Growing sweet potatoes even in the north

This year I decided I wanted to try to grow sweet potatoes. It ended up being a bit more complicated than I expected, since the sweet potato is only distantly related to regular potatoes, so you don't just throw them in the ground and hope for the best.

I started by sticking some tooth picks in the sides of some organic store bought sweet potatoes. I then suspended them, so that they were half in and half out of a glass of water with the side that had more eyes on the top.

It was two weeks or more before I saw any sprouting, I think I had some extra stubborn potatoes! Finally they started to grow and I ended up with many beautiful and strong slips.

Next I gently pulled the slips from the potatoes and set them in some water to grow roots. Once rooted I transferred them into some soil and eventually transplanted them to the garden.

The soil preparation in the garden was another task that made growing sweet potatoes in Canada a bit more difficult than most other crops. In early Spring, I first weeded a large area and made sure it was level. Then I used a strong clear plastic, spread out in a large rectangle, using rocks to keep the ends down until I had it very flat and smooth. Then I buried all my edges making a perfect growing area. I left the plastic there for a week or two to heat up the soil faster than the rest of the garden so my slips would be happy.

Then, once it was warm enough outside, I made slits in the plastic and planted my sweet potatoes.

They grew well over the summer, but still I had no clue what was happening under the ground!

Finally it was time to harvest! I waited until the frost had mostly killed the plant on top and then decided to go for it.

Check out how it went in this video!
Thanks to @theneohippy for taking the video while I dug them out :)

Thanks for checking out this post, I hope you get inspired to plan a garden next year or maybe try something you haven't before!