Tips on How to Grow Sweet Potato Vine PlantingsIf you want to learn how to grow sweet potato vine, the good news is that it is simple and you can grow it indoors and then transfer it outdoors.Sweet potatoes are usually planted in the spring and the small rooted pieces of vine which grow from the eyes of the potato are the parts you plant. You get vine-like stems from the sweet potato and these look a bit like the philodendron plant vines. You might already know how potato roots grow and growing sweet potatoes zones but if you want to know how to grow sweet potato vine you can follow these step by step instructions and you should have an ornamental sweet potato vine in next to no time. Do Potatoes Grow Faster in Water or Soil? The answer to that question is that it is best to start potatoes growing in water and then transplant them to soil. This also applies to normal potatoes as well as the sweet variety. With sweet potatoes it is best to plant them in the springtime. If you do this they will be ready to eat in the autumn.
First of all you need to put a sweet potato in a container of water, keeping the top third exposed by putting toothpicks in the sides of the potato. You should have the pointed end of the sweet potato below the water. You will see a vine with a few stems on it start to sprout after two or three weeks. Planting the Vine Outdoors The vines can be planted outdoors in the soil in late May. If you do this, you will have sweet potatoes which are ready to harvest and eat in September or October. Sweet potato vines prefer bright, sunny locations and need to be fertilized once a month. When learning how to grow sweet potato vine, it is important to know that you can trim the vine back a bit if it gets too long. This will make the vine bushier. Root the tip of the trimmed vine in water or damp soil. Watering Your Sweet Potato Vine Sweet potato vines enjoy hot weather but they can wilt if there is not much rain. Potatoes in beds need weekly water but a vine will need daily watering so as not to wilt. Water them early in the morning or late in the evening so the sun does not shine on the leaves and scorch them. Common Sweet Potato Vine Pests You might already know about soil, pests and how to deal with them and you should be aware that sweet potato vines can attract slugs, especially if they are somewhere shady and damp. Clean edged holes in the leaves usually signify a slug problem. You can use shallow plates filled with beer or commercial slug traps. Slugs are attracted by the yeasty smell of the beer and they crawl into the plates or traps and drown. If whole leaves vanish overnight this is usually because of foraging deer. You can hide a bar of deodorant bath soap in the plantings to deter them. Knowing how to grow sweet potato vine is a common gardening question and knowing how to prevent common garden pests to keep your vine looking its best is also important.
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