"Gill Matthews" wrote in reply to
"Leslie" who asked...
I am thinking of growing some sweet potatoes this year.

Do I start the tubers into growth the same way as I do the humble spud if
so how and when please.


no, you grow sweet potatoes from slips. you can obtain these from some of
the big seed places like Thompson and Morgan or maybe DT Brown. I have had
much better results from these than from slips generated from boughten
sweet potatoes. this was explained to me as that the UK does not have the
best growing conditions and you are better off using varieties that are
specially bred to withstand the poor growing conditions ( I grow them
through black weed suppressing matting to keep them warm

We have bought ours from T + M a couple of times.
They can grow quite well in a good summer, they did for us this year, but
they won't in a cool summer and the slugs love the tubers too so if you have
a slug problem with ordinary spuds it will be the same with the sweet
potatoes. Oh, and they run everywhere if they grow well, like giant
bindweed.

--
Regards
Bob H
17mls W. of London.UK