Some of the steps to grow sweet potatoes

• Order slips by March to make sure they don’t sell out
• Plow next years field and sow it to a cover crop of buckwheat for rotation
• Plow this years field and build hills for the future sweet potato slips
• Unpack slips from their shipping boxes the last week of May
• Heal them into potting soil to let them start rooting for 1 week in the greenhouse
• Plant them out into the prepared hills
• Water them twice daily for the first week
• Cultivate, cultivate, cultivate…
• Hand pull all the weeds that made it through cultivation
• After 4 or more months from planting day (usually October)…
• Mow down the vines to get them ready for harvest
• Cut the sides of the hills with discs to further remove the tangle of vines
• Harvest the roots into bins
• Pick up the irrigation tape out of the field
• Plow and if it’s early enough in the season plant a cover.
• Place the bins into a curing room at 85°F and high humidity for 7 days (without this step they are bland, starchy, and don’t store!)
• Cool them back down to 55° for storage
• Wash and pack into boxes and bins
• Market and sell them
• Spend the winter eating roasted sweet potatoes
• Repeat…