We love sweet potatoes, but because we’ve always homesteaded in northern latitudes, we’ve never made growing them a priority. Sweet potatoes need a long (100 to 150 days), hot growing season. For those reasons they are a challenge for northern gardeners. Yet Nova Scotia grown sweet potatoes are a real possibility.
Some Nice Size Tubers
Years ago when we homesteaded in northern Maine, we tried growing sweet potatoes one year in the garden. The results were abysmally small tubers barely big enough to eat. We didn’t even bother to try raising them in northern Saskatchewan where the summers were quite short, often cool and frost could occur even in summer. Now that we are in the “tropics” of Nova Scotia we decided to give them a try.
Growing Slips – The First Try
The first year we simply bought a couple of tubers from the supermarket and grew our own slips.
We tried 2 different methods of producing sweet potato slips; setting the tuber in potting soil and setting one in a glass of water. We suspended one sweet potato so it was half submerged in the water. The other sweet potato was half way buried in potting soil.
The potato half buried in potting soil ended up rotting but the one suspended in the water eventually sent up shoots. The shoots are called slips. Once they were about 4” long I broke them off, put them in a jar of water till the slip sent out roots then I potted them up and let them grow indoors till they could be set out.
The first year we attempted to grow sweet potatoes in Nova Scotia we didn’t have the greenhouse built yet. Knowing they love heat and a long growing season we didn’t expect much but we got enough for a few meals. Time to up our game.
How We Raised a bumper Crop Last Year
A couple of years ago we decided to order a variety specifically meant for short growing season. The slips arrived in June which really is too late for us to get good sized potatoes but I planted them in the greenhouse where they would have the longest amount of time to grow. We got many tubers but only a few were large. Many were so small they bordered on being unusable.
But we felt we could now generate our own slips from the potatoes we grew last year, plant them in a more timely manner and get a good harvest.
Here’s how I went about it.
Growing Slips – How We Do It
The first step was to grow the slips. About a week before Christmas last year, I put several tubers in a jar of water. I changed the water periodically to keep it fresh.
Ready to Grow Slips
By February the potatoes started sending out green shoots. Once they got to be about 3” to 4” long, I broke them off, put them in a jar of water till they sent out some roots, then potted them up into individual pots.
Slips Ready for Planting in Pots
Sweet Potato Planting
This past spring, on May 5, I planted all the sweet potato plants in the greenhouse. I first laid down a piece of black plastic on top of the soil. I had cut square holes in the plastic at 12” intervals. That might seem close together but sweet potatoes grow straight down like fingers poking down into the soil as opposed to outward. And they grow DEEP!
Using a trowel, I dug out the planting hole, sprinkled in some bone meal then planted the plant and watered them in.
For those of you that don’t know, sweet potatoes eventually send out copious quantities of vines. Any place where these vines touch the soil they will start to root.
You want to prevent that happening as now energy will be diverted to those roots instead of going to your main crop. The plastic prevents that from happening. It also helps to hold in moisture and keeps the weeds down.
About every 4 days I watered the plants through the planting hole in the plastic. That’s all the attention they got until I dug them on Nov 3. I should mention I did cut back on watering the last 3 to 4 weeks prior to digging.
Results
We had a massive harvest of sweet potatoes. Every plant had at least 2 beast sized tubers, several medium ones and numerous small ones.
Harvesting Sweet Potatoes
For the first time we got some as large as a family member who lives in West Virginia! And lets not forget we’re on the east coast of Nova Scotia right smack on the ocean.
Harvesting is a bit like excavating an archaeological dig as they go down so deep. I had to be careful not to break off the top half from the still buried bottom portion. Any I broke, were served for dinner that night. YUMMY!
A Sample of the Harvest
From here on out we can raise our own slips and should be able to replicate the results.
In addition to our old favorite, stand by sweet potato recipes such as candied sweet potatoes, I’ve been trying out new sweet potato recipes this winter. So far we haven’t had a dud yet.
Candied Sweet Potatoes for Dinner
Until next time, keep the dream alive! We wish you a great day!
Ron and Johanna
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