Can sweet potato vines grow in containers?
One of the most popular trailing plants for containers, hanging baskets and window boxes. Sweet potato vine can also be grown as a groundcover, trained vertically on a trellis, or allowed to cascade along a wall or slope. You may be surprised to learn that anyone, anywhere can plant and grow a sweet potato vine. Sweet potatoes are super fun to grow; they don’t attract many pests, look beautiful in containers, and still provide a harvest of food at the end of the season.Using Sweet Potato Vine in the Garden They are excellent for use as groundcovers, where they can create a dense carpet of foliage that suppresses weeds and adds visual interest. Their trailing habit also makes them perfect for spilling over rock walls or cascading from hanging baskets and containers.If you don’t want to save sweet potato vine tubers, you may take cuttings to save your favorite sweet potato vine varieties. Cuttings need light, warmth, and water to grow. They’ll overwinter well on a warm windowsill, under grow lights, or in a greenhouse.Ornamental sweet potato vine, as seen in the foreground, will die off in the winter but its tubers will remain to sprout again in spring. A freshly cut tree is ready to be brought in. Ornamental sweet potato vine can be one element in a hanging container in a sunny location.Best Plants To Grow With Sweet Potato Vine In containers, use sweet potato vine as a spiller with filler and thriller plants like dwarf papyrus, coleus, petunias, purple shamrock, and grasses.
Can I grow my own sweet potato vine?
Place the sweet potato into the jar. Fill the jar with water leaving about 1-inch space between the water and the top of the jar. Keep the sweet potato plant in moderate to full sunlight at room temperature or above 65 degrees. Check the water levels and add more water when needed. Newly planted sweet potato slips will need to be watered daily during their first week outside. Watering every other day during the second week will help establish plants. Once the plants are established, sweet potatoes can be watered once a week.Avoid Overwatering: Sweet potatoes are susceptible to root rot if the soil remains excessively wet. Ensure proper drainage and avoid overwatering, especially in heavy or clayey soils. Monitor Soil Moisture: Regularly check the soil moisture level. Stick your finger into the soil about an inch (2.Watering Sweet Potato Vines in Pots The soil should remain moist, but not saturated a few inches below the surface. Hanging baskets will dry out faster than a planter typically, so keep a close eye on the moisture level if growing in a hanging planter.Before planting sweet potatoes, you should also consider the right time to plant them. This will vary according to the area you are in, as they thrive in warm climates. It is best to plant them between April and June. Always remember that crops must be grown in the ideal conditions for them to develop correctly.Planting considerations find a sunny planting site with healthy, well-drained soil. sweet potato plants prefer full sun, but can tolerate partial shade in a hot and dry climate. To prepare the soil, till and lay black plastic or black landscape fabric over the rows to help raise the ground temperature.
How to take care of a sweet potato vine?
Sweet potatoes like a bright, sunny location and require care like house plants such as ivy. Fertilize about once a month. If the sweet potato vine gets too long, cut it back a few inches to force the vine to get bushier. The tip of the vine that was pinched off can be rooted in water or moist soil. Fill a shallow tray with potting mix and lightly bury the Sweet Potato tuber. Water in gently and keep the mix moist as the sprouts form. Once the sprouts are about 15 cm long, cut them off at the base and plant them directly into the garden or pot.Sweet potatoes grow best in light, sandy soils but grow well on heavier soils, high in clay and amended with organic matter. Full sun requires direct light at least 6 hours/day; prefers 8 – 10 hours/day. Days to maturity: 85 – 120. Spacing: 12 in-rows x 40 between row.One potato tuber will often produce more than a handful of sprouts or slips. These slips are removed from the original tuber by a careful twist, or, by keeping them attached to the tuber and slicing them off. Each of those slips can grow into a plant that can produce about 6 sweet potatoes.Just stick it in the ground, it will grow. Once you have sweet potatoes it’s hard to get rid of. Mine always resprout from the small bits I miss when harvesting. You have multiple potatoes there you can use to make starts.After that, sweet potatoes can usually fend for themselves, though they do benefit from weekly deep watering during serious droughts. Or, simply feed with a water-soluble plant food, like Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® Edibles Plant Nutrition every week.
