Sweet Potatoes ...how much room is needed

[Jitterbug]

Hi there

I have been looking through the Wiki and am quite interested in trying to grow sweet potatoes.  Am I too late to start one in water now?  Also how much space would I need to grow them.  I am growing my potatoes in barrels as I have a very small garden and no allotment.  Any assistance would be great

Jitterbug

[Jitterbug]

[Tora]

I would like to declare my interest in this topic :)

I bought a bag of sweet potatoes from ASDA last week, the one with dark purple skin and cream flesh, which I prefer to orange fleshed one. :D
I am also thinking about the option of growing them in container...

[Gadfium]

From Simon Hickmott's book 'Growing Unusual Vegetables'...

Sweet Potato: 'Preparing slips - healthy tubers should be started into growth in mid-April. Pot them into any moist growing medium, the roots do not need sustenance at this stage. Place them into warmth (a propagating frame is ideal) and maintain a constant 18C, admit lots of light. They will quickly sprout. The shoots shuld be left to grow about 10-12cm long, at which size they are detatched and treated as cuttings. Place each 'slip' around the edge of a 15cm pot (about six will go around the edge of each pot) of seed sowing medium, or a simple mix of 50:50 sharp sand and organic material. Keep them warm and they should soon root. Then they should be separated out and potted on into potting medium and grown on in preparation for planting out. One or two shoots should be left on each tuber, which then can be planted.'

'Plant out when the soil temperature is high enough and is stable, spacing each plant 25-30cms apart on ridges made 30-40cms wide. The ridges encourage the development of tubers and the plants should be planted deeply, 10-12cm, to leave at least half of the plant buried'

...then notes on keep weed free, and regularly watered especially in hot weather when growth spurts can take place.

...ready when large enough, can be left to develop until autumn after plants cut down by frost, but should be lifted before damage by penetrating frost. Cure for a week at 25C, then store at 14C - do not refridgerate.

...many varieties, but 'the only one which is suited to growing in the UK is Beauregard' (orange skin and flesh). Most sweet potatoes bought from shops are tropical in origin & will 'be poorly equipped to yield in a cooler climate'.

So it sounds possible to grow in a container, with a bit of a mound heaped up in the middle, and then plant deeply into the mound.

Thompson & Morgan don't have Beauregard, but they do have a replacement (don't know if it's hybrid or not) http://potatoes.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/list/full-list/12

[Anne Robertson]

I have grown my own slips this year. Though looking at the previous post I may have taken the shoot off too early, it was only an inch long, I put it in water and 5 days later I have 1/2 inch roots on it. I still have about 12 shoots on my sweet potatoes waiting to be pulled off when reaching the right length.
Interestingly 2 shoots have grown in the water and have also got roots on them while still attached to the potato.