How do I know when to harvest my sweet potatoes, they have loads of leaves on them but I dont seem to be able to find out when to pull them up.
Leave them as long as you possibly can, their bulking up happens in the last few weeks so every extra day you are able to leave them for the better. As the evenings get cooler I plan to cover mine with fleece but don't let them stay out when a frost is expected, lift them before that. Once you lift them, leave them in a warm humid place for about a week so that their skins can heal and then store them in a cool dry place around 10C. Remember to keep a few tubers back for slip production next year. :)
how do you force them, I dont understand what I have read about that. ???
What do you mean by forcing them? If it's producing new slips for planting then look here http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,91/topic,19540.0 (http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,91/topic,19540.0)
Use the search facility at the top of your page, there are a few threads about sweet potato. :)
I bought ten slips this year and have them in a various locations... getting moderately excited but not planning to dig up just yet!
;D
I put them in but they all died last year.
Digging the site this year and found a sweet potato still growing. Only found it as i put the spade though it and though it was a root :-(
Will try them the year after next as i think lofas and peanuts might be ambitious enough.
I'm looking for slips for next year myself. Are Thompson Morgan the only place to go, or can you get slips from store-bought sweet potatos?
I bought mine through the Kitchen Garden offer last year, this years growing are from slips I produced myself from tubers saved from the KG harvest. The slips that you buy are better suited to our climate and require a shorter growing season, but you can grow from shop bought tubers, you may not get as good results though.
Thanks Leonnie, will investigate Kitchen Garden. :D
I'm not sure KG will be doing it again, it was an offer through a seed company, not sure which one it was, could have been T&M.
After talking about the sweet potatoes I couldn't wait any longer and lifted one of the smaller looking plants today. I'm leaving the others in for a few weeks longer but I just had to find out what's beneath the soil:
(http://www.acountrygarden.co.uk/picture_library/2006/150906sweetpot.jpg)
Soup anyone? Or are you going to roast chunks?
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These will be foil wrapped and cooked in the bbq coals, yummy :)
Those look fantastic! I don't expect anything from mine, as they are from a sweet potato my daughter threw out in May BECAUSE it was sprouting. I've left the potato in water outside ever since, rooting and planting the slips as they develop, so I have 6 slips growing away in the ground, and five rooted and ready to be potted.
I plan to bring them all indoors for the winter, and put them out early enough next year to actually get a crop. Has anyone done this?
I haven't overwintered any but I've read that they can be overwintered, I'll be taking cuttings from my plants this year in the hope that I can overwinter some for next year.
wow Leonnie, they look great - am I right in thinking yours were outside ? When did you plant them - mine went in in May, but I'm quite a bit further north than you, so guess mine will be about 3-4 weeks behind yours development wise. Some of yours look quite sizeable
I planted some out on 6th May and more on the 14th May (this plant was the second planting date). All my planting info can be seen on my blog on this page (http://www.acountrygarden.co.uk/files/allotment.xls), it takes a few seconds to load. :)
I lifted the remaining plants today and am thrilled with them, one is huge and all the others are a lovely big size. They've done very well this year. Here's a photo, more on my blog.
(http://www.acountrygarden.co.uk/picture_library/2006/071006sweetpot1.jpg)
How big are the plants above ground? Anyone got a pic? It's the leaves Namissa wants, more than the roots.
Robert they creep along like a ground cover, think of ivy as a ground cover, they're similar to that in height. These (approx 10 plants) covered an approx 2m x 3m area. They did try to trail further but I simply turned them back into the area I wanted them contained in. I grew my chilli plants among them, sparcely planted because they need full sun. Brilliant for weed suppressant (sp?).
What does she do with the leaves, please?
I was hoping to get one to flower, supposed to be beautiful... like Morning Glory?
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You cook the leaves like spinach. I've only had them in Sierra Leonean dishes, where they're chopped up fine, and cooked with meat, fish, palm oil and chili. It sounds as though you can get plenty, so I may try them next year.
Robert if you drop me a pm in the spring I'll send you some slips if I have any to spare. The ones I'm growing are better suited to our short growing season.
OK, thanks. It'll be interestimg to try it.
I let my plants sprawl along the ground this year(first time of growing), bit disappointed, but read in gyo magazine, grow them up canes, like toms, so the vines don't grow extras, also, grew my own slips from a supermarket potato, in a box of damp compost in february on the windowsill, so will try growing them up next year
Thought that I would show of my sweet potatoes.The very first time that we have grown them. We started with a potato from our local organic veg shop, grew the slips, planted them out, and forgot all about them!!!!!!!!!!!
(http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/1482/sweetpots001nr6.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
I've not harvested mine yet so keeping fingers crossed for some worthwhile tubers..
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you've got some nice size tubers there, well done :)
Sorry for asking the such a basic question but what are slips? Is it like chitting ordinary potatoes? Also how far apart do you sow the plants / rows?
Thanks
Take a look here http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_mambowiki/Itemid,92/ (http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_mambowiki/Itemid,92/) and if you do a search on the forum there's quite a bit of info to be found (but the search button isn't working at the moment). I planted mine about 40cm apart.
