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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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).
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.
****** Stupid question alert ******
So I don't plant the whole spud ? What is a slip ?
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.
'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,
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.
Thanks for all the advise, will not put them in the manure heap. Will try them up like beans, should be interesting.
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