Sweet potatoes

[leechmann]

Has anyone ever tried growing sweet potatoes in central MN. How did they turn out?

[Fish Toys]

I put some in 2 years ago and they turned out ok. Put in two varieties. The only thing it rained so much I couldn’t dig them out of the ground. Let less try to walk in the garden before it froze up. The couple I did eat were great. Put them in early being they are a long season crop. I never harvested the regular potatoes either.

[leechmann]

Thanks for the reply Fish Toys. Which varieties did you plant? Do you have a heavy or sandy type of soil where you planted them?

Thanks again

[mnhunter2]

I tried 2 varities a couple yrs ago in sw minn and had far luck, they need a very long growing season and I was on the north end of it. I bought the plants from our greenhouse. I found that when and how you hill them up effects your crop, I dug a 5 gal pail of what looked more like weird carrots then sweet potatoes from 20 plants. They are a pain to dig I found poatoes as far as 2' away from the plants. I am a pretty intense gardener and I won't plant them again, just buy what you need and grow some other crop that is adapted for our region.

[CMKURT]

Porto Rico is a variety that does not vine as much as the Georgia Jet. The main thing is sweet potatoes like the heat, by your plants as soon as possible & pot them in black nursery cans so the sun warms them up. When we start getting warm night time temperatures & warm soil put them in the ground. Another method if you want to try only a couple plants put them in a compost bin/pile. Good luck.