Sweet Potatoes

[nitiram]

Has any one grown sweet potatoes? I want to try as we eat quite a few and can't get them on the market here like we used to before we moved. I see that Thompson and Morgan have slips for sale but has anyone tried them?

[nitiram]

[organicartist]

I've grown sweet potatoes from tubers bought in the supermarket. Beware : some fruit & veg is irradiated, which means it won't grow! You can start sweet potatoes off a bit like avocado pips, use toothpicks to suspend tuber so end is in a jar of water, keep in a warm place, change water every few weeks & they'll soon start growing. Plant out after danger of frost has passed.

Sweet potatoes need to be treated like squash plants, protect from frost & grow in a warm, sheltered location. The top or sides of a compost heap work well, & the vine soon hides the heap with attractive leaves. They form a sprawling vine much like squash plants, which is a good groundcover, and form tubers like potatoes. There don't seem to be too many pests, although slugs may cause a bit of damage.

[BAGGY]

I left a supermarket sweet potato under in the veg rack and forgot about it.  When I got back from hols it had sprouted.  Can I plant it and how much room would it need, how deep etc?

[organicartist]

You can plant it now, but considering the shortness of the season left before winter, it might be happiest in a container in the greenhouse or on a sheltered patio? The vine is very pretty, so it won't look out of place. They like a well drained soil with plenty of organic matter & regular watering. The plants are very vigorous, like squash plants. Plant about twice as deep as the tuber, you can always earth it up a bit at a later date if you want. They do like space, recommend you don't grow in something with a smaller diameter than a car tyre -  a few car tyres painted white stacked on top of each other work well.

[nitiram]

Had not realised that they didn't grow like potatoes...doh     So if I grow 10 slips will that fill my entire lottie??     What weight would I get from each plant do you know? Sounds as if i will be better off just sprouting a couple of the organic supermarket ones instead of buying 10 slips from Tand M.

[organicartist]

In ideal conditions, you can get several kilogrammes of tubers per plant if grown from a tuber. Never grown from slips, so can't comment on those. The vine normally just trails along the ground, but you could always train it up a support to save space. Or, interplant with something tall to save space, sweetcorn or sunflowers perhaps? (Thinking towards next summer here).

[westsussexlottie]

Having grown sweet potatoes from slips regularly I would suggest that it is probably too late to plant slips now in order to get a good crop.
There is a previous thread on this if you do a search.
If you want to grow slips for next year I would suggest that you start by putting a sweet potato from the supermarket (scrubbed) into a bag of moist vermiculite in a hot and warm place (boiler room windowsill is ideal) and slips will start to appear after a month or so and will grow fast. You wait for them to be 30cm or so and then plant them on into dustbins filled with compost in a greenhouse.

In a good (hot) year you will get about 5-6 large sweet potatoes per slip but like most home grown crops they taste better than shop bought.

I find them easy to look after and think that T&M's prices are a rip off when I consider that just one tuber from the organic section of Sainsburys gave me over 20 slips for 70p.

[BAGGY]

****** Stupid question alert ******

So I don't plant the whole spud ?  What is a slip ?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Not only can you eat the tubers, you can also eat the leaves like spinach. I don't think they're widely eaten, but they're used in Sierra Leonean cookery, where my wife comes from.

[nitiram]

'westsussexlottie'...when do I start them off?   Can I grow them up like beans up some sticks or netting? ...(except result will be underground..)

One suggestion I have found says plant them on the manure heap, will this be OK to do this?   Apologies, must sound so dim!!

Had found other references to sweetpotatoes, thanks,

[westsussexlottie]

The slip is the name for each shoot that rises from the tuber when you put it in the moist vermiculite.

I personally would not grow them in manure as the tubers will be "burned" by it. Compost works just fine.
Also I have some planted in the allotment into the soil.

They should be started off early in the year late feb or early march would be a good time.

You can grow them up sticks or nets but they are also happy trailing over the ground.

[nitiram]

Thanks for all the advise, will not put them in the manure heap. Will try them up like beans, should be interesting.

[Anne Robertson]

Planted my slips from T & M under black plastic in the middle of June. Seem to be doing fine and I am curling the vine round & round to save space. Hope I get a good crop.
I think I will try growing slips from an organic SP next year as previously suggested, to save pennies  ;D