Sweet Potato and slips

[Andy Hamilton]

There seems to be precious little info about sweet potatoes on the web I found this

Place the seed potatoes one layer deep side by side in a warm part of the yard or garden. Cover these with sand and then a layer of clear plastic. Keep well watered but not soggy wet. As shoots develop, raise the plastic cover. When the shoots are about six inches long, pull off the plants and plant them. One sweet potato will produce about 10 slips. I have used the ones out of the grocery store and they have done just fine - Irish as well as sweet potatoes.

and also heard that if you Get a sweet potato and place it bud side up in a jar filled with water and stick it in a sunny spot, it should produce a few slips.

Never tried to grow sweet potato myslef has anyone else out there? As I would love to give it a go this year.

[Wombat]

Yep,

I am growing kumara (sweet potato) in a white 50 litre bucket this year. I just planted it in good quality potting mix enriched with worm casings and compost. It took a while to come up but is now quite bushy and starting to send out vines. A friend of mine in Qld says that you can prune the vines down to keep them manageable so that is what I am going to try this year. I will let you know what the harvest is like

[ian]

Do Sweet potatoes need to be grown in a green house in Northern climes?
are they earthed up as with standard potatoes?
regards
ian.

[ian]

Just read previous thread thannks for the info shirlz... always diving in without looking!

[chadspad]

So having just read this thread too, is the sweet pot plant a climber and need to go along a trellis or something similar?

[Wombat]

Theoretically yes, although mine have never climbed too far. A mate's father grows them up a trellis but prunes them so they don't get too carried away and reckons that they get a reasonable crop. but that is in Brisbane........

Nev

[chadspad]

Back to sweet potatoes again.............mine are doing really well outside. When will I know they are ready to harvest? I remember reading they have to have something like 180 days but as I didnt take a note of the date I planted them, thats not going to help much Do the tops die down or something easy like that?

[chadspad]

Come on Nev & Adekun, whats the answer please? Uve both grown them successfully - how did u know when they were ready?

[ohareward]

Kumara can be grown from either the shoots or the whole kumara, but the usual way is from the shoots, which can be bought from a garden centre. It is really easy (and much cheaper) to grow your own though. This involves selecting one or more disease-free kumara (just make sure it has no blemishes or obvious damage). Take the kumara and place it on, or partially in, damp sand and put it in a warm place. Over a period of a few weeks (perhaps 4-6 weeks), the kumara will put up a number of shoots, which will develop roots in the sand. When the shoots are about 20 cm high and have vigorous roots, you can remove them and plant them out. Kumara are very susceptible to frost, so wait until the chance of frost has gone (usually October-November) and plant them out on ridges of soil (about 20 cm high). They will grow best in light, rich, well-drained soil, in a warm, sunny spot.
Kumara and normal potatoes are harvested when the tops die down.

Robin

[chadspad]

Thanks Ohareward. I have managed to successfully grow 6 plants from shop bought sweet potatoes. I planted mine out about May nothing like Oct/Nov - does that matter? It was knowing when they would be ready for harvesting that I was really interested in - thanks for that!

[Millymollymandy]

I think Robin is giving the months for NZ so you need to work it out for northern hemisphere!

Why don't you have a bit of a dig around in the soil to see what is happening down there?

[chadspad]

Spose I could - havent thought to do that lol

[chadspad]

Here are my sweet pots that I got from just 1 plant! Theyre not the biggest in the world but they are an achievement (for me anyway lol) having grown them from shop bought sweet potatoes that I cut up and stuck in a pot. Will definitely do some again next year but I need to start them earlier as these are dying off now and not large enuf.

[9ball]

Wow, well done chadspad, I'm tempted to give these a go next year from a shop bought one now - the slips are very expensive to buy otherwise - especially if they shrivel up and die :)

[chadspad]

Just buy some actual potatoes from the supermarket instead, its far cheaper! Cut them into chunks wherever u see an eye slit thingie, throw them in a pot with peat and wait - for ages - then they will shoot and u can plant them out. I bought 2 potatoes for about 1 euro and got 6 plants - gotta beat the slip prices!