Sweet Potato Growing

Categories: Vegetable Growing

In planting sweet potatoes, do we have to make hotbeds just like those

for tomatoes, or if just a plain seed-bed will do? Is it necessary to

irrigate them or not?



You can bed your sweet potatoes in a warm place on the sunny side of a

building or board fence, and get sprouts all right. You will, however,

get them sooner and in greater numbers by using a slow hotbed in which

the manure supply is not too lar e. The fact that sweet potato growers

do use some artificial heat, either from manure or by piping bottom-heat

in their propagating houses, is a demonstration that such recourse is

desirable to get best results. The necessity of irrigation depends upon

the soil and its natural moisture supply. On a fine retentive loam, the

crop is chiefly made without irrigation, if the plants are all ready to

put out in the field as soon as it is safe. If you are late in the

planting, or if the soil is dry or likely to dry before the tubers are

grown to good size, irrigation, some time ahead of the need of the

plant, is essential.