Easy Companion Plants To Grow Large Sweet Potatoes

Low labor annual & perennial companion plants that will increase sweet potato harvests in an edible landscape or food forest.

With sweet potatoes, which are a root vegetable crop, the name of the gardening game is pairing them with plants that have thick, clay-busting, soil-aerating, fast-growing roots. 

You can even take it to the food foresting, edible landscaping level by growing sweet potatoes as a perennial, if you are lucky enough to live in a place with very mild winters, or you can use other perennials to establish your sweet potato patch and have a go-to place every year to start your sweet potato slips where you know the ground is loosened by the presence of strong, perennial roots. 

Check out these amazing, edible options to companion plant with your sweet potatoes for incredible, huge harvests from your very first year. 
Low labor annual & perennial companion plants that will increase sweet potato harvests in an edible landscape or food forest.

1  Tomatoes

Set tomatoes are equally as fast-growing as sweet potatoes and and most places, grown as an annual, they make an excellent companion plant to grow with sweet potatoes. This fast growth and thick, fast growing roots, helps to break up the soil and make space for the sweet potato tubers, which usually need loose soil to grow well and large. Tomato plants' roots will wiggle through hard-packed, clay soil to support the growth of your sweet potato tubers, which grow underground.
Low labor annual & perennial companion plants that will increase sweet potato harvests in an edible landscape or food forest.

2  Horseradish

A companion planting set-up for the brave due to horseradish's aggressive spreading nature from root cuttings, but produces excellent results for those looking to double their root crop harvests. That means less digging during harvest times as horseradish and sweet potatoes can both be harvested in fall and horseradish and sweet potatoes will help each other grow by creating the maximum amount of space and air in the soil since the harvestable part of each plant is grown underground. 
camellia sinensis tea bush flowering
camellia sinensis tea bush flowering

3  Camellia Sinensis Tea Bush

Yes, you should absolutely put these two fabulously leafy plants together. The Camellia Sinensis Tea Bush being an evergreen shrub or tree, depending on how you choose to prune it, will provide a wonderful microclimate for your sweet potato plants or sweet potato slips to get your sweet potato patch started earlier in the season with the tea bush acting as a shelter from any chilling winds that would kill off your sweet potato plants. 
green fig cracking and ripening in food forest
green fig cracking and ripening in food forest

4  The Fig Tree

The fig tree and its fast-growing, thick root system make an excellent environment for the delicious root vegetable that we know as sweet potato. With fig trees growing to a certain size and being a long-lived fruit tree, a food forest that can be passed down through the family can be established while growing your "survival crop" of edible tubers. 
Purple Tree Collard Cutting Before Planting in Food Forest
Purple Tree Collard Cutting Before Planting in Food Forest

5  Tree Collards

With only tree collards and sweet potatoes, you will be able to create a leafy, lush wonderland of edible goodness. Tree collards can grow to three feet within a few short months of starting them from cuttings or even faster, if you start with a small plant and will provide an excellent microclimate to get your sweet potato cuttings started every year. 

Since tree collards are cold-hardy perennials, you can do a nice row of them or have these tall-growing leafy greens scattered across your edible landscape as yearly visual reminders of where to plant your sweet potato patch every year. 
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6  Bamboo

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7  Sugar Cane

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