The wood chips are making great soil and holding in enough moisture for the vines to grow vigorously. I was worried about a soiless growing method. But after trying hay with great success I am now trying wood chips. No dirt just all mulch. Seems to be working well. We shall see for sure when i dig up the spuds later this year.
In the last few weeks, I've seen the growth of these plant accelerate. Maybe its due to warm ground temperatures now. But whatever it is, it's on the move. I'm training the vines to grow on a trellis I built out of welded wire. Hoping to have two stories of vines. Some on the raised planters bed floor and the others up above on the trellis.
The leaves are getting bigger and really seem happy. They are free of pests unlike white, red and yellow potatoes. Maybe that's because a Sweet Potato is barely considered a potato when looking at its family. Closer to a yam honestly.
Almost every day I go outside and train the vines. Winding them through the wire fence and trellis.
After a week or so of training the vines they have reached the top and will start growing on the metal wire fence.
I'll let them grow as much as they want throughout the summer and fall. Once freezing temperatures arrive the vines will die back and I can dig up the Sweet Potato spuds. I have them planted in various spots so I should get alot of them if I can keep the plants happy.
Growing Sweet Potatoes feel like the easiest vegetable for me to grow. Once they take off nothimg can stop them and I tend to get quite the reward in the ground by end of the year.
In these beds I used pieces of spuds instead of slips. And seems that the pieces of spuds grow much more quick. The slips are doing okay but lagging behind these in the raised garden beds.
I need to try eating some of the tender growth like 