Growing the Sweet Potato

The Naples Record

4 June 1890

A good sandy loam is the best soil. Plow the land to a moderate depth, broadcast. A week or so before slips are ready lay off rows with shovel plow 3 1/2 to 4 feet apart. Distribute a liberal quantity of the scrapings of the wood pile and back yard, ashes, decayed leaves, etc., in this furrow. Or apply acid phosphate and potash, 200 to 400 pounds per acre. List in the fertilizer. When the slips are ready to plant, finish out the beds; or, if necessary to get a good mellow soil, re-bed on the old beds. Plant only in freshly plowed soil, plants 18 to 24 inches apart.

We have rarely found it necessary to bar off the rows, says Southern Cultivator, which furnishes the foregoing directions. A small scooter and short scrape is a good combination to use the first time. A double shovel stock also does effective work. Anything that will destroy the grass effectively and rapidly and leave the soil mellow will answer.

An old scythe blade is a good implement with which to cut the vines when necessary to do so; but when vines become so matted and rooted as to require such cutting it is too late to plow the potatoes. A light curved stick, say an old cradle finger, is good to lift the vines and destroy the connection of the rooted vines in the middles.