Growing Sweet Potatoes in a Sink

I'm a big fan of container gardening. Containers help to extend your garden space, or you can magically make a garden where you don't even have dirt by using containers. I'm also a fan of using whatever you have as containers.

You'll remember a recent post where I talked about an armadillo eating my potatoes one year; containers also help keep your plants safe from garden marauders. That's one of the reasons I'm growing sweet potatoes in this metal sink. We have gophers and moles, and if an armadillo wanted my Yukon Golds, I'm guessing it might also like to dig up my sweet potatoes.

I'm not sure of this metal item's original purpose. About ten years ago a friend brought it to us to use as a horse feeder. After serving in that capacity for several years, it sat in a corner of the yard holding discarded baling wire for awhile. We assume that it was a sink. It has a home-welded frame with two half-barrel-like stainless steel sink cavities. Each side has a drain hole, which makes it perfect as a plant container.

This spring I cleaned out the baling wire and moved the sink to the garden. We have plans to continue to enlarge our garden by moving the fence and building even more raised beds, but for now I've expanded my planting space (do we ever have enough planting space?) by using some containers: big feed tubs, a trash can, and now this metal sink.

I set the sink so that the drain holes are on the low end so excess water will run right out.

Sweet potatoes are grown from "slips" which you can buy from a garden center, or you can grow your own like I did. I know that many garden websites will tell you not to grow potatoes or sweet potatoes from grocery store tubers, that they are often treated with something to keep them from sprouting. Seriously? I don't think I've ever had a potato NOT sprout in my cupboard. How about you?

So, just choose a potato or several. I had one left. Stick 3 or 4 toothpicks in the middle to hold the potato in a glass or a jar. The pointy end should face up; the roots will grow from the rounded end so put that end in the jar and add enough water to keep the bottom of the potato submerged.

After a week or so you'll have some little plants growing from the top of the potato. When they're a couple of inches tall, you can carefully twist them from the potato and put them in another glass of water to root. They root very quickly; it only takes a couple of days.

The potato will continue to grow "babies" where you removed the first slips, so leave it in the jar of water and grow a few more. In fact, the potato will grow roots from the round end and when you're ready to plant everything, you can plant the rooted potato too.

Wait until there's no chance of frost before planting your sweet potato slips; they like warm soil and can't tolerate frost. You can plant your slips deep in the soil, with just the top leaves above the soil level. From that one potato, I planted eleven slips plus the potato itself, so I have twelve sweet potato plants growing in the metal sink. Sweet potatoes are often grown as an ornamental plant, so it will be a pretty addition to my garden too.

I mulched with old hay to help retain moisture in the soil.

Sweet potatoes can be harvested when the leaves and the ends of the vines begin to turn yellow, or you can leave them in the ground until right before the first frost.

UPDATED: For the results of my sweet potato harvest, visit this post.



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