Sweet Potatoes

General tips / questions on seeding & planting

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mazmezroz
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Anyone know whether you can grow sweet potatoes here in sunny britain???

If so, how?????
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pigletwillie
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Some catalogues offer sweet potato "slips" or cuttings. I have never tried to grow them though as I dont like them.

They would probably do well in a tunnel or greenhouse.
Kindest regards Piglet

"You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind".
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Tigger
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Bob Flowerdew has written about growing them (what hasn't he written about) from slips. I'll search it out for you. Perhaps it will prompt me to grow a few. My OH makes a great sweet potato bread and I love them oven baked. Incidentally, they're very good for people with diabetes as they release their carbohydrates over a longer period of time than ordinary potatoes.
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Tigger
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OK - found something that might help. Go to the BBC website and put 'growing sweet potatoes' into 'search' and it will bring up the relevant Gardener's Question Time Factsheets. There's several and