Growing Sweet Potatoes in Straw Bales

If you don’t have good soil, but you want to grow sweet potatoes there is an alternative solution. Plant the sweet potatoes in straw bales. No, not the big round ones, but the small rectangular bales that you can still find on some farms. When looking for bales, make sure you choose straw bales and not hay bales. If you try to garden with hay bales you will big weed problems. Hay bales will have grass and weed seeds sprouting along with your sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes don’t grow from seed. They grow from slips taken off the main sweet potato. One sweet potato will provide up to 50 slips or 50 sweet potato plants.

Prepare the Sweet Potato

Before you can plant the sweet potatoes you need to get them started growing. Six weeks before the last frost date in your area, fill a bucket with water. Add the sweet potatoes and let them soak for 3 hours.

Fill the Pots

While the potatoes are soaking, you can prepare the pots to plant them into. Fill 8-inch pots half full with potting soil. The number of pots you need to fill depends on how many sweet potatoes you are going to start. For most people, one sweet potato will give you what you need. Remove the sweet potato from the bucket of water and place it in the center of the pot. Cover the sweet potato so there is 2 inches of potting soil over the top.

Water the pot thoroughly and then place the pots in a warm, sunny window. Check the soil daily for moisture content. Add water to keep the soil moist, but not so much that the soil is soggy wet. It takes 7 to 10 days for the sweet potato to sprout.

Prepare the Straw Bales

Prepare the straw bales at least 9 days to 2 weeks ahead of transplanting time. Unfortunately, you can’t go out and plant the sweet potatoes right into the bales. There is a procedure that must be done to prepare the bales for planting.

Place the straw bales so the twine runs parallel to the ground. You can find bales at some farms or garden supply centers. Each bale will hold 8 sweet potato slips.Depending on the number of plants you want to grow in the bales divide the number by 8.

Water the Bales

Water the straw bales thoroughly for 2 to 3 days. Constantly water each bale for at least 5 minutes every day.

After that, for another three days, sprinkle a half cup of ammonium nitrate, bone meal or blood meal over each bale. You’ll need to continue watering the bales, but not very much. Only give enough water so the ammonium nitrate, bone meal or blood meal goes into the bales. You don’t want to wash them out of the bales.

Next, you are going to continue sprinkling ammonium nitrate, bone meal or blood meal over the top of the bales, but cut the amount in half or a fourth cup. Water as you did before, just so the ammonium nitrate, bone meal or blood meal goes into the bales and is not washed out. This is done for another three days.

Last, sprinkle one cup of 10-10-10 fertilizer over each bale. Water the bales just enough so the fertilizer goes into the bales.

Do the Bale Test

Now you have to test the bale to see if it is ready for the transplants. Cut or dig a hole in the center of the bale that is 6 inches deep. Push your hand inside and feel the temperature of the bale. If the temperature is lower than your body temperature, it is safe to begin planting. But if it is still hot inside, continue adding a fourth cup of ammonium nitrate, bone meal or blood meal over the top and water it into the bales.

There is no set time for the bales to heat up and then cool down. It depends on how tight the bales were packed, the weather and the moisture content.

Dig the Holes

Pour 4 inches of composted soil over the top of each straw bale. With a knife or trowel, dig the holes for the sweet potato slips. The depth of the hole should be deeper than your slips.

Remove the sweet potato from the pot. Cut or break off the individual shoots which look like a small clump of leaves.

Begin Planting

Add some well-rotted compost to the bottom of the hole. Insert the shoot into the hole to make sure it is the right depth. Only the top 2 to 3 leaves should be sticking out of the ground. If the hole is too deep add more compost to the bottom, if it is not deep enough, you can either remove the compost and dig the hole a little deeper, or just plant a taller shoot.

When you have the hole the right depth, fill in around the shoot with compost. Gently firm the soil in place with your fingers. Repeat with the other holes, spacing them equally apart.

Water the Bales

Give the sweet potato plants a good drink of water. You don’t have to worry about over watering because it is almost impossible to do so. The water will just drain out of the bottom and into the soil below.

To begin with, water the bales once or twice a day. Later in the season, the bales will start to decompose. When this happens, they hold onto their moisture for longer periods. Just don’t allow the bales to dry out.

Harvesting

In 90 to 120 days, depending on the variety of sweet potato you planted, it will be time to harvest. This is the easy part and it involves no digging. Simply cut the string on the bales and separate the straw. You will find the sweet potatoes growing inside.

Source:

“Mother Earth News: Straw Bale Gardening;” Mathew Scanlon and Sam Martin; 2001″Æ’


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