Sweet Potatoe

When it comes down to it, do they make good chips?

 

Now that's a thought, David ... I just bought one so I'll have a go this week and come back here with my verdict. :eek:

 

Thank you LOL, it`s good to know that someone is taking this thread seriously.

 

I say air potato LoL as, the one I'm thinking about, forms lots of small stem tubers late in the season that drop to the ground and grow.
I get the impression its a pest in Florida.
Discorea barbatus, I think.

 

Goodness, pete, this is new to me ... but I have been gone from Alabama ... yam / sweet potato country for 30 years now. I'm sure there's been some new developments since then.

Do the potatoes grow on the vines, pray tell?

 

I maybe wrong.

This is in my garden, it grows from a tuber, I 've never dug one up to see how big they get, but after flowering, which is a bit of a non-event, small pea sized tubers form on the stem, which can be used for propagation the following year.
These small tubers are not frost hardy so die, but I can see how it could become a weed in warmer countries.

 

How odd! I cannot find anything definitve on your name, just an air yam of the Dianthus family. Can't even find where it says it has edible tubers. The only positive thing is it isn't poisonous and it has opposite leaves, alternative leaf varieties are poisonous. :eek:

 

Got the name wrong LoL, just looked it up, Dioscorea batatas.
Its edible and the roots can go down 3ft apparently according to Chilterns. :D

 

Hi ScotKat
I have grown sweet potatoes before in the UK.
They do require a greenhouse (preferably heated) and quite a lot of space, as they will just keep spreading. I used a tuber bought from the supermarket. It only starts setting tubers late in the season (hence heated greenhouse) but I did harvest 20 or so tubers. I think it would really struggle in a bad year like last. If you have the space it is definately worth a go for fun!

 

Thanks Richard have plenty space and certainly give it a go.

Did you plant in a container?

And when did you plant the tubers?

Looking forward to having a go.

 

Sorry about the delay!
I planted in a hydro system (approx 80cm x 80cm), would allow at least as much space for a pot/container. Started them off late February in a small heated prop in coco fibre (coir) kept just moist until first sprout popped through. then transplanted on into final growing position. Good luck!

 

Ok folks....confusion here between yams and sweet potatoes....Yam is from the Dioscorea spp.
....Yams are those big roots only brown on the outsides.They are usually white, cream purple flesh colour but only seen when the particular root is cut or cooked. Sweet potatoes are smaller roots and belong to the Ipomea family. The various colours are visible on the outsides. They too have various flesh colours. yams and sweet potatoes can be used in various ways just like our English potatoes. Sweet potato stalks called slips,trails along the ground.The tubers grown from these. yams have a twining habit and grown up stakes, trees etc off ground.

 

Im wanting to plant these slips because of the challenge and T & M supplies the slips which they say is genetically manipulated to suit our climate and being as they are fairly expensive I wondered if anyone had tried them with any success.

 

Sorry folks dont want to be a know all, but I was brought up on these things...my staple diet as it were.
I would say the plant example show above is one of the yams, backed up by the fact it has little nodlulus growths that fall off. Sweet potato leaves are dull in appearance yams have a sheen to their leaves.

 

I think I said it was a Yam, Aster, when I posted the pic, but i spelt the latin name wrong, which I corrected later.
Perhaps you can help me out with the name "air potato" that I have heard said, as I believe it refers to a yam.