Advice on Sweet potato

[lozza_9]

Hi All

Just a quick question, I am thinking of growing some Sweet potato next year. Has anyone tried growing them? any advice? best place to buy the slips.

cheers
lozza

[pigletwillie]

If you are successful with growing them you will need to store them in a warm place as cold will turn them to mush.

I think you are brave trying them outdoors as they need lots of heat and a long growing season.

T&M are as good as any for slips.

[lozza_9]

mmmm ok - maybe I might have to grow indoors, I take it I can grow them in a large pot

L

[pigletwillie]

Mmm pass, I dont like them so dont grow them.

[Alice]

Hello Lozza, somebody on here did grow sweet potatoes successfully but can't remember who but you coild type it in the search box. Piglet's right. They are really sub tropical and quite demanding in their conditions and not really suited to our climate. Only for the very determined I think. I just buy nice ones in Asda.

[Alison]

I grew them last year, but not terribly sucessfully as the slips didn't appear until late from T&M. I've taken cuttings off last years plants which I'm currently keeping alive in the house with the hope that we'll have a good early start next year. If you check out the earlier threads you'll see that I tried them under various conditions ie in the ground under black plastic, in tubs outside and also in tubs in the greenhouse - wasn't really expecting too much but like to try an interest crop in addition to the usual.

[ilex]

Sweet Potaoes are natively from the caribbean where they grow bananas, mangoes and such so i'm not sure they would do so well outside in good old british weather!

I'm sure you could grow them inside if you had the right conditions

I found this site
http://www.barfoots.co.uk/page63.html

Ilex

[nick the grief]

If you've got a poly tunnel or a greenhouse they'll be OK. And the slips are available from most of the main seed houses these days.