SWEET POTATOES

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Keith, Sep 4, 2008.

  1. Keith

    Keith Junior Member

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    I used to grow sweet potatoe in the Territory years ago, great vegie. Does anyone know if it will grow in colder areas, I am in Armidale NSW. Is there a trick to growing it ? Was easy in Darwin, but have not been able to get it to grow here. Regards, Keith.
     
  2. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    g'day keith,

    can't see why not, get them growing through the warm season if you mulch up an area now to get the soil warmer quicker all the better. once established if you are going to leave the tubers in the ground over winter i would heavily mulch them just before the cold comes, then the next season they will come away once the ground warms again.

    len
     
  3. Keith

    Keith Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    Thanks Gardenlen, I thought so too. Will have to look out for some decent seed potatoes(sweet), shop ones have not taken root. Regards, Keith.
     
  4. Mango1

    Mango1 Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    Hi Keith
    I had the same problem with shop bought sweet potatoes. I guess they must treat them with something to prevent sprouting.
    I have seen in a variety of places that the best way to grow them is from a 30cm cutting, with all bar the end leaves removed and planted on a low angle. This is supposed to be very easy to do and will avoid spreading any disease. Trouble with this of course is finding someone with some spare cuttings. If anyone in North Brisbane wants to toss a couple of cuttings my way, I would appreciate it :D
     
  5. Keith

    Keith Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

     
  6. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    yeh keith,

    you need to source them from an organic source the ones in the supermarkets are nearly all treated so as not to sprout. and me i rather the white skinned or the red skinned almost purple varieties they are real ones those pumpkiny coloured ones are special hybrids for growers.

    i have a red here that flowers at times might be if you want i could sent you some slips, just stick 'em in water until they throw roots then plant madly away you can take extra slips if need be as the vines grow.

    len
     
  7. Keith

    Keith Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    Many thanks for the offer, I might take you up on it. See if I can find anything on the Mount Morgan trip first. Regards, Keith.
     
  8. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    hey keith,

    call into some of those vege stalls you might see or small town vege shops, if they have the white or reddish purple skinned types they could very well be locally grown and then they could be made to sprout, ask me further then i have a littel trick i do. nothing amazing just it gives me heaps of planting stock. if you where going to mt morgan up the pacific hiway or coming back that way we aren't far off the highway i could cut you some slips bound to be a tuber there as well.

    hope the trip goes well.

    len
     
  9. Mango1

    Mango1 Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    Hi Len
    Could I grab some slips off you if you have some spare? Im just down the road in Mango Hill. Thanks.
     
  10. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    no worries mango,

    send us a pm.

    len
     
  11. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    Keith...

    As a Territorian with a connection to Armidale...
    I appreciate what you want to do.... I just question why?

    There are dozens of plants that can be grown in Armidale that are awesome. I dont think cow-cow or sweet potato is one.. *sniff*.

    cheers,

    ho-hum
     
  12. Keith

    Keith Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    Ho Hum, I like the sweet potatoe and the greens, if you can suggest something as good or better I will certainly give it a try. Looking forward to hearing from you. Regards, Keith.
     
  13. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    How long does it usually take for untreated sweeties to sprout?

    The only ones I had access to were the ones from the market, and they did sprout... eventually... about four months later. But too late to plant. I wonder if I can plant them in pots and keep them inside all winter, and plant them out when the weather warms up again, about nine months? Think?

    Sue
     
  14. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    g'day sue,

    we used to get viable tubers cut them in 1/2 as most were big enough stand the cut ends in enough water to keep the end moist and top the water up as need be. shoots would grow either from the top or the bottom end no matter, these would take maybe a month or a bit to grow, once they got to around 4" or 6"s or so we would cut that section off, then put that cut tuber back into the moisture, didn't matter if you cut it from teh top leave to top cut incovered, they then will grow more shoots.

    that cut section can be divided if you wish. so you keep going like that until there is just enough left for the final growths and being the bottom you will gain some roots.

    for you yes i would certainly do this and then pot them on inside or a hothouse they will need light and warmth.

    once in the ground i wonder whether if you realy heavily mulched the plants just before the autumn and the cold comes whether you could in fact keep the tubers viable in the ground for the next season? if mulched right the mulch should help to stop the ground they are in from getting too cold or freezing, mith be worth a try.

    len
     
  15. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    Thanks, Len! I don't think the tubers would survive over winter here, as we get so much rain, about 1.3m.

    I'll see what I can do about keeping them indoors.

