Sweet potatoes

[ecolojo]

hello,

Has anyone grown sweet potatoes sucessfully? A friend grew them last year near to Cambridge but I was wondering how far into the UK they might grow sucessfully.

cheers,
Joanne

[shirlthegirl43]

Hello and welcome to the vine ecolojo. These threads might help you a bit...

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...tato_3864.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...tato_3402.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...atoes_548.html

That should do for starters. You can enter sweet potato in the search box and all the vine threads containing posts with those words will be shown and you can read them at your leisure. Looking forward to reading about the other things you grow / intend to grow.

[Nicos]

A neighbour of mine grew them outdoors in Cheshire in 2006 ( the hot/dry summer), and the top growth did fine, but the potatoes were small.
Perhaps with a bit more water they would have done better??
She didn't grow them again last year which makes me think she wasn't too impressed with her success ( probably would have been too cold/wet anyway??)

She used slips, so maybe a full potato would have been better this far North??

It's one veg I tend to buy a lot of too, so I might give them a go now you mention it!

Welcome to the Vine by the way! I'm sure you'll enjoy it on here ecolojo !!

[Jardiniere]

how do you grow sweet potatoes ? They arent potatoes so how do they come for growing? Seeds? Roots?
Can i get them here in france?

[Alison]

You get them as slips - read the links above and that should help quite a bit. Not had that much luck with them here, not a long enough summer I suspect and they take up a lot of space for what you get.

[Seahorse]

I'd like to have a go at these this year. There's an interesting bit in one of the links above about making your own slips. I'll repost it here to save anyone interested wading through:

Originally posted by Mycorrhizal

Regarding growing sweet potato, I've started producing my own 'slips' from a supermarket-bought potato. This is really easy but has the drawback that you do not know what cultivar you are growing and how cold tolerant it is. Although it is a lot of fun

OK, this is what I did: stuck bamboo sticks in the side of a sweet potato and suspended it in a glass jar of water so that the 'pointy end' is in the water and 3/4 of the potato is submerged. I've been changing the water daily with warm water and it’s started to grow roots already (~4 days). The tops starting to bulge and soon it should be producing green shoots, once these are around 2inch in length you can cut them off and root them in water> these are the slips that T&M sell (although of a different cultivar obviously). Then, for best results they should be grown in a cloche

I have one in the kitchen, might see if I can get it to produce anything, then I'll have a better idea of whether to go for bought or 'home made' nearer planting time.

[PhantomVeg]

I harvested some lovely sweet potatos a few years back... It was in Japan though. If you can manage it, try it though, they were only small but tasted amazing.

[Glasshousevirgin]

I look forward to trying these out so thanks for all the contributions folks
R

[ysb33r]

You get them as slips - read the links above and that should help quite a bit. Not had that much luck with them here, not a long enough summer I suspect and they take up a lot of space for what you get.

Sort of my feeling as well. I grew them on a ridge covered in black liner. Then resulting sweet potatoes very quite small compared to supermarket sizes. Nothing wrong with the taste though. The slugs had a go at them as well which was a bit surprising.

Overall I cannot say that I made my money back, given the premium one has to pay for slips from T &M. I might give them a go once more this year, but I was thinking of growing them in a Link-a-bord raised bed.

[Protea]

I was talking to a US potato grower this week and even in the deserts of Washington State they can't grow Sweet potatoes. They're very cold sensitive and need really warm soils to produce a good crop, they also have a very long growing season. Unfortunately its just not warm enough for long enough in the UK to get any sizeable crop. YOu would really need to grow them in a heated greenhouse and start them off early and warm the soil up (don't ask me how!).

Well done to the people who have managed some tubers though, perhaps a bit more global warming and we might get a proper crop

[greasyfire]

I want to grow sweet poataoes but are summer is to short and not hot enough for the big fat juicy ones

[Bigmallly]

I want to grow sweet poataoes but are summer is to short and not hot enough for the big fat juicy ones

Well GF, if anybody should get the best weather, you're in the right place. Have a go & see what happens.

[greasyfire]

Well GF, if anybody should get the best weather, you're in the right place. Have a go & see what happens.

I have seen on the internet YouTube - Dig my sweet potatoes - Claire's allotment part 89 that she lives in the uk somewhere and has grown sweet poatoes but they look more thin than carrots.

[Bigmallly]

Then you have to make a decision......Do you want to look at them or eat them........

[Woofster]

I grew sweet potatoes this year on my allotment in very large (160 litre) tubs. I got slips from T & M which looked very poorly when I got them. They did revive and I planted 2 in each tub. There were two varieties and when it came to harvesting one variety produced some very strangely shaped tubers and not very fat. The other tub produced a few good sized tubers. I decided to grow them on account of the promised "BBQ summer" and I suppose that in a better summer I might get a better crop.
The point is that even in a not very good summer it is possible to grow them outdoors.