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.