By John Moody
As a kid, I always enjoyed tinkering with toys and other things. Many didn’t survive my escapades of disassembly. As a homesteader, both urban and rural, I have continued in that train. Worm compost in the basement of our apartment building. IBC totes turned into animal transporters inside our mini-van. Container growing on the corners I could convince landlords to let me use.
Often, people say you can’t grow certain things certain ways. So, when last summer I decided to leave a single leftover sweet potato that I was using to create slips for field planting in the starting tote, I knew I was going against the grain. The tote was about half full already with a mixture of our homemade compost, coir, and worm castings – a nice, rich, water retentive mixture that we use as our go to for seed starting and other such purposes.
I filled the tote about a quarter of the way more, gave it water every few days, and at the end of the season, this is what I found!
So, how did we stumble into such success?
It All Started With Some Free Mineral Tubs
In rural areas, farms with large animals use a fair number of these each month, especially if the farm operation is large and has lots of animals. Instead of a one-way trip to the landfill, we collect them and use them for all sorts of farm projects – storage, worm composting, soil block mixing, and container growing, among many other options.
All you need to do to make use of these totes (also known as mineral tubs) for growing is ensure they drain properly. A drill with a small-diameter bit (¼-inch or slightly larger) will allow you to put 20 or so holes in the bottom, providing adequate drainage and air exchange. Don’t make the holes too large – the growing medium will fall out the bottom. It is good to layer the bottom two or so inches of the totes with rotted wood chips or similar compaction-resistant material to ensure that the holes don’t become clogged.
You don’t have to use mineral totes. I dislike purchasing new plastic, especially when so much used material is already around. So feel free to repurpose almost any sort of plastic tote or container. I do recommend that you go with a tote with at least 2 cubic feet of volume or a bit more for any root crop. I like the mineral totes because the surface area to depth ratio is about perfect for sweet potatoes (about 18 inches deep). Much deeper and you are spending money filling space that probably won’t improve your yields much. Too shallow and your yields will suffer from insufficient space.
Also note, depending on how long and where you place these, first the grass underneath will die. But, not only did I find a tote full of sweet potatoes, I found another 15 or so underneath the tote to boot! Second, you could use this setup to grow on a patio, deck, or similar structure, but you would need to be careful about excess water causing damage. You don’t have to worry about the roots – they will air prune or otherwise die back in most situations. You can also create a self-watering type design of two totes nested together where the bottom serves as a water reservoir for the top tote.
The Big Two For Sweet Potato Success – Fertility and Water
Unlike field growing, containers present two unique challenges. First, they need supplemental water, especially for a water hungry crop like sweet potatoes. Now, when the plants are small, the totes don’t need nearly as much water as they will use in late July and August, when you are dealing with a dozen or more square feet of leaves all needing liquid to convert that sunlight into sweet potatoes.
It was not uncommon for us to water the totes two times per day, and when temperatures reached into the high 90s or low 100s, on full sun end of summer days, three times. Note, sweet potatoes don’t like to be waterlogged, though. So ensure the growing mix is moist, but don’t water to the point you are getting leakage from the bottom if possible (that leakage is also possibly washing out valuable nutrients, another reason to water more often more lightly if possible). If it happens on occasion, nothing overly disastrous will happen. But if the mix is always overly moist, rot and other problems will assault your sweets.
In the future, if I do sweets in totes again, I will use some sort of semi-automated or automated approach to watering the totes, especially if I do a number of them. This will make the task less messy and less time consuming, especially for multiple totes.
Second, we provided some supplemental fertility in the form of organic approved fish emulsion, a spoonful or so about every four weeks diluted in a few gallons of water and then poured into the bin. If you think about how much nutrition is in 30-40 pounds of sweet potatoes, you can see why such an approach was necessary. I like fish emulsion, since it comes with a wide range of trace minerals along with a solid NPK profile. The cost was miniscule – probably fifty cents to a dollar per tote is my guess.