To get your sweet potato slips,take a sweet potato and insert some cocktail sticks around the middle of it. Suspend the potato in a jar of water, so that half is below and half is above the water, hence the cocktail sticks. The bit in the water will grow ordinary roots, the bit above the water will grow the slips(shoots). When these get to about 6" long, break them of very carefully, and place in a jar of water, these will in turn grow roots. We put our slips out in May, we made a ridge and planted them on the apex. They need a long growing season. Our allotment drains very well, and we have limited water, In fact they were only watered when we planted them.Good luckfor next year!!
This is the second year that I have grown sweet potatoes. Although my allotment is situated in Cheshire I had a good crop last year. So far Ive dug up two plants and found about 7lb of roots.
The original slips were T65 stock not Beauregard. I kept the roots of a couple of plants indoors with a few leaves through the winter, then took cuttings in the spring. The roots didn't do well on replanting but the cuttings did. This year I've taken cuttings and put them in the greenhouse- seem to be doing well.
This year I grew plants in three sites
1. through black plastic- excellent growth and good roots harvested already
2. just in the soil nearby- poor growth, don't expect much underground.
3. on a shavings horse manure muck heap. I lost all but one plant to rabbits but the growth of the survivor is stunning.
The leaves are great in a stir fry or used as spinach (try 4oz wilted down as spinach quiche). I froze cooked leaves last year for quiche. They aren't pleasant raw- a bit hairy.
The big problem to my mind is storing the roots: I've read that they only last two weeks in a cool dark place so last year I froze them as cooked mash.
This year the slugs have found them as well (I'm growing organically). I'm going to try 'curing' in a large propogator. Apparently keeping them 2 weeks at 25C and 90% humidity makes them store much better. I'll let you know if that's right.
Curing is the way to get them to keep, then kept above 10 or 15C... is that humidity figure right? I can't imagine anything not rotting at those figures!
???
I'm interested in knowing just how far north they have been successfully grown. I want to grow slips from the Kumara I have bought in Sainsbury's. It's only grown in the North of the North Island in New Zealand right at the edge of it's temperature range. New Zealand must be the coolest climate that it was grown in (before being grown more widely) so I'm guessing that it should be the easiest sweet potato to grow in Southern Britain. So successful sweet potato growers how far north are you?
am very excited having seen all these encouraging posts, so I'll be digging up mine on Thursday ... not sure what to expect (Sheffield)
When I've worked out how to post a photo I'll post one.
So far the crop has been:
1. planted through black plastic: first two plants harvested 7lb,
third plant 4lb
2. plants straight into soil 2 plants 1lb 10oz total
3. planted in much heap one plant just 12oz This was planted 4 weeks later than the others.
Seems to show:
get the slips growing well indoors, plant through plastic as soon as the frost risk is reduced- wait to the end of May and the crop is small. Last year there was a light September frost. Fleece protected the leaves- but where there was a tear the leaves went black.
I'm in Sussex so quite south as things go.
With regard to curing, this year with the first tubers I lifted in Sept I put them in a sealed plastic bag in our airing cupboard for a week (the tubers were damp to give humidity). I think a week was too long because they started to sprout, only just though. I moved them to our larder where they are now dry and cool and the sprouting has stopped and there are no signs of mould, rotting or anything bad, it's a month later and they are looking good.
Last year I did the same with the tubers but left them for only 2-3 days before leaving in our dry but very cool conservatory (temps fluctuating between approx 5C and 16C) and they kept well until Jan/Feb. I had lifted them around Sept/Oct so that was a good 4-5 months. They might have kept longer but by that time we'd eaten them all apart from the three that I had set aside for more slip production.
How many slips did you get from 3 tubers?
As promised here's a photo of the three best tubers from my Cheshire allotment. Not as good as others but I'm pleased! ;D
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c188/mereheath/Natural%20Year%202006/allotment/IMG_1104aSmall.jpg)(//)
Look good enough to me Folly.... almost tempted to dig mine up... I'm holding off as long as poss...
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Quote from: Kea on October 11, 2006, 10:35:07
How many slips did you get from 3 tubers?
I don't remember exactly, I planted about 10 or 11 and gave away about 9 or 10 so approx 20. One tuber didn't produce any slips, not sure why, so those figures are from two tubers.
I used to have sweet potato when I was a nipper, and I did give it to my urchins when they were little. Have never thought about growing my own as it is a veg I would never think to buy. What do you all do with them? Are they expensive to buy, so growing your own is worthwhile? You are tempting me you monkeys!!
I bought slips from T+M so of course they were expensive, and have not dug any up yet so I can't comment on the yield. I have learnt that I can eat the leaves as well so that doubles the return! I grew them for the novelty factor, always on the lookout to try something new. Maniccsouser has me toying with growing ginger, under cover of course!
I want to see a sweet potato flower as theyare in the same family as morning glory... in fact the young plants are so similar that one was Morning glory !!! my mix up of course.
;D
the slips work out about £1.00 each so growing your own is a good idea, roast them in chunks, make sweet potato/ ordinary potato mash, good for dieters like me, and sweet potato and squash soup is excellent
chip them and fry like potatoes they make wonderful fish and chips!
To buy the slips initially makes it expensive but if you save some tubers each year for slip production then you can produce your own for free in future years. We like them foil wrapped and baked, sprinkled with salt & pepper and a chunk of butter. If I have spare slips again next year I'll be happy to share them out like I did this year.