So you stay in a city apartment or condo and still need a few luxuries of rural life, like sweet potatoes that you grow on your own? It's not that difficult but requires some investments in time and innovation or to be more precise, some improvisation.
Growing sweet potatoes is quite easy as they do not require much special care like flowers for example. Sweet potatoes can grow anywhere as long as you can provide them with adequate soil and moisture. You can grow them at home and begin making savings on buying them expensively from supermarkets or grocer's shop. Growing them at home also gives you the advantage of harvesting such rarities like sweet people tendrils and sweet potato leaves which as we discussed in previous posts are quite nutritious and very rich in various vitamins and compounds that keep us very healthy.
Of course in a city environment, you might not have access to good sweet potato vines or "slips" as they are commonly called in Western countries but you can easily grow the shoots from the sweet potato tubers that you have bought from the grocer's shop and become a self sufficient sweet potato urban farmer.
Buy some sweet potato tubers from a supermarket. Ensure you choose the best variety of tubers that are known to contain large amounts of beta-carotene such as the orange fleshed or purple fleshed sweet potatoes. Prepare some water and soil in a basin and immerse or bury the sweet potato tubers in the basin with wet soil in it. Give the sweet potato tubers some 4-6 weeks for the shoots to sprout from the tubers. The shoots should be long enough normally at about 6 inches. If you need more shoots, you can give them even more time for the shoots to grow further into long tendrils that you can then pluck and plant in multiple pots or grow bags.
As the shoots germinate, get some grow bags. Normally you can buy them from cereal shops or prepare some from used clothes. A typical grow bag would look like this although these have been used for Irish potatoes:
Sweet potato tubers need a lot of soil to grow. Remember in our earlier post about planting sweet potatoes in ridges versus mounds, we emphasized that ridges and mounds should be deep enough and big enough in order to produce the large sweet potato tubers. So in your grow bags, as the sweet potato shoots germinate during the six week germination period, ensure that you fill the grow bags with as much soil as possible. Use your discretion to determine the amount of soil but the bag should be very large and as high as the knee of someone who is 5' 10' for example, which is me :) . In that way, you will allow the tubers enough room to grow to their full potential. Remember each vine can produce as many as 7 tubers! That's why you need that much space.
If your grow bag is made of polythene for example instead of cloth or the nylon or the type of sisal bags normally used for cereals(which are very well ventilated), poke some numerous small holes at the side and at the bottom for good drainage. If you don't do this, your vines will eventually rot. Use good potting soil for your tubers, you can ask around from gardeners in your neighborhood if you are not very sure or search on the internet for suppliers of potting soil in your neighborhood. In Nairobi for example, you can get some good potting soil in the Gigiri area where there is a lot of floriculture going on.
After 4-6 weeks, when your shoots have sprouted into long vines, pluck them and plant them into the grow bags. Keep the grow bags moist but not soggy or wet. Sweet potatoes do not require a lot of water, just keep the grow bags moist all the time, I think watering them once every two days would do. Always remember to water them, the moment you stop and the bags go dry, all your efforts will come to nought as the sweet potato vines will simply wither, like all plants that go for long without water. When planting the vines, insert at least 60% of the vine's entire length into the soil, with the buds facing up towards the sun.(do not plant it upside down :) ). Take your time to determine which part of the vine should face up towards the sun, especially if you are working with a stem cutting where the buds are not that visible.
After this, just make sure the soil is always moist and you will have a bumper harvest of sweet potato tubers. Normally, two or three months after planting you can harvest the sweet potato leaves and tendrils by pruning excess branches. Do not "over-prune" as this will interfere with your eventual sweet potato tuber harvest.
After harvesting, you can sell the sweet potatoes or you can harvest them in stages for your own use over a long period of time. You can even harvest them for the next three months, after the first harvest(i.e.four to five months after planting). The longer they stay in the soil, the more they mature and the sweeter they become although after seven or eight months, they can begin to rot and are susceptible to pests which can destroy the crops. After harvesting, preserve some vines for the next planting season. For people in the temperate climates, frost can be a bring problem so ensure you plan the timing of your planting for the long months when there will be no frost.
Good luck!
Growing sweet potatoes is quite easy as they do not require much special care like flowers for example. Sweet potatoes can grow anywhere as long as you can provide them with adequate soil and moisture. You can grow them at home and begin making savings on buying them expensively from supermarkets or grocer's shop. Growing them at home also gives you the advantage of harvesting such rarities like sweet people tendrils and sweet potato leaves which as we discussed in previous posts are quite nutritious and very rich in various vitamins and compounds that keep us very healthy.
Of course in a city environment, you might not have access to good sweet potato vines or "slips" as they are commonly called in Western countries but you can easily grow the shoots from the sweet potato tubers that you have bought from the grocer's shop and become a self sufficient sweet potato urban farmer.
Buy some sweet potato tubers from a supermarket. Ensure you choose the best variety of tubers that are known to contain large amounts of beta-carotene such as the orange fleshed or purple fleshed sweet potatoes. Prepare some water and soil in a basin and immerse or bury the sweet potato tubers in the basin with wet soil in it. Give the sweet potato tubers some 4-6 weeks for the shoots to sprout from the tubers. The shoots should be long enough normally at about 6 inches. If you need more shoots, you can give them even more time for the shoots to grow further into long tendrils that you can then pluck and plant in multiple pots or grow bags.
As the shoots germinate, get some grow bags. Normally you can buy them from cereal shops or prepare some from used clothes. A typical grow bag would look like this although these have been used for Irish potatoes:
 |
| Sweet potato grow bags |
If your grow bag is made of polythene for example instead of cloth or the nylon or the type of sisal bags normally used for cereals(which are very well ventilated), poke some numerous small holes at the side and at the bottom for good drainage. If you don't do this, your vines will eventually rot. Use good potting soil for your tubers, you can ask around from gardeners in your neighborhood if you are not very sure or search on the internet for suppliers of potting soil in your neighborhood. In Nairobi for example, you can get some good potting soil in the Gigiri area where there is a lot of floriculture going on.
After 4-6 weeks, when your shoots have sprouted into long vines, pluck them and plant them into the grow bags. Keep the grow bags moist but not soggy or wet. Sweet potatoes do not require a lot of water, just keep the grow bags moist all the time, I think watering them once every two days would do. Always remember to water them, the moment you stop and the bags go dry, all your efforts will come to nought as the sweet potato vines will simply wither, like all plants that go for long without water. When planting the vines, insert at least 60% of the vine's entire length into the soil, with the buds facing up towards the sun.(do not plant it upside down :) ). Take your time to determine which part of the vine should face up towards the sun, especially if you are working with a stem cutting where the buds are not that visible.
After this, just make sure the soil is always moist and you will have a bumper harvest of sweet potato tubers. Normally, two or three months after planting you can harvest the sweet potato leaves and tendrils by pruning excess branches. Do not "over-prune" as this will interfere with your eventual sweet potato tuber harvest.
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| Harvesting sweet potatoes from grow bags |
Good luck!
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