sweet potato spacing

[Sparkly]

I am thinking about growing sweet potato and, from reading on here, I know they grow from slips and shouldn't be planted till after the last frost. From a google search I found they should be planted abotu 1-1.5ft apart but it also said 4ft between rows to allow room for the vines to spread. If I was to plant them in a coldframe (about 3ft long) would 2 plants in this area be okay? There is also a suggestion of growing them through black plastic for warmth, would they grow okay like this but without a cover? Obviously the slips are expensive, so want to have hope they will actually work before going ahead and ordering!

[Sparkly]

[manicscousers]

we grow ours up, like a tomato, but this is inside, we can space ours 12" apart,
never tried the black plastic but, if you're growing them along, they root along the stem producing small tubers from the roots , the plastic would stop this  :)

[star]

Apparantly.........and Im no expert, if you grow them up a trellis or similar they produce bigger tubers. Allowing them to root along the length of the vine grows lots more tubers, but they will be small.

Im sure someone knows much better than me, mine were pathetic last year. So probably best to ignore anything I say on sweet potatoes. Im going to the farm shop for mine in future ;D

You had some decent ones last year didnt you Manics?

[manicscousers]

we had a few good ones and some thick 'fingers, tasted lovely, though..we didn't feed them last year but will this year, we've also added sharp sand to the bed, they were very difficult to dig out of the heavy clay last year, they're a bit crispy  ;D

[saddad]

I space them about 18" apart and in two rows in a greenhouse border... they would definitely swamp that frame by the end of the season if you let them sprawl... but if you grew them up you would be OK...



at planting time


near the end of the season..

;D

[manicscousers]

whaat did you feed them, saddad, and did you water ?

[star]

Now you can see why I dont want to bother with them any more. Saddads greenhouse is bigger than my whole garden. And Manics has a big poly too.

But give them a go Sparkly, you will probably get something decent. Mine were outside and we had an awful year weatherwise ::)