Growing Sweet Potatoes in Michigan

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Fried sweet potatoes would make a terrific side dish for dinner tonight. Lori Dunn

Considered an exotic holiday root vegetable in many parts of the country, sweet potatoes are often relegated to the grade-school science project that involves a chunk of tuber and a jar of water. Perhaps because those experiments mainly produce long vines and fibrous roots, and the vegetation looks slightly tropical, one might conclude that it just isn’t possible to grow sweet potatoes anywhere but in the Deep South. Nothing could be further from reality. 

Years after an enlightening fall visit to the Benton Harbor market, where I first discovered Michigan-grown sweet potatoes, I decided to investigate raising the crop for my family’s produce business, Magicland Farms, a roadside farmers’ market in west-central Michigan where we only sell what we grow. After considerable research, I decided to make a test planting of sweet potatoes to find out if it was possible to make money raising and selling the crop. I then placed orders for Beauregard and Georgia Jet sweet potato slips and planted them in raised beds. Here are the highlights of my test planting: 

Mid-May – Planted sweet potato slips 12 to 15 inches apart, through black plastic with trickle irrigation.  

Late May – Late, light frost killed a few plants, but most were just set back – the part of the slip below the plastic was OK.  

June through mid-August – Twice weeded rows between raised beds. Turned on water to drip tape for a few days when soil beneath plastic got dry. Also applied soluble fertilizer through drip tape three times. 

Mid-August through mid-September – Stopped watering. Sweet potato vines covered plastic.  

September 23 – Dug a few plants – it was obvious from the size and quantity that growing sweet potatoes in Michigan is feasible.