Last year was my first time growing sweet potatoes on a limited basis and they actually made! My sister brought home two organic 'Jewel' potatoes from Publix (to avoid any anti-sprouting stuff on them) and I did the toothpick/jar of water thing. One good thing I found out is that Jewel is nematode resistant. Yay!
The first three slips were planted in an unused half of a raised bed. I had read that if you keep the vines clipped to about 4' or so the energy will mainly go into growing the potatoes. So I did that to the raised bed potatoes. Besides, it kept them from running everywhere.
As more slips grew (eventually six more) they were planted where the Irish potatoes had grown. Hey, lots of loose soil and a different plant family so why not?
These vines were allowed to go everywhere they wanted. Eventually the sweet potato vines and the watermelon vines to the left of them introduced themselves, grew together and had a grand time.
I have since read on Sandhills' site that the vines need to be lifted now and then to keep them from rooting down. I'm going to try that this year with the ones I let run.
These were the first sweet potatoes dug from the raised bed. They were nicer than the later ones.
Right now I have three sweet potatoes doing the jar of water thing. The last two in the basket where they've been stored are sprouting on their own so I'll let them keep doing their thing. This year I'll do a whole raised bed of them (about 9 or 10 hills) and again follow the Irish spuds with about six hills.