How to Plant Sweet Potato Slips in the Ground

Sweet potatoes are packed with vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants that support your heart, brain, and digestive system. They are relatively easy to grow and are a high-yield crop that can be stored long term once cured. Here’s a step-by-step guide for how to plant sweet potato slips in the ground..

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How to Plant Sweet Potato Slips in the Ground vs. Planting Potatoes

My husband and I love sweet potatoes. It was probably one of our most-bought vegetables from the grocery store prior to us starting to a garden.

So I decided to give sweet potatoes a try last year! The process of planting sweet potatoes is surprisingly pretty different than that of planting potatoes. (This post talks about how to plant potatoes from eyes).

For sweet potatoes, you can either make your own sweet potato slips or purchase them.

I have yet to grow my own sweet potato slips, but I’ve had great luck with the slips from my local garden center.

According to Piedmont Master Gardeners, “Slips are the rooted sprouts that grow out of the sweet potato tuber.” They look like a 6ish inch stem with thin roots and a few leaves on top.

We are on year two of planting sweet potatoes, and our first year we had a massive harvest and more than enough sweet potatoes for our family… plus extra to share!

When to Plant Sweet Potatoes Slips

Sweet potatoes like warm weather. It is best to plant them about one month after your last frost. I am in zone 6b, and I planted mine in mid-May.

When to Harvest Sweet Potatoes

Most sweet potatoes are ready to harvest 90-120 days after planting. They prefer heat over cold, so make sure to harvest once the first frost has killed the vines! You can also harvest as soon as the leaves start to die back and turn yellow.

Sweet Potato Care

Sweet potatoes are pretty low maintenance and don’t require a lot of care! Just weed them, water them, and occasionally add a natural fertilizer like bone meal!

How Many Sweet Potato Slips to Plant Per Person

The amount of sweet potatoes you plant per person will depend on your family’s preferences. However, the average recommendation is to plant 5 plants per person.

I plant around 20-25 sweet potato slips for my family of four because we love sweet potatoes! Some garden centers sell them in bundles of this size.

How to Plant Sweet Potato Slips in the Garden: Tools Needed

Sweet Potato Slips
Trowel
Bone Meal

Steps for How to Plant Sweet Potato Slips in the Ground

The first thing that you need to do is to grow your own sweet potato slips or purchase your own! I purchased mine from a local garden center.

They will probably come wrapped in wet newspaper to help keep them from drying out.

Next, prepare the soil in your garden. Sweet potatoes like damp soil that is amended with organic matter like compost.

Sweet potatoes do best in loamy soil. You can plant them directly in the ground if the soil is loose, or you could plant them in a raised bed if your soil is not conducive to planting sweet potatoes.

Work some compost into your soil to help loosen it up. Make sure to remove as many weeds as possible from your garden bed. You can fertilize the soil with an organic fertilizer like bone meal, but don’t over fertilize!

Plant the sweet potato slips 12-18 inches apart. The rows need to be about 3 feet apart because sweet potato vines love to spread!

I dig a 3-4 inch hole and plant my sweet potato slips in the ground–making sure that the leaves are above the soil.

Keep the sweet potatoes watered and weeded. Once established, we rely on our drip line and the rain to water our sweet potatoes!

Once the leaves start to turn yellow and die off, it is time to harvest! They should be ready 15-17 weeks after planting.

You will definitely need to harvest the sweet potatoes once your first frost kills the vines or very soon after.

Sweet potatoes are harvested similar to potatoes. You can use a garden fork or shovel to loosen the soil about 8-12 inches from the vines base, and then push them up to the surface!