How fast will sweet potato vines grow?
How fast does sweet potato vine grow? These vigorous quick-growing vines can reach 6 feet wide and up to 10 feet long in a single growing season. Sweet potatoes usually have around 100 or more days to maturity. I like to let them go a little bit longer and keep them in the ground until the first frost or two. This gives them even more time to grow large. If possible, dig up the sweet potatoes when it has not rained for three days.Ornamental sweet potato vine, as seen in the foreground, will die off in the winter but its tubers will remain to sprout again in spring. A freshly cut tree is ready to be brought in. Ornamental sweet potato vine can be one element in a hanging container in a sunny location.Originating from Tropical America and Mexico, Sweet Potato Vine is a perennial in warmer climates, but is mostly grown as an annual. Hardy in USDA zones 9-11, this plant can grow from about 10 to 16 inches high and trail or spread up to 4-plus feet. Its growth habit is mounding with trailing stems.Like the edible varieties the ornamental sweet potato vine will produce tuberous roots. The purple tuberous roots are edible but gardeners who have tried them, say they’re not tasty. Some gardeners try saving the tuberous roots overwinter much like dahlias.
Will sweet potato vine come back every year?
Do Sweet Potato Vines Come Back Every Year? In USDA Hardiness Zones 9-11, sweet potato vines can be considered perennials and they’ll come back in the spring. Sweet potato vines require nighttime temperatures above 40°F to prevent damage. Extended periods of lower temperatures, around 55°F, can slow growth. They’re winter hardy in USDA Planting Zones 9 to 11, but may die back or look ragged during cold months.Since they are tropical plants, sweet potatoes like hot weather and do little in the garden until soil warms to 65°F or higher. They will be injured by any amount of cold weather, so monitor your soil temperature and wait to plant until the soil has warmed.Sweet potato vine thrives in full sun to partial shade and prefers well-drained soil. It is also known for quickly covering large areas, making it an excellent ground cover. While primarily grown for ornamental purposes, the plant also produces small, funnel-shaped flowers that are often overlooked due to its foliage.Avoid Excessive Pruning: Sweet potatoes store energy in their vines, and excessive pruning may reduce the yield of tubers. It’s generally best to allow the vines to grow freely, focusing more on managing their spread rather than actively pruning.It doesn’t make that much of a difference though, if you like the pretty flowers you can leave them. The sweet potatoes will be ready to harvest when the plant starts dying back and getting yellow leaves.
Can I eat the potatoes from my sweet potato vine?
Like the edible varieties the ornamental sweet potato vine will produce tuberous roots. The purple tuberous roots are edible but gardeners who have tried them, say they’re not tasty. Some gardeners try saving the tuberous roots overwinter much like dahlias. Sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas) are the above-ground part of the sweet potato plant, while the edible tubers grow underground.Plant sweet potato vines along the top of a rock wall and allow to cascade over the side. Grow sweet potato vine up an arbor or trellis in combination with other quick-growing annual vines such as nasturtium or morning glory for a vertical screen of color.
Do sweet potato vines like sun or shade?
One of the most versatile plants around, you can grow sweet potato vine in sun or shade and in container gardens, landscapes, or garden beds and borders. The plant is loved for its colorful chartreuse, purple, bronze, copper, or black foliage. Sweet potato vine is a trailing type plant that can grow to between 8 and 10 feet long. Depending on its location in your garden, you may want to trim it back. It’s a wonderful choice for a spiller plant in a container garden. Cut it back if it becomes a tripping hazard on stairs or across walkways.How fast does sweet potato vine grow? These vigorous quick-growing vines can reach 6 feet wide and up to 10 feet long in a single growing season.