Summer Garden Update: Vertical Sweet Potatoes

With last years success in growing plentiful amounts of these spuds, I planted alot more this year to see if I can have another large harvest. I have them growing in raised garden beds, a hugelkultur, and along this lattice attached to the deck. Its taken them a few months of growth to have enough vine to start winding them through the slats. But now that we are into the summer time they are accelerating giving me many feet to wind every few days.

I started with about half a dozen Sweet Potato slips, many did not make it and I had to plant new ones. But out of the dozen or so planted maybe five of them are growing. I mostly planted slips, but I also planted one chunk. Its all the way to the left, and its growing much faster than the slips. Now I may not have grown the Sweet Potato slips long enough before rooting. Next year im going to try to grow slips again a few feet long instead of just a few inches like I did this year.

Where I planted the spuds and slips has a munch of mulch in it. Probably a few inches deep, and hoping this will make harvest easy. Im careful not to walk around where the plants are, since I could squash the spuds with such lose soil.

I tend to pull them through the lattice very carefully. I do break many of them stems, maybe a quarter of the ones I try to wind break. Though I have noticed when they break the plant then starts growing new vines from the existing stalks.

I have a feeling these vines are going to try to climb to the top of the deck. We still many months left in the growing season and at this speed they can make it up another ten feet.

Though if they grow much taller I wont be able to reach them without a ladder, and at that point I think ill just let them grow back down and see what they do.

@cryptopie thought this was not possible, he said they will not grow vertical. Well here ya go, proof they will. Though they do need human intervention to they will wind. Otherwise they just grow in random directions.

Looking forward to the harvest, these leaves on the lattice are getting alot of sunlight so hoping that transfers into large Sweet Potatoes. But since this is the first year ive grown slips I really do not know exactly what to expect. Growing chunks along with those slips will help me compare. And since I started both, the chunks seem to be doing better than the tiny slips I started. Maybe next year they will go head to head.

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