Sweet Potatoes Indoors ?

[PaulZone8b]

I just checked my stored sweet potatoes in the garage (from our garden in the summer) and see that half are sprouting. Question...is it possible to grow sweet potatoes in a container indoors over the winter under grow lights or is it best to just go ahead and eat these too? I am wondering if the vines would actually take off indoors and have enough artificial light to grow and thrive (and grow nice tubers in the pot).

Have any of you ever grown sweet potatoes in containers indoors over the winter? What kind of soil did you use? Anything special to prep? Add some bone meal to the hole too like we do outside in the garden... What about supporting the vines indoors (assuming they do take off). I have no idea how I would trellis those puppies.

 

[Meadowlark]

Howdy, Paul.

I haven't grown them indoors but if you provide plenty of sunshine, warmth, and TLC there's no reason it won't work. You will need a large, deep container with at least 18 inches depth.

When I grow them outdoors, they put on incredible amounts of foliage so that might be an issue indoors...but should work.

 

[Meadowlark]

@PaulZone8b While thumbing through some seed catalogs I ran across this bush sweet potato.

"Vardaman is a bushy type that takes less space while producing fine yields of deep orange tubers with rich flavor"

Thought of your post...going to give it a try myself.

 

[PaulZone8b]

@PaulZone8b While thumbing through some seed catalogs I ran across this bush sweet potato.

"Vardaman is a bushy type that takes less space while producing fine yields of deep orange tubers with rich flavor"

Thought of your post...going to give it a try myself.

Hi ML. I have given this more thought and I dont think its going to work, so I will just eat the sprouting ones. That was the whole reason I was thinking about indoors anyway...because I had some on mine sprouting. I dont want to go buying a variety better for growing indoors. I can only provide artificial light over the winter too...so even if the vines grew, I dont think they would flower and grow big tubers. So forget this project...I have plenty more projects to work on anyway, like building my new KeyHole Design raised bed/compost deal.

 

[scarecrow garden in China]

Some of our colleagues grow sweet potatoes on their desks as landscaping plants, but if you want your sweet potatoes to grow very well and produce more, then it is more recommended to grow them outdoors; some people grow sweet potatoes in burlap sacks, fill them with soil, poke holes in the sacks, and then transplant the sweet potato vines.

 

[skinyea]

Howdy, Paul.

I haven't grown them indoors but if you provide plenty of sunshine, warmth, and TLC there's no reason it won't work. You will need a large, deep container with at least 18 inches depth.

When I grow them outdoors, they put on incredible amounts of foliage so that might be an issue indoors...but should work.

that foliage makes great stir-fry's