    Sue
     
  16. sam2008

    sam2008 New Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a dicotyledonous plant which belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Amongst the approximately 50 genera and more than 1000 species of this family, only I. batatas is a crop plant whose large, starchy, sweet tasting tuberous roots are an important root vegetable (Purseglove, 1991; Woolfe, 1992). The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. The sweet potato is only distantly related to the potato (Solanum tuberosum). It is commonly called a yam in parts of North America, although they are only very distantly related to the other plant widely known as yams (in the Dioscoreaceae family), which is native to Africa and Asia.
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  17. paradisi

    paradisi Junior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    keith and mango - treating anything shop bought is an urban myth created by the environmental terrorist Don Burke when he had that terrible advertising show about gardens

    he started telling everyone that the shop bought garlic had been treated - to try and stop people growing their own garlic fromthe cloves bought in shops.

    nothing is treated

    nothing stops things growing.

    with sweet potatoes - throw it in a corner of the garden for a month or two and it will start to sprout

    as for growing in armidale - you might get it to grow, but probably will be pushing it to get tubers..... give it a go and see what happens -costs nothing

    and if you don't get tubers - you'll atleast get the greens - an excellent home grown green vegetable equal or better than silver beet and spinach - - lightly fry or steam and serve with a dollop of greek yoghurt - excellent
     
  18. Grahame

    Grahame Senior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    I had no trouble growing Sweet Potatoes here in Northern Victoria last year and some of the tubers ended up being almost as big as a football! I used a first generation seed of 'Beauregard' which is an orange skin one. My mum bought the 'seed' for me in Melbourne but I have seen them in local nurseries too. I don't think I would have much luck finding a organic source in this part of the world so I'm hoping I can perpetuate from here on in.

    I just put the original seed into a large pot filled with sand and kept it moist. Once it had a good crop of shoots I gave it a dose of liquid fertilizer to give it a boost. When the shoots were at least 20-30cm long, I just cut most of them off leaving about 3 cm in the pot. Then I just put the cuttings directly into the garden beds. They looked a bit shaky for a week or so but I kept the water up to them and then KABOOM! move over other vegies.

    They started dying down when the cold weather approached and then I dug them up, kilos of them! I've left the seed potato in the pot and will keep an eye on it to see if I get new shoots this year. Also I left a few tubers here and there in the ground to see what becomes of them. I'll let you know once the soil warms up.

    And even if they don't re-surface this year, I would still get myself another seed potato because it was just such a worth while crop. I don't know how well they stored because we polished them off pretty quick!

    Cheers

    Grahame
     
  19. Grahame

    Grahame Senior Member

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    Paradisi,

    On the shop bought garlic thing. I used to work for Quarantine and if the garlic is imported then it has been bombarded with all sorts of nasties including gamma irradiation! I wouldn't eat it and I wouldn't want to grow it (it's not supposed to be propagatable, but it probably is sometimes) purely from a personal health perspective let alone for the embodied energy aspect of it. Locally produced stuff probably has no more than the normal cocktail of monoculture chemicals. Also if the garlic is properly dried that might mean the dormancy is more difficult to break (or that's how I understand it). And I really wouldn't put it past the larger supermarket chains to 'treat' the stuff with methods to retard sprouting.

    But I agree Don Burke tended to get a bit 'confused' at times...

    Anyway that's my two cents.

    Grahame
     
  20. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: SWEET POTATOES

    my uinderstanding is that anything that will bud or shoot or grow roots on the shelf is treated in some way so as to retard or prevent this action which is seen as undersirable by the modern consumer, who realy has no idea at all about what fresh realy is. it's common for the garlic/onion families to be sprayed with an application app' 2 weeks prior to harvesting so that they won't sprout so therfore won't grow except in rare cases. all potatoes as well as sweet potato's are also treated probably after harvest. this has nothing to do with whether don burke talks through his hat or not, this is what supermarkets demand so the food looks the same on a long shelf life.

    many have failed in getting supermarket sweet 'tater tubers to sprout, and it is not through lack of trying. same with citrus in supermarkets are all treated with anti-fungicide/mould treatments so they don't go mouldy on the shelf. everything is designed to minimise shrinkage in fresh food supermarket sections. anda sfor that chinese garlic wouldn't touch it with a 40' barge pole they are supposed to burn out the roots using CO2 then they heavily chlorine bleach the stuff to kill the pathogens from their polluted irrigation water.

    len
     

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