds

[@jsmith0280]

Howdy from Houston! Zone 9B. I have experienced the same results with containers vs in-ground. I only grow sweet potatoes in containers now. It works great. I absolutely love to see Dale each time you upload a video. He's just so sweet. Great dog! Always enjoy your videos. Very educational. Keep up the great work!

[@cathihaug5807]

Inspired by you, I grew sweet potatoes for the first time this year. Grew them layered in towers (cattle fencing, lined with chicken wire and straw) without compost. Great big potatoes! Just finished curing them in the oven with incandescent lights. Thanks for another great video! Hope Dale is on the mend ❤️

[@TexasNana2]

I really enjoy your experiments. Thank you for taking the time to perform them. Looks like Dale is doing better. He's so smart ❤😊

[@justinmccall1458]

I really love the adventures with Dale at the end of your videos.

[@dlr978]

Love the DIY cuing/humidity chamber! This is my first year growing sweet potatoes, and I'll need something like that. I'll check out that video soon!

[@operationgoddess]

Wow!!! Amazing!!! Thank you for sharing this!!! Mind blowimg!!!

[@stephensuter7242]

Thanks for this information. I grew plain organic sweet potatoes in containers this year - I kept the vines up on trellis’ and they seemed to do pretty well. None as large as yours - but maybe 12-15 pounds from two potatoes. I really want to try the potatoes you’ve shown us next season. I plan on starting earlier too.

[@adairsulhoff5405]

Thanks! Your videos are always the best!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I appreciate that so much!

[@amyk6028]

Love growing Sweet Potatoes! Last year I amended my soil with a big handful of 4-4-4 Organic fertilizer plus a big handful of Bone Meal in each planting hole. At the 1 month mark, I watered them well with a 4-4-4 liquid fertilizer. Then, at the 2 months mark I watered with a 0-1-3 liquid fertilizer. I got a GREAT harvest after the blooms started dying back around the 100 day mark 👍🏼 Planning to repeat that this year with some new varieties - Georgia Jet & Vardaman. We will see how it goes 🙌🏼

[@Grassroot_Gardens]

Yes to the gardening sleeves! Non-cheezy looking ones please 😆 Yet another really great video. I have been enjoying your channel so much, and I watch a ton of Gardening KZbin right now. In the process of buying a small property and starting over from scratch. I'm in S. Carolina and the area specific information has been invaluable.

[@onevalewa1131]

That explains a lot!. Thankyou from Fiji

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You’re very welcome! Thanks for watching.

[@NatureZone101]

Isn't that amazing how incredible animals are! Dale!

[@diananazaroff5266]

I've had the same results. I use large, unglazed stone pots and have wonderful harvests. For my humidity box, I use an insulated plastic cooler with a heat mat inside. I put racks in the bottom to put the potatoes on and put some water underneath. One year, I put them in a little room in my attic inside a milk crate set on a tray of water. That worked too.

[@Greg-McIver]

Thank you for the heads up! I tried sweet potatoes in a bed with little production. Your channel is the best!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thank you! I am glad the videos are helping!

[@Sunnylane02174]

Okay I’m definitely going to grow my sweet potatoes in my grow bags. Thanks for this video!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You’re welcome!

[@mileakin2689]

Great information thank you

[@kimg5784]

Thank you!

[@haltersweb]

I appreciate your scientific method approach, and the fact that you don’t jump to conclusions based on what you saw from one controlled experiment. Rather you also pull from past experience and knowledge to create your conclusion. I’m a software engineer so this is how my mind works too. Your videos have helped me tremendously.

[@cherylsmith8541]

LOVE THIS VIDEO! I also just harvested my sweet potatoes (in a 4x8 bed) and almost cried with how pathetic the harvest was. The vines looked amazing so I was so sure that I was going to have the harvest of all harvests! I had also planted a few slips in a large container and couldn't help but notice that that harvest slip for slip was better than the raised bed but I thought I was imagining it. I am also ALWAYS trying to figure out what to grow in containers given that nothing I try seems to do as well in them (because of the unique needs of growing in containers). This is a super helpful video - thanks so much.

[@michaelowen5471]

Very helpful and informative, I grow sweet potatoes every year and have healthy vines but few potatoes, now I know why, Thank You

[@user-fy7cp9yw7y]

Thanks for this video. I now have answers to my concerns about growing sweet potatoes. I am definitely going to buy a couple of grow bags for next year. I have a small garden and Ga red clay to deal with. I have never grown sweet potatoes but will attempt next year. I am going to rewatch your video, “How To Grow Sweet Potatoes From Slips”.