A few other things are worth mentioning. First, the sweet potato foliage will spread far beyond the container. You can use this for amazing landscaping effect – sweet potatoes vines and flowers are beautiful (and the leaves are edible!). If you have a raised deck, fence, wall, or similar spot, the vines would serve as a lovely seasonal decoration as they spread and grow. Second, sweet potatoes need harvested before frost!
Second, don’t overfill the totes. I left about two inches of space between the lip and the growing medium. This helps ensure that the medium doesn’t spill out and over as the sweet potatoes expand. When it comes time to harvest, choose a spot you don’t mind dumping out the exhausted medium. I like recharging the material by running it back through one of my IBC tote sized worm bins.
Last, realize that once full, these are fairly heavy, especially when the soil is moist. So try to make sure you won’t’ have to move them. If you have a number of them up on a deck or similar structure, make sure it can take the extra weight.
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how long do I need to let them grow. I tried this late and waited 92 days and I dumped them out Saturday the 8th and all potatoes were small. 120 day next time?
92 days is a sufficient amount of time to get a full crop. How often were you watering? The potatoes as you see here in this post, got too much water. When you end up with the long or short skinny potatoes as those , they are called roots, and happen when the plant is getting too much water. The soil needs to stay fairly dry. Only moist enough to barely see any dampness , not wet. Also another sign of too much water is a big bushy beautiful plant with big leaves. After 90 days , and not many potatoes, it could be a number of reasons , did your potatoes look like these in the picture, or fuller?
Hope that helps ☺️
generally, I leave them until the leaves begin to turn yellow and die off. Maybe a bit aafter that but definately before a frost. Once the tops are dead, they don’t do so well if left as general potatoes do.
I leave mine to at least 110 days and if weather permits i leave them longer – right up to frost.
You did not mention if you cut the Sweet Potatoe in sections when you put it in the planter.
Would you expand on this?
Thank you,
Kari
Kari,
Sweet potatoes are not like regular potatoes. Regular ones are part of the nightshade family, sweet potatoes are from the morning glory family. You don’t cut them up like seed potatoes…instead you grow “slips” by putting the sweet potato half in water and letting vines grow out…look up starting sweet potato slips on YouTube or just google it. Best of luck
Thanks I will try for the first time this year.
A decorative container that also produces food? Now that’s my kind of gardening! Awesome! I just love it. I’ve been growing regular taters in tubs for years, but never thought to do sweets in them. Can’t wait to give this a go this year here in NoVA. Thanks for your detailed advice on feeding. I think that is important. The first time I grew sweets was in a first-planting of a raised bed I built from scrap timber. The soil quality was good since a first grow, and we had a sweet potato that was the size of a junior football! I just can’t wait to see how they fare in tubs. Great article!
Where do you get the starter sweet potatoes
for buying sweet potato slips and for growing information a good site is https://www.sandhillpreservation.com/
Hi Kathy! I wanted to share what I do with you pending Mr. Moody’s reply. You can get either sweet potato seeds (essentially these are small sweet potatoes sold just for seed usage) or starters (called slips) for sale online but I have always started my own. It’s a pretty simple process but does takes several weeks, which is great if you get stir crazy in the middle of winter like I do! And also you will absolutely positively need sweet potatoes that have NOT been treated with sprout inhibitor otherwise this won’t work. I’m fortunate to have a Mom’s Organic Market close by to me where I know the produce manager, so I’ve been able to get untreated sweet potatoes without any problem for several years now. What you’ll do is take a sweet potato and cut it in half. Submerge each of the halves in a small glass of water, using toothpicks to keep part of the sweet potato half above the rim of the glass and out of the water. Think back to when you grew avocado plants from the pit in grade school. It’s the same exact concept. Change the water every couple of days and do NOT give up! You’ll think it’s a complete and total failure and then, out of the blue, you’ll start seeing little bumps appear on the sweet potatoes. It takes about 2 or 3 weeks to get to this point, but move pretty quickly hereafter. Shortly after the bumps show up, a small green sprout will appear on each bump and will start to grow upwards. Each one of these is a starter or, in in other words, a slip. When a slip starts looking pretty sturdy, be brave and gently break it off and put the slip in a vase or glass of water, keeping the leaves above the waterline. It will take root quickly and then it will be ready to plant. You can expect to get many, many slips from just a couple of sweet potato halves. I have so many every year that I share with friends, family and neighbors. Hope this helps and HAPPY GROWING 🙂
Do you use one slip per container?
