Sweet potatoes from plants?

[Clara]

I might be being really dumb but.......

We have some sweet potato plants that we bought in the market, they aren´t growing out of sweet potatoes like I thought they ought to be, so what do I do with them?

Do I earth them up like regular spuds? Will the sweet potatoes grow out of side shoots?

All the internet articles I find only refer to growing them from "slips"

TIA, Clara

[ocailleagh]

I'm afraid I don't know how to link to it (machines are confusing), but there's a thread currently about 12 posts below this one with some sweet potato info in it. If that helps lol.

[Clara]

I´m glad it´s not just me who relates better to plants than computers!

I´m afraid I´m none the wiser, because I don´t have slips, I just have plants with roots.....I guess I´d better earth them up just in case.

[ocailleagh]

Well, as you can probably tell from the thread I directed you to, I haven't got a clue lol! But, at a guess, I'd say that maybe the 'slip' part has rotted away leaving the plant part behind...so yeah, plant them up!!

Oh, and its not just computers, all machines are quite bewildering to me!

[Clara]

I doubt they have rotted away, as they were bought as plants in seed modules i.e. no space for a slip.

[Annpan]

They are part of the bind-weed family... I guess there is more than one way of growing them.

The book I have says not to bother earthing them up as they don't turn green in sunlight. They do grow under ground as tubers (just like potatoes)

I want to grow some in my giant greenhouse, let me know how you get on please Clara.

[chadspad]

The shoots grow out of the 'eye' slit thingie on the potato - Im assuming these would be called slips. Just plant the potato in the ground, the shoot will come out eventually!

[marshlander]

sweet potato slips are rooted cuttings. (No sweet pot attached)

Cut the sweet potato in half, suspend the uncut ends in jars of
water, with about 3/4" of the sweet potato in the water and the rest out of the water. You can suspend it by pushing two or three toothpicks round the cut edge.

The sweet potato will get sprouts - shoots - all over the
part that's not in the water and grow roots into the water. There will be quite a few of them. When each shoot has some leaves and is
a few inches long, you can twist it off the sweet potato and pot it up.

I put 4 arround the edge of a 5 inch terracotta pot. When the slips - your rooted cuttings - have got a good root system and you're sure they wont get frost you can plant them out. (In uk prolly in the greenhouse only!)

I leave the smaller sprouts on the Sweet Potato and plant the whole thing in a large pot. This grows a really pretty vine for your sunny window cill or porch in summer but this won't produce you any sweet potatoes.

[marshlander]

btw just thought - never put sweet pots in the fridge - makes the centre go hard and ruins the flavour!

[Clara]

Ah that explains it...fab. What I have are slips with a root system, they are planted out and they are growing heathily. should I be earthing them up or will the sweet potatoes grow "into" the ground?

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Ah that explains it...fab. What I have are slips with a root system, they are planted out and they are growing heathily. should I be earthing them up or will the sweet potatoes grow "into" the ground?

Stem cuttings can be made too - a spot of rooting hormone and away you go. But slips are more sure. As Annpan says, there is no need to earth up: sweet potatoes are not nightshades (they are a member of family convolvulaceae - morning glory and so on) so they are not spoiled by sunlight.

[Clara]

Thank you all.....

I got the following reply from another forum and It made it crystal clear to me so I thought I would pass it on.....

"what you have are slips; which is the absolute right thing to have if you want to grow sweet potatoes. Sweet poatoes grow totally different from regular/Irish potatoes. Irish potatoes will form new potatoes all along the main underground stem of a potato plant (above the planted potato hunk); hense, the growing method of "hilling" or tire/wire cage towers to maximize the plant's nature.

Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, grow much different. Imagine a ballarina's too-too, a very stiff too-too, one that is at right angles to her waist...that is how sweet potatoes grow. The plant sends out thickend roots midways down in the root zone (the too-too). At the ends of the thickened roots is where the new sweet potatoes form.

After you harvest your sweet potatoes, they need to be cured, otherwise they just won't taste right. Curing is simple. Just keep them in the dark in a warm environment (about 75*F) for about 2 weeks."