[@pt2575]

Very helpful information. Thank you. Truly appreciate your hard work and sharing your experience & lessons with us.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I appreciate it! Thanks for watching!

[@26Marlow]

I just love watching your videos! You get to the point and are easy to listen to. Thanks for the info. I'm starting my sweet potatoes now in grow bags as well, in middle Georgia 👍

[@nancyn.226]

Wow! Great information! Time to start growing in containers!

[@operationgoddess]

Wow!!! Amazing!!! Thank you for sharing this!!! Mind blowing!!!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!

[@Wolflung]

very informative. earned a subscriber! thanks for sharing

[@sylvia10101]

Thank you for such great information, as always! 😊👍👍

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You’re very welcome! I appreciate you watching!

[@yvonne5773]

Thank you for your tips. It is very helpfull!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!

[@danthemangurney]

Great advice. I tried last year after planting in the ground. Non existent crop which I blamed solely on lack of rainfall. Seems growing in containers is the way to g!. Will try this method next year.

[@metalcatmom5891]

Good to know! I grew mine in a 200 gallon grow bag this year, which worked pretty well. I'm going to revamp next year. So next year I'll have better success with low nitrogen mix.

[@Gonzalo_M]

Great information and video! Very very nice! 😄

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I appreciate it! Thanks for watching!

[@kumudinihomegarden9139]

Thanks for sharing your experience👌🙏

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You’re welcome!

[@tinab7791]

Yes to the gardening sleeves!

[@WilliamMiller-nr5gb]

I too learned the counterproductivity of fertilizing sweet potatoes. I will say though that I plant mine in containers because of bug damage that results from in-ground planting here in South Florida.... and that the leaves are also enjoyed by both me and my chickens.

[@craighalle7892]

I grew mine in my old wheel barrow last year and even the vines grew like crazy. The harvest had plenty of large sweet potatoes, but also many small ones. It was over 10 pounds. So I planted them in the same wheel barrow, but haven't harvested them yet. The vines were not as crazy this time. They did get a sunnier location, and it's almost harvest time. They lasted more than a year on my shelf in the kitchen with no curing done. I didn't know about that. I had to plant the small sweet potatoes to grow slips to plant, which went well. It did take weeks to grow the slips, but it worked. Keep up the good work as I always like to know what works the best.

[@ObsessiveAboutCats]

Thank you for making videos of mistakes so I can hopefully avoid them. I will be trying to grow sweet potatoes for the first time next year and this is very helpful information. It was also useful to see the structure you have for the vines to climb. One thing I was thinking about trying was burlap sacks, since I could cut holes in them to help the vines set roots. I was worried the sacks wouldn't hold up, and from the looks of your experiment, it isn't necessary. This is very useful info! Also it is good to know about the fertilizer because I definitely would have made that mistake too. PS - Dale is adorable!

[@nic.h]

I've heard one report that burlap sacks work, but will only really last one season as the base rots out

[@aluliasz8304]

Thanks for this info! That's exactly what I did this year. A giant raised bed with huge vines growing everywhere. I'm harvesting this weekend but after just poking around a bit I'm not seeing much evidence of big stokes and murisakis.

[@joycebovee5818]

Oh yes to the gardening sleeves!

[@vicknairfirm]

Thank you.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

You're welcome!

[@patkrueger7353]

I would have to grow on containers. I grew my other potatoes in a container. Thanks for this info. Very helpful as always.

[@tcoffer2995]

I did not know the roots are invasive. I'm so happy I heard your video before trying to plant sweet potatoes!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

They are wild. They snake all over the place. Definitely give them space.

[@STARFIRESOLAR]

I live about near Jacksonville not too far from you and have to share my sweet potato growing experience with you. I heat with wood in the winter and keep the wood chips I get from chain sawing my firewood. The best harvests of sweet potato I have ever had is mixing the wood chips with sand. 3 parts wood chips to 1 part sand. I also grow them in containers. The vines grew out of the containers and also rooted in my sandy soil so I got the harvest from the containers and what grew in the ground. Give it a try.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I imagine the nitrogen robbing effect of buried wood chips helped make tubers. Very interesting.

[@STARFIRESOLAR]

​@@rainbowvixen1429 Hey rainbowvixen, I live off Queen's Creek Rd. What's up neighbor! I hope you have great harvests this year!

