Sweet Potatoes

I grew 5 plants this year, inside in the polytunnel and I'll be growing them outside next year but will maybe cover them if the weather is cool.

They grew rampantly in the tunnel and really took over, but we had a reasonable crop of around 12lb, but tubers where smaller than I would have liked, but still useable. Some of the vines where 8-9ft long, maybe more so I'll give them more space next year. Some tubers showed signs of slug damage, but much less than I would expect on normal potatoes.

Great mashed atop a Sheperds Pie, roasted or chipped..ours have all been eaten already !

Steve...

 

Worth growing the Slips yourself, from your own crop. You can use supermarket ones but a) you won't know which variety, so might not be ideal for UK and b) supermarket ones are often treated with a chemical to stop them sprouting, so they can be the devil's own to get them to sprout.

You do need to start sprouting them early in the new year (or maybe even "now"!!)

 

Interesting thought Kristen. How is it done?

 

That's exactly what I've been wondering, why not save a load money by producing DIY slips from your own T65 sweet potatoes? I've successfully produced slips from shop bought sweet potatoes but they failed miserably after planting out, presumably as they weren't suitable for the UK's climate, unlike T65. I used to have a Word file with detailed instructions/illustrations for slip production, but lost it years ago (but I recall something about suspending in water using cocktail sticks to raise it up). EDIT - just googled "sweet potatoes" + slips + "cocktail sticks" and found the way I did it.

@Trunky - where did buy your slips? I think there was a 'Gardeners World' subscriber offer for T65's and T&M also reduced the price of 10 slips but I can't recall if that coincided with any free P&P promotions.

 

Scrungee, I got them from here:

http://www.organiccatalogue.com/index.html

I notice they've gone up in price this year too. I see they've added a new variety this year (Carolina Ruby), might be tempted to give them a try.

 

Now £19.25 incl P&P for 10 slips!

I'd thoroughly recommend, maybe in addition to purchasing slips, setting a few of your crop in water as above illustration which should give you at least 10 slips for comparison.

 

I might give it a try Scrungee. When's the best time to do it?
Also, looking at the photo you posted, once the roots and shoots are well developed, what's the next stage?

 

I can't remember to be honest, but I think it involved easing the shoots slips away from the tuber when large enough to pot up as a cutting, but it's been ages since I did it and there should be loads of info on the web.

I got the idea that it's like growing garlic - once you start cropping, you keep re-planting from saved stock for ever and ever until a disaster hits you.

 

You insert some cocktail sticks in the tuber and support it on the rim of a glass of water. Water to just touch the tuber. After a while ... you get shoots appearing, you let them grow a bit (you'll need to google for the details to get it "just right", but I think about 2" - 3") you then cut them off and root them, like cuttings, and grow on (needs some heat) to get small plants, then plant them out

 

It was a long time ago when I read how to do it and tried with supermarket sweet potato, but are there 2 alternatives when rooting the stems - putting straight into pots or standing in water until they root?

I'm sure I tried both methods but can'r recall which was the most successful - another example of something where I should have taken a few pictures as a permanent record.