Sweet potatoe

Should they be chitted?

 

SC, if you want to grow sweet potato, you will either need a heated green house or emigrate to a warmer clime.

Growing sweet potatoes
Versatile and increasingly popular, sweet potatoes are well worth trying outdoors in milder areas - or in a glasshouse or polytunnel elsewhere

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a scrambling, tender perennial closely related to morning glories. Grown as an annual, the tubers are harvested in early autumn and can be eaten straight away or stored at 10-15�°C (50-60�°F) for a few weeks.

Recommended cultivars
Although it is possible to grow plants from supermarket tubers, it is more reliable to buy cultivars sold for growing in the UK, which are hardier than most selections. Those well suited to our climate include pale-fleshed ââ?¬Ë?T65ââ?¬â?¢ and golden-fleshed ââ?¬Ë?Beauregard Improvedââ?¬â?¢.

Cultivation
Plants are ordered as cuttings or slips, delivered from late April onwards. Pot the cuttings immediately on receipt into small individual pots of multipurpose compost. Should the slips be unrooted, simply cover the pots with a clear plastic bag or place in an unheated propagator until roots appear.

Grow the plants on in a frost-free, well-lit spot until early June. In mild regions, sweet potatoes can be planted outdoors after a period of hardening off. They require a highly fertile but light, preferably sandy, soil. If your soil is not naturally sandy or free-draining, plant into ridges 15-30cm (6-12in) high, spacing plants 30cm (12in) apart, with 75cm (2.5ft) between rows.

Ideally, plant under a cloche or fleece tent. Alternatively, grow in a glasshouse in large tubs, growing-bags or the glasshouse border. Whitefly and red spider mite can cause problems on foliage under cover.

Sweet potatoes crop best at temperatures between 21-26�°C (70-80�°F). Keep well watered, feeding every other week with a high-potassium liquid feed.

Harvesting
The leaves of sweet potato can be eaten like spinach and harvested at any time. Tubers take from four to five months to mature; they can be lifted from the end of August, or wait until the leaves begin to yellow and die back a few weeks later.

If you Google sweet potatoes, you'll find quite a bit of info. Best of luck.

 

Got two greenhouse one heated an done unheated T .

Not seen tubers to buy so experimenting with supermarket bought.

Thanks for your help T.I coudl eat them every day.

 

Hi Terry, thanks for all the info. It was really useful. Have you ever grown them yourself?

I just had 10 slips delivered and will be growing them in the greenhouse in potato patio bags. Do you know if they need topping up with compost as they grow the same as normal potatoes?

Bobbie