[@STARFIRESOLAR]

​@@TheMillennialGardener No I used the wood chips I got using the chain saw to cut up the firewood, not burnt chips from the fireplace.

[@Wisdomseeker_777]

​@STARFIRESOLAR What size wood chips did you use, please? Planting my slips & would love to try this. Thanks in advance.

[@STARFIRESOLAR]

@@Wisdomseeker_777 I used the chips that I got using the chainsaw.

[@Gkrissy]

Great video. I did the same thing 2 weeks ago when I got my dad and cousin to help me dig them out. I was seeing a lot of youtubers mention the fertility in the soil yielding them poor results and this was my first time growing them. I got bigger results in my hugelkulture raised bed and in ground vs containers. My other set is currently curing. I grew muraski, lilac beuty and myanmar (purple sweet potatoes are my fav). Now, I just need to maintain the health of my LSU fig and tangerine that dropped all their leaves while I was on vacation last week.

[@technical19d34]

Makes sense. Last year I had a bumper crop in a 2 foot by 8 foot 11 inch deep raised bed but it was crappy lower Alabama clay plus sand a little compost...but a pretty fair amount of wood ash. Plus lots of rain.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

That is probably enjoyable to them. Add more potassium and phosphorus and they should do even better.

[@barbkenas5663]

Very interesting. I do a lot of containers so I will have to try sweet potatoes! Hi Dale!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

They’re a great container crop! Dale says hello!

[@exvaxmama]

I'm soo glad you did this "experiment" lol I'm in se Louisiana and for the last few years I've done sweet pots in grow bags and have gotten the biggest potatoes!! Not very many but the size makes it for the lack of quantity lol ive been wanting to try them in my raised bed but now I think I'll stick to what works best lol ill never grow potatoes any other way!!

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I wonder what would happen if you grew them in a kiddie pool...

[@TheSwissy4me]

I WOULD SO BUY MILLENNIAL GARDEN SLEEVES. You are the reason that my garden has been so wonderful. I thank you every time I go out to it. And btw, I love those sleeves. I have two pair but millennial gardener sleeves, oh yeah baby. Lol

[@scottroberts5492]

Sweet video ! My raised bed sweet potatoes looked more like your container grown, big deference is my beds are 30" tall and I filled them with logs and soil from my forest area full of NC sand and clay.

[@mse1333]

Hey MG, Mark from Charlotte, I know you just started straw bale gardening, I recently watched a number of videos about growing sweet potatoes in bales, amazing results

[@TheMillennialGardener]

I’ve seen that. They’re basically just containers, though. I don’t think it is anything special. Sweet potatoes have a high demand for water. The 20 gallon pots are genuinely easier to water than the bales were.

[@mse1333]

@@TheMillennialGardener I’m sure everyone has different results, but check out the vid from The Garden Family, very impressive. Lots of potatoes, all clean. Easy to harvest. And as you always say, the resulting straw compost, you can use elsewhere. It’s an amazing result, at least in this video.

[@nntvdh6333]

Your videos are the best, thank you for sharing. Sweet potatoes and their leaves are the best for people with diabetes. I cut the young leaves, put them into boiled water and take out immediately, then stir fry with garlic and some salt and serve. In cutting away the excessive leaves the tubes will grow better I believe. Also one advantage with containers we can bring some inside to have the vines for planting in the spring.

[@patkrueger7353]

I have never grown sweet potatoes. I grew golden yukon for the first time this year. Was very happy. They were really good

[@georgefeliz7875]

You won my subscription on this one! 😅

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thanks for subscribing! I appreciate it!

[@pauz9776]

yeah ! Dale, you're a lucky man and he has a great Papa.

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thanks. I'd say we're even luckier though 😆

[@plantaseednotlitter2260]

Well done loyal and faithful servant that gigantic variety sweet potatoes harvested. Happy Falls Day 🎉

[@JenniferLeiser]

Informative video but the Dale experiment is the best best part

[@ban9640]

hi am from saudi arabia in my openion i think sweet potatoes are water lover like rice even in poor drainage pot it s thriving like hell i have myself an excellent production of sweet potato in poorly drainage pots

[@mamaabena8337]

Did you know the sweet potato leaves are edible and are great in stews? Really tasty harvesting them while nice and green!

