sweet pototoes v potatoes

[rob the roller]

I am thinking of growing sweet potatoes for the first time.

Does anybody know whether sweet potatoes are to the same diseases and viruses etc as ordinary potatoes, e.g blight etc. Can they be grown in ground that has previously grown ordinay potatoes?

Thanks

Rob

[Alison]

Sweet potatoes are a totally different species to normal spuds and therefore don't suffer from blight etc. However they're a hot climate crop and therefore aren't very easy to grow in this country. Not sure where you are but I've tried them outside and not done well as the season just wasn't long enough. Did better in pots in the greenhouse but still not great due to lack of space. Am going to try once more this year in the new polytunnel but will be growing a lot more proper spuds to see me through the winter.

[Nicos]

Totally different as Alison says

This makes interesting reading...
http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docush.../F-6022web.pdf

I tried last year without success but am trying again with a bit more attention.
...not to put you off ( and me!) I found this...

List of sweet potato diseases - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Yup- it's a warm climate plant though- good luck !

[vegnut]

I'm also tempted to have a go at buying some slips, but i still have some doubts. I live down the bottom of the country and i don't think that the seasons here are that much longer, unless you're right up at the top end of this wonderful Isle.

[esrikandan]

Whatever you do - don't bother buying slips - they look expensive to me and producing your own is not difficult.

Buy a sweet potato from the shops and lob it in a jar of water. After a few weeks it will start producing roots and then some shoots. The shoots are your slips. Let them grow to a reasonable size then cut them off and pot up in small pots. After a further couple of weeks they have produced some decent roots and the warmer weather will permit planting outdoors. I got about 12 decent slips from one sweet potato but you can get loads more (from the one sweet potato) if you want to chance later plantings.

They do need quite a bit of time - I was a bit late last year and my sweet potatoes were tiny but they will grow. They are vunerable to eelworm and wireworm however.

Get started now if you want to have any chance though.

[Rocketron]

Whatever you do - don't bother buying slips - they look expensive to me and producing your own is not difficult.

Buy a sweet potato from the shops and lob it in a jar of water. After a few weeks it will start producing roots and then some shoots. The shoots are your slips. Let them grow to a reasonable size then cut them off and pot up in small pots. After a further couple of weeks they have produced some decent roots and the warmer weather will permit planting outdoors. I got about 12 decent slips from one sweet potato but you can get loads more (from the one sweet potato) if you want to chance later plantings.

They do need quite a bit of time - I was a bit late last year and my sweet potatoes were tiny but they will grow. They are vunerable to eelworm and wireworm however.

Get started now if you want to have any chance though.

Then watch it go mouldy before your very eyes before any slips are produced.

[esrikandan]

Then watch it go mouldy before your very eyes before any slips are produced.

You cynic!

[vegnut]

Thanks for that info esrikandan.
There are some sitting in my veg rack right this minute. I wonder if the missus will notice one dissapearing. Might just be worth a try.

[snohare]

I think there is a knack to getting the slips to appear - last year I tried to get a couple of tubers to sprout doing just that and found one went slimy straight off, the other lasted a lot longer and started producing epicormic (?) nodules but went mouldy in spots at the same time, so it was a race between the mould and the shoots. The mould won... Any tips gratefully received..I have plenty of time to experiment, it is snowing outside !
I'm guessing either temperature (most of my house is usually pretty cool - 60 degrees, sometimes a lot less) or I didn't change the water often enough.
The Beechgrove Garden TV show up here in Aberdeen managed to grow sweet potatoes very successfully under glass, in a greenhouse. Heat is what makes 'em grow, not just daylight length. They put theirs under black plastic, watered periodically, and when they lifted it, bingo ! Large clusters of sizeable tubers. I'll bet a hotbed would work wonderfully.
That list of diseases looks formidable, but for a tropical plant it's not that many. Even in temperate climes, roses and willows are susceptible to hundreds of fungal diseases.

[Nicos]

I read up somewhere to leave them in a glass and change the water everyday with warm tap water.
The one I did last year produced 4 slips but they didn't survive ( bit of neglect I'm embarrassed to say)
This year I've got 2 on the go- both are rooting and one has several shoots at the top- and the other just the roots.
Time will tell!

[esrikandan]

I did the potato in glass jar last year very sucessfully. Mostly I just left it to it and topped up the water (from the tap) when it got to about half way (usually because I forgot all about it). Of course this isn't very scientific but seeing as it worked last year I figured I'd stick to the same method.

The one I have on the go at the moment has been in the jar for about two weeks and has one nice long root and a few smaller ones (only appeared a few days ago).

Good luck whatever you try!

Eric

[greasyfire]

I bought a sweet potatoto and got slips from it , and then they died

[esrikandan]

I kept my "slips" indoors on the windowsill until they were quite established, then outside under the coldframe before planting out. I think they need plenty of time.

[COMPOST CORNER]

I must have been very lucky with this, I found it at the back of the veg basket last month, and following advice on here, put it in a glass of water, a la avocado stone, and the slips have continued to grow.
I removed three and placed them in a seperate glass of water, and roots are now forming and I hope to get them potted up soon.




I should say that the slips were already growing well when the tuber was rescued from the rack.

[binley100]

Looks like a triffid.

Interesting I might just have to try it.