I’m not Mr. Moody, but I want to do this. The site I saw shows the whole sweet potato in the water. Well, I followed that & 3 months later I have 3 rotten sweets. I’m going to get more sweets from Mom’s (daughter shops there), & try your way!!! Thanks for posting the information! I think I got better information here.
I’ve had better luck laying a sweet potato sideways in soil just barely peeking out. Water as any house plant. Twist off shoots when several inches long and root these in water. Or grow the vine as house plant, pick some leaves to eat all winter and in the spring cut vine in sections to root in water.
What can you use in place of fish emulsion
There a allergy to fish
Use about a 1/4 cup seaweed kelp and put in a gallon of water.
I have found to first soak organic sweet potatoes in a calcium solution for a short while and then will lay them down whole on seed growing medium and find that I am able to grow slips much easier this way. I just keep the sweet potatoes watered and place on a heat mat in front of a window. Once the slips get to at least 5 inches tall you can snap off and place in some water and once they are rooted they can be planted. You can continue to keep harvesting slips from the same sweet potato as long as you keep watered etc. hope that helps.
I have never had luck with putting the one end in water they always seem to rot
I did not remove the slips but put it in the pot, they gree like crazy!
Another surprising event: Icwas clearing a long stem in my garden and I pulled it out, a small sweet potato was growing in one of the roots. So I planted it back. Waiting to see if that will develop into a nice potato
Hi I have a lot of slips from one potato removed some and put in water they are growing like crazy. Is it too early to plant in a pot indoors.
I don’t container my sweet potatoes, I put them in a raised bed, but I would estimate that you’d likely use 1 to 3 slips per a 10 gallon bucket. Why not try both on your test run and see which works better? They love the heat, and look very decorative when growing, so you could even make them into an attractive addition to your patio or deck. Happy growing! And enjoy!
I agree. This year im trying several ways of gardening:
Raised bed, hydroponic, self watering bucket, tote. Im determined! ?
Outstanding! And the self-watering bucket is a really great idea! I may have to give that a try as well. Thank you for sharing!!!
Awesome! My problem was keeping deer out of the garden, since sweet potato vines seem to be crack cocaine to deer. I strung 3 strands of clear 30# fishing line around the garden as you would barbed wire. Any heavier, and they see it; any lighter, and they break it. The deer don’t see the line but are spooked by it when they touch it — and back off. They are afraid to jump over something they can’t see — don’t know how high to jump, so don’t tie anything onto the line. It kept them out for the first time in 13 years, and they are in my yard morning and evening. Now if I can just keep the squirrels and possums from digging up the potatoes …
Google solutions for keeping animals out of your garden. I have heard many swear by purified egg spray. Google that. I have also seen people praise netting. I have heard used cat litter helps ward them off or an actual real cat. There are a few solutions out there I think are worth giving a try.
A highly concentrated garlic mixture sprayed around the planted area very liberally and often does a great job keeping small furry critters away from my garden. Unfortunately voles seem to like it and cruise around freely. Fences work great for the big critters.
that is ingenious. Sweet potato leaves are good for humans to eat also (you can find USDA nutrition info on them, if you blanch them and drain the water to reduce oxalates.
Is there any kind of light requirement for the potatoes? I have a very sunny area I could put a container but also some shaded areas.
they need a lot of sun. we’re near Phoenix, so we get like 2 months of temperatures over 110 and my sweet potatoes are in full sun. as long as they get water, they have no problem with the full sun and scorching heat. I plant in march and harvest in oct-Nov and boy do they grow like crazy here.