[@Dil_garden]

Nice😊

[@valoriegriego5212]

Howdy MG and adorable Dale!👋 Nice looking sweet potatoes.👍 I grow mine in containers with a bit of wood ash, and I get a nice return. I do a feeding of liquid tomato food if the leaves start to yellow. Do add garden sleeves to your shop!😃 I imagine your neighbors enjoy seeing Dale when he's on his walks.😃🐕

[@TheMillennialGardener]

The wood ash probably helps a lot. If I had a wood stove I would save it, but we don’t have them here. Dale has a lot of friends in the neighborhood. He knows all the dogs.

[@valoriegriego5212]

@TheMillennialGardener I was told I can use the ash from the hardwood we use to bbq...I use that as well as ash from the fireplace. I would imagine Dale's human neighbors are also excited to see him on walks. If he was my neighbor there would be homemade pup treats offered from time to time.😃

[@lennythomas7230]

Lol I love the intro. Consistent positivity every time. Be very awesome if you did a video while it was raining and be like "it's a beautiful day here in South Carolina" 🤣🤣🤣

[@lisaelanna]

I think you’re spot on about the root restriction effect. I’m shocked by your haul - I got at least 2x the amount from the bed in mine that’s 1/3 of the size. I started your heat mat cure method today but wondering - your potatoes look like they’re in about a single layer - can you cure with more in the box? Or will it cause them to rot? I hadn’t thought I’d get nearly so many and only purchased one heat mat controller. Wondering if I need to get another to spread them out a bit more…

[@stanleymcrae5952]

I've had success with a handful of granular fertilizer and about a cup of bone meal per slip. Then half strength fish emulsion the first 3 weeks. After that, just let them grow. I grew 2 slips per 27 gallon tote, that I converted to subirrigated containers. The last month or 2... I let the container almost dry out between watering. (Just to be sure the tubers don't rot in the soil). I've been harvesting them every few weeks as they cure and are eaten. I obtained 10 lbs from the last container harvested. So about 5 lbs per slip. It helps that the soil in my containers is very loose.

[@MichaelBrownOki]

My (2) 4 x 4 raised beds are looking great vine wise. And of course are spreading. I did not fertilize hardly at all but did water pretty regularly, hot summer as you know. Will report when I dig them up, maybe this weekend. question, are the vines and leaves ood for composting? My other potatoes in the containers always do well, and yes harvesting is much easier.

[@kristyholman351]

Love these comparison videos! Where did you get your slips?

[@doreenaitken5308]

Love Dale!

[@kellyy8114]

Glad I saw this before planting. I'm growing sweet potatoes for the first time this year and I only have space for grow bags. I have 10 and 20 gallon size bags. How many slips do you think I should put in each bag? Thanks for the tip on nitrogen! I have bone meal I'll add to my bags

[@nobodyreally8441]

I harvested my sweet potatoes a couple of weeks ago. I live in the cool mountains so they aren’t very easy to grow for lack of days above 50. I also experimented with containers vs raised beds. The containers were a big ZERO. I wonder if it was because I used 50% Black Cow? ( no fertilizer)

[@TheMillennialGardener]

It sounds like too much nitrogen and not much anything else. I bet it grew some nice vines. When I planted my potatoes, I put in a lot of organic 5-5-5 and supplemental bone meal, plus I gave it a few supplemental top dressings throughout the year. I think that's why they did so well. I would recommend growing them with little to no compost but fortifying the containers significantly with bone meal and an organic fertilizer somewhere around a 3-5-5 or 2-5-5...something with a smaller N but a hefty P and K.

[@JessPenner]

Great video!!! I’m planting in bags for the first time here in Hawaii… I’ve had pigs clean out over 300 ft.² of sweet potato patch twice in the last two years and I just can’t stand the thought of it happening again not to mention spearing so many potatoes with my garden Fork trying to harvest them 😅 looking forward to trying grow bags!! I grow the Okinawans here and harvested an 11 pounder last year…. One single potato 😂😂

[@beverlyboyce1041]

Danny from Deepsouthhomestead did Murasaki sweet potatoes in Mississippi and they went through a bad drought. They did great considering and no insect pressure

[@ss-kz9ee]

I've started growing sweet potatoes.they are easy and I harvest them when young. They taste better. I am planning to have consistent sweet potatoes because potatoes in shops are expensive and bland

[@ronaldthoms2147]

I've had good results growing in straw bales I cut area out between twine about 4 inches deep put potting soil in an plant slips an water good till thriving , sometimes theres sweetpotatoe's under bale or if lots of rain theres a pile to just pickup of sweetpotatoe's as bail mostly decomposed

[@thebearman324]

I grew mine in a kiddy pool last year and they did fine. I think they actually did better in a shorter amount of time in the kiddy pool

[@christiensgarden3325]

Great idea I will try that next year..how many slips per pool

[@pnmholdings4635]

​@@christiensgarden3325 I would put one every 1 square foot. I'm trying a pool this year.

