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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

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:

Soup anyone? Or are you going to roast chunks?
8)

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, 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.

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?