{"podcast":{"title":"Beyond the Garden Basics","slug":"beyond-the-garden-basics-5638242","podcast_index_feed_id":5638242,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/456239.rss","website_url":"https://gardenbasics.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/456239/ea948904fc790f98feb43a4f3bfa95b9.jpg","author":"Farmer Fred","episode_count":184,"summary":"Food and flower gardening tips for warm climate gardeners.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-11T00:18:33.219328+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/beyond-the-garden-basics-5638242"},"episode":{"title":"Growing Sweet Potatoes","slug":"growing-sweet-potatoes","published_at":"2026-04-24T13:55:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/beyond-the-garden-basics-5638242/growing-sweet-potatoes","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/beyond-the-garden-basics-5638242","url":"https://gardenbasics.substack.com/p/growing-sweet-potatoes","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/194965115/a3297ebd519047f5efb65447f41a819a.mp3","summary":"Sweet potatoes are one of the most under-appreciated crops you can grow. But it will reward those gardeners who give sweet potatoes what they really need: heat. As you will hear in the podcast with Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour, sweet potatoes have some very particular needs. A San Joaquin County (CA) listener wrote in asking how to alleviate the frustration of trying to sprout sweet potato slips from organic potatoes in a cold house in January. That’s the core problem right there — sweet potatoes are tropical plants, closer kin to morning glory than to the white potato, and they simply won’t cooperate without warmth. They’ll sit, sulk, and rot before they ever sprout. The good news is that our region of California is genuinely excellent sweet potato territory. Twenty percent of all commercially grown sweet potatoes in the U.S. come out of Merced County here in California, so conditions here are about as favorable as it gets. Timing is everything. Don’t rush them into the ground — mid-May is about right, once the soil has had a chance to warm up. Plant slips, not seeds — always buy certified disease-free slips from a reputable nursery or mail-order source. More about creating sweet potato slips, from the Santa Clara Master Gardeners * To grow your own slips: * Start in February or March. * Fill a shallow container that has drainage holes with moist potting soil. * Nestle in the sweet potato so it is half covered in the soil. Place in a waterproof tray. * Cover to retain humidity and keep it warm. * Remove covering when sprouts appear in 2–4 weeks. * When sprouts are 6 inches long, clip off 1 inch from potato (to prevent possible disease propagation from the mother potato) and plant directly in pots (or root in water then transplant into pots). The S…","meta_description":"Sweet potatoes are one of the most under-appreciated crops you can grow. But it will reward those gardeners who give sweet potatoes what they really need:…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":973,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/beyond-the-garden-basics-5638242/episodes/growing-sweet-potatoes/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/beyond-the-garden-basics-5638242/growing-sweet-potatoes.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}