[@nunyabisnass1141]

I generally dont fertilise anything. I give them compost but thats about it. As for sweet potatoes, this is my first year doing it and they came out pretty well. I will do what you suggested and add more peat, because the soil did compact more than i liked. I also grew in containers so i could see exactly how many i got, and found they will produce way down up to two and half feet. Ome final suggestion, i think this is a plant that doesnt like being babied. Some plants are like that where stress causes them to produce better because it caused them to feel like hard times are coming so they focus on producing fruit, seed, or their energy storing tubers.

[@hazeysgarden]

Yeah speaking on the gardening sleeves, I haven’t seen them, but I always get dirt and crud under my watch band and it irritates my skin lol.

[@foxybuddy]

Oh my goodness no wonder I mostly can only harvest sweet potatoes leaves, fortunately they are edible greens. Thank you so much for educational information that's really what I need right now, so I don't make mistakes again

[@LB-vl3qn]

Very interesting. I had a similar experience growing sweets in a 3x4 raised bed. Most of the harvest was long, skinny tubers that looked more like snakes than sweet potatoes. How many slips did you plant in each grow bag? Thanks for showing the comparison. ~ Lisa

[@themaldonados]

I grew sweet potatoes in grow bags and some in a garden bed. Same results. The ones grown in grow bags were bigger than the ones in a garden bed.

[@MyLifeInTwoContinents]

Thanks for sharing this, so much to learn from. One question though; what is the depth of your raised bed? Is shallow compared to your containers, could that be the reason for the lowered yield, that the sweet potatoes were constrained?

[@austintrees]

I had seven grow bags of 50/50 sphagnum peat moss and potting soil, I don't think I had them out enough in zone 5B... But barely got anything of of size, next year should i turn a raised bed with a similar mixture and sand or just add sand to my container mix?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Keep in mind a decent potting mix is going to have around 50-60% peat, so it's possible you overdid it a bit. It's also possible Zone 5B just isn't warm enough long enough. Sweet potatoes *really* love heat, humidity and rainfall. Maybe they were planted too late or just didn't have enough warm season. I would recommend trying to plant them in large black grow bags heavily amended with bone meal. Then, consider pushing them up against the south-facing wall of your house, since that wall absorbs sun all day and radiates the heat back in the evening. That additional warmth may do it some good. You can also experiment with different varieties like Beauregard, Murasaki, Stoke's Purple, Georgia Jet, among others. You may have to take a few swings to find one that does well in Zone 5.

[@Malachowski96]

Nice video! The chapters made it helpful to watch the parts I wanted to. Looks like I’ll be using containers next time I grow taters

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Thanks! I’m glad it could give you a few ideas.

[@AnyKeyLady]

Totally agree! Chapters make all the difference imo, especially to refer back to, plus they do an amazing job at metric conversions and include various growing zones. They also don't waffle, are clear and not overwhelming, whilst providing concise info. They also add a bit of comedy and light relief, either in the Adventures with Dale or in the main bit of the video content.

[@charliemagoo7943]

Whats the best potting mix if they are in containers?? Ive done both and ive wondered if its not the heat on the container making the soil warmer so they grow more in the beginning???? Like a month head start on the ground.

[@HealthyDisrespectforAuthority]

I'm in GA..my dirt is sort of sandy but when it gets wet, the clay in it makes it like cement. I planted 12 beaureguards..got a whopping 10 potatoes that are really small..probably too small to save for slips even. I'll be going in containers next time

[@MI-Figs313]

Nice before and after, thanks for the experiment. Curious though, do you think the low nitrogen, high phosphorous and K can be applied to growing regular potatoes?

[@korinnemcchesney4545]

Love your videos! I’ve learned so much from you. I grow in 20 gallon fabric containers. It’s my first year attempting sweet potatoes . How many sweet potato slips can I put in one 20 gallon container?

[@TheMillennialGardener]

Excellent! Probably 5-7 slips per 20 gallon bag. That's what I did, and it turned out excellent.

[@andreagayle1972]

Thank u!

[@teribelleau137]

Love Dale...such a sweet boy! ❤