Can I trim back the sweet potato vines to 3 or 4 feet and still have a container harvest?
Also, how deep do you plant the slips from top of growing mixture?
How many porta rica slips do u plant in a 22 wide by 15 height in. grow pot?
Hi! I’ve read through the comments and I still have a question. With your method did you just put the whole sweet potato in the container and put your soil around it? Or did you cut off the slips and disperse them in the container?
Hi Hannah. I do not plant the sweet potato that I start the slips from. I used only the slip. The one time I did plant the starter potato, my dog sniffed it out, dug it up, and ate it. She seems to leave the slips alone and surprisingly never bothers the sweet potatoes that I start from the slips. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself by sharing that, but that’s what I do. I hope this helps and happy gardening!
I live in the London area of the U. K . I have a small garden which warms quite quickly during the Summer Months I grow runner beans and tomatoes in containers; would love to try growing Sweet Potatoes next year what would be the best time to plant here I’m the U. K.?
Can you use a 32 gal black garbage can to grow? If so how full would you fill it with dirt?
I believe he stated nothing deeper than 18 inches but I would have to go back through the article real quick to be certain. Hope that helps
So I grew several sweet potato shoots/varieties in bins 3′ x 2’x3′ and mixed potting soil with sand. Drilled many many many holes in the bottoms and lower side – however they were sitting on my cement driveway. I was careful to water them. After 3 1/2 months we dumped them out in the raised beds to find they were still shoots and the soil was extremely wet. I just did a surface soaking for them. Drainage an issue? What happened?
Which way did you drill the holes… from the outside??? Or inside???
too much water. 2-3 in. of water every 3 days until hot weather. get right mineral balance in soil. google it. and get details. good compost. top soil . some potting soil is sterile. get truly organic mixed with manure composed down to soil.
I live in Florida. What is the best time to plant in zone 9B?
I live in north Texas and would like to try the potatoes in a pot that’s 18″. Will they grow or is it to late. Can I use potting soil as well. Drain holes in bottom of the pot. I think 3 potatoes would do. Thanks for the information and inspiring me to plant
The soil heareis bad
Laura, I am in north Texas and grew some last year. I wasn’t aware of this article, I just had a sweet potato that rooted in the compost bin. I placed it in a 18″ pot and it completely filled up the pot when I harvested it. I got 10 lbs of sweet potatoes out of it. The vine grew into other pots and I also harvested from those pots. You can still plant this time of year and potting soil is fine to use.
So, you DIDN’T do the slip thing? You just planted the Sweet Potato?
My family has grown sweet potatoes for decades just by cutting sweet potatoes in half and planting flesh part down
Awesome!!!
Love this.
Your book link doesn’t go anywhere. http://www.homesteaderhandbook.com. I guess that’s your website! I was able to buy it on Amazon, but I’d rather have got it directly from you.
I’ve a question when the vines grow out of the pot. I’ve 3 whiskey barrel size pots. Initially, we tried to insert the vines back into the pots to allow more tubers to grow. then there was not enough space to insert any more. we placed in the end of the deck so that they can start growing towards the ground and they’re. when they reached the ground, should we insert the vines again in the ground to get more tubers or will they do by themselves?
I found hard plastic “rings” at a junk shop. They were the tops that had been cut off of 55 gallon plastic barrels to make smaller containers.
I planted sweet potatoes in those this year. They have no bottoms. I have them placed in the corners of my garden. This fall, I will lift the rings off and the spuds will be easy to harvest. The planting medium will be tilled in to my garden to help amend that soil for next year.
My husband thinks I am nuts but I am convinced it will work.
that looks superb ! good work
Am from Africa Zambia I want to start growing sweet potatoes not for consumption only but as a business I need more information on how to go about it.
Cecilia – are you anywhere near a university with an agricultural department?
They should have the answers for your climate, and for the sweet potato varieties available near you.
How many slips did you plant ineach ?