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[These are not the same vegetable as true "yams", which are rare in the Western hemisphere and which we do not describe.]
It is only in very recent years that a realization has dawned on home vegetable gardeners that sweet potatoes can be successfully--even easily--grown outside the deep south, even up to the far north. That said, though, sweet potatoes are, to our minds, a marginal crop. They are, much like winter squash, something of a one-trick pony in the culinary sense, yet they take up quite a bit of garden space that could be used for far more useful crops. But, because if one has space galore, one can essay a modest crop, because there are a few things one can do with them other than drizzle melted butter and brown sugar over them (they respond well to being paired with tart tastes, such as sorrel, or even--we saw such a recipe on the net--grapefruit).
(We will, that is, next year: the space we intend to use, not in a raised bed, first needs to be protected by well dug-in wire mesh against the astonishingly ferocious attacks of the voles that have infested this region in recent years, and we just don't have the time to get to that this season.)
Sweet potatoes have many cultivated forms, but in the United States just two types prevail: the dry, mealy, yellow sweet potato; and the more watery orange so-called "yam" (which is no such thing at all, but that's the idiocy we're stuck with for terminology). It seems a market rule that northern consumers prefer the so-called "dry-fleshed" types, while southerners prefer the "moist-fleshed" types. (Strange But True: the "dry-fleshed" ones have more water in them than the "moist-fleshed" ones.)
Sweet potatoes normally grow on trailing vines that quickly cover the soil, rooting at the nodes along the way--but there are "bush" varieties available for when space is limited. Though "sweets" are far and away more common and popular in the south of the U.S. than up north, there are, as noted earlier, now cultivars that do well even up here; those include (taking just the very earliest from lists of many):
Georgia Jet: 90 days, red skin, orange flesh, high yield, "very good" flavor
Korean Purple: 90 days, heirloom, purple-skin, white flesh, high yield, flavor "very sweet"
Frazier White: 90 days, heirloom, white skin, very sweet white flesh (may turn light green when cooked), inconsistent yield, flavor "very sweet"
Tainung 65 (aka T65): 95 days, long vines, velvety light-pink skin, creamy light-golden flesh, high yield
Beauregard: 95 days, light-purple skin, dark-orange flesh, high yield, "average" flavor
O’ Henry: 95 days, white skin, white flesh, flavor "sweet, good"
A reliable seedsman of our region offers the Beauregard and the Georgia Jet (both vining types).
Incidentally, we have had it pointed out to us that the leaves of the sweet-potato plant are also edible. That might be worth looking into.
To us, from our readings, between earliness, yield, availability, and flavor, the widely available Georgia Jet clearly seems the cultivar of choice in northern short-season areas, with Korean Purple and Tainung 65 as strong runners-up (where available).
Sweet potatoes are invariably grown from "starter" plants called slips, which you receive from your chosen seedsman shortly before planting time. Take care to obtain slips only from seedsmen with certified disease-free roots.
One wants to plant sweets as soon after the last frost as the ground has warmed some; they are long growers--as noted, typically 90 to 95 days or so. Setting out slips around June 15th gives them our maximum available warmth in a 90-day period (our peak is typically around August 1st).
Sweet potatoes prefer well-drained, loamy to sandy soil. Heavy clay soils are not good them--the potatoes can end up small or misshapen.
Even using certified disease-free slips, it is wise to rotate their garden location annually.
In our climate, it is well to use a plastic mulch for sweets, setting it out a couple of weeks prior to the expected planting date. Using a bush-type cultivar on a deep-dug or raised bed, a plant spacing of 9 inches is about right according to Jeavons. It is probably as well to also add drip irrigation to one's plans.
Use row cover to help with warmth.
Water well, but: do not water during the last 3 to 4 weeks before harvest, so as to protect the developing roots (the "potatoes").
Dig your crop at about the time of the first fall frost. As with true potatoes and other "root" crops, take great care not to cut, bruise, or otherwise damage the roots.
Besides any links presented above on this page, the following ought to be especially helpful.
The sweet potato is not at all the same thing as the yam, though "yam" is very commonly taken to just be another nickname for the true sweet potato. True sweet potatoes are a member of the Convolvulaceae, or convolvulus, family, which includes few other edibles, but does include the flower Morning Glory.
(The true yam--family Dioscoreaceae--is a large root vegetable, some up to a hundred pounds, grown in Africa and Asia, and rarely even seen in the western world.)
We try not to re-invent the wheel, so here is a link to a comprehensive history of the sweet potato.
"Sweet potato candies, ice cream, cookies, and related delicacies prepared from this vegetable are not yet widely known, but they are surprisingly good." Or so says one site.
If you find this site interesting or useful, please link to it on your site by cutting and pasting this HTML:
The <a href="http://growingtaste.com/"><b>Growing Taste</b></a> Vegetable-Gardening Site
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