Vegetable
Sweet Potato
Ipomoea batatas · Convolvulaceae
Also called: Sweetpotato, Camote
Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a moderate-water vegetable well suited to Tucson and the low desert. It thrives in full sun.
Sweet Potato at a glance
- Water use
- Moderate (established)
- Sun
- Full sun (8+ hours); heat-loving.
- Mature size
- Sprawling vine 1 ft tall spreading 6-12+ ft; tubers form underground.
- Growth rate
- Vigorous/fast vining; tubers ready about 90-120 days after planting slips.
- Bloom
- Pale pink to lavender (when it blooms), May produce morning-glory-type flowers in summer, but grown for tubers, not bloom. Harvest tubers in fall.
- Cold hardiness
- Frost sensitive (both vines and tubers); a warm-season tender perennial grown as an annual. Needs a long warm season, which Tucson provides.
- Soil
- Loose, sandy, well-drained soil; loosen deeply so tubers can expand. Tolerates lower fertility and alkaline soil.
- Native range
- Native to tropical Central/South America; grown worldwide. Not a desert native.
- Best used as
- Edible tuber crop, Edible greens, Heat-tolerant ground-covering summer vegetable, Ornamental vine (some types)
- Wildlife
- Vines may be browsed by rabbits and rodents; tubers targeted by rodents/gophers.
- Toxicity
- Tubers and leaves non-toxic to people. Note: the related ornamental morning glories (other Ipomoea spp.) have toxic seeds, but the sweet potato tuber and greens are safe.
How to grow Sweet Potato in Tucson & the low desert
Watering
WARM SEASON: plant slips (rooted cuttings) April-June after soil is warm. Keep evenly moist while vines establish; once running, water deeply but moderately and taper off in the final weeks before harvest to firm up tubers. Harvest before first frost in fall.
Fertilizer & nutrients
Light feeder. Avoid high nitrogen, which grows lush vines at the expense of tubers; a balanced or slightly higher-phosphorus/potassium feeding supports tuber development. Compost at planting is usually enough.
Pruning & care
None required; vines can be trimmed to keep them in bounds (trimmed greens are edible). Do not let vines root at every node if you want larger tubers.
Notes
Excellent low-desert summer crop because it thrives in heat and shrugs off poor soil. A true sweet potato (Convolvulaceae), unrelated to the yam (Dioscorea). Start from certified slips; not the same as a Tucson native.
Sources: University of Arizona Cooperative Extension; Pima County Master Gardeners; Tucson Organic Gardeners Planting Guide