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#1
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Sweet Potato help
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. .................Leslie |
#2
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Sweet Potato help
"Leslie" wrote in message ... 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. .................Leslie 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 Good Luck Gill M |
#3
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Sweet Potato help
"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 |
#4
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Sweet Potato help
Gil and Bob are correct. But the challenge is there and as long as you
don't try them, it will bother you. First, get some that taste good. Get 2 or 3 extra ones and store them in the coolest room in your house. About 2 to 3 months before your weather gets warm to stay, find some plastic containers, (I use the larger flat bottomed trays that originally were used to hold packs of small plants, started by your local nursery) and lay the seed sweet potatoes in them. Then I add about an inch of water to them and set them on top of my freezer or fridge. Every two or three days I check to make sure the water level is still OK. After a couple of weeks you will see green slips developing. When they are 8 to 10 inches tall they are ready to pull (as long as the weather has cooperated and they wont freeze when put into the garden). If it is still too cold to plant, just leave them alone and keep the roots wet until it is warm enough outside. Find a fairly large can (I use a 3 pound coffee can either metal or plastic), pull up on one of the slips with a twisting motion, while holding the potato down with the other hand. When it comes loose, clean the leaves off for about the bottom 2/3 or 3/4 of the slip and set it into the can. Put several inches of water in the can to keep the slips alive. After a couple of days they will start developing roots. After a week you can put them into the ground. I like to rake my garden area into a long row that I hilled up from both sides. Then I smooth the top off with the rake leaving the top flat and 4 inches wide. Then I lay my soaker hose down the length of the row, and plant my slips along the soaker hose. After the tops of the sweet potatoes have developed, the sweet potatoes start growing. If you don't get rain, water them every 3 to 5 days, depending on how fast your soil dries out. I leave mine in the ground until they are in danger of getting frosted in fall. Then I dig them up, and wash them off. They are all good, but the small ones taste best. My wife's aunt eats them as long as they are at least the size of your finger. If they get frosted before you dig them, you have to get the tops off within hours, or the potatoes will acquire a bad taste. I have found out too late that it was going to frost, so I cut the tops off the night before, and dug the potatoes the next day. They have to be "cured" before you store them. That means you have to put them in the warmest room you have for 10 to 20 days, laid out so the air can reach them from several sides. After that, you can put them in a cool room for storage. Never store them below 13 Degrees C. The curing process turns the starch into sugar. Putting them in cooler storage than 13, will reverse the curing process and it cant be fixed. I still have some that I grew in 2005 that I saved for the fair in August, and now I am leaving them to see just how long they will last. If you want to, you can plant some of the slips in large plastic buckets, and bring them inside when the weather turns cold in the fall, to give them an extra week or so to grow, but you wont get as many potatoes per slip. It gets a little old carrying them in and out every day. If you need anymore info, contact me directly. Dwayne (in Kansas) "Leslie" wrote in message ... 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. .................Leslie |
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