The question is not so much how to grow sweet potato but rather how to stop them from taking over the garden! Sweet potato is a very invasive creeper so, like pumpkin, it needs its own bed. Or, because it does make such a wonderful quick-growing ground cover; it can be used as a living mulch to keep weeds down over a large area. It suffers fewer disease problems than normal potatoes, and requires little water and fertiliser.
Plant sweet potatoes after the threat of frost has passed. The quickest way is to use cuttings from a friend. Remove all the leaves from a 30 cm piece of runner, except fro the tiny leaves at the very tip. Plant the runner under the soil with only the leaves of the tip above ground. The cutting will root at every leaf node under the ground. A sweet potato also grows roots from every leave node that develops as it grows: you can see why it can take over!
If you can't get hold of cuttings you can start growing sweet potatoes by planting whole shop-bought tubers. Place them on the ground, cover them with soil, and keep them moist. The tubers will develop shoots, called slips. Slips can be snipped or pulled off and planted out when they are about 15 cm in size; plant one per person. The original root will continue to plant more slips. All they require to grow well is regular water and a monthly liquid feed.
Harvest Sweet potato will take around 6 months to mature, longer in cooler weather. You'll know they are ready when the stem thickens. You can also feel for lumps under the surface and start digging!
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