Sweet potato - help!

[Jay-ell]

The longer you leave them the more the tubers can bulk up. When did you actually put it into the ground? I put mine in the ground at the end of June. 120 days would give me till the end of October but I'll be leaving them as long as I can to harvest. I don't count the time in the pot as there isn't space for the roots to grow in there.

I've only grown them once before in a potato bag in the green house. They only produced thin tubers not much thicker than normal roots - I think that they didn't get enough water. Turned out I picked the best year to plant them outdoors, they are supposed to like it hot. Bed is mulched and kept well watered.

The advice I've seen often says leave till the first light frosts blacken the leaves.

How much has yours vined? Do you know the tips can be cooked like spinach?

[annie8]

Thanks for the reply. Reckon I put it in not long after I started the thread so probably early May. Will look and see if I can upload a picture. It’s got very little height but decent amount of leaves. Am in no rush so could certainly wait for a while.

[Jay-ell]

Sweet potatoes are trailers so will crawl about the ground. They can be trained up wigwams and trellis by tying in the new growth by hand (they don't twist and climb like their cousin bindweed) but will happily crawl all over the bed (and may put down roots along the vine and possibly tubers there as well)

[annie8]

Oh good. Was starting to think I had planted ivy - is creeping along the bed.

[annie8]

Just checking if people have pulled up their sweet potatoes yet? Am not feeling optimistic that there will be anything under the ground but probably about time.

[annie8]

Just been out to look and the recent frost had turned the plant black so I pulled it up. No potatoes at all, the roots had swollen to the thickness of a big worm. That was it. Oh well that’s an experiment that didn’t work won’t try that again.

[Babru]

I seem to recall Beechgrove trying sweet potatoes in barrels a year or two ago, with little success. I think it was too cold, and probably too short a season. If anyone could grow them, it would be Beechgrove, and they said it wasn't worth their while.

[bikermike]

I planted mine in the greenhouse - lots of leaves, no tubers...

[Small pumpkin]

I'm trying sweet potato for the first time this year. I cheated and got a plant from a garden centre. It was an impulse buy! I've never tried growing them before because apparently they don't like our cold wet weather up here! So it's getting grown in a 100+lt tub in the smaller & cooler polytunnel.
So it's fingers crossed for any sort of crop.
Good luck with yours Annie.

Only got one that was proper sweet potato sized and lots that were fat marker pen / ready made chip size. Got a good couple of meals out of them so I'm happy with that. Considering location. I'll be growing them again next year.

[Bex2012]

I got two massive tubers out of one potato bag, and i haven’t emptied the other tub yet to see how its got on. I read that they liked heat, so i grew mine in black pots/ bags in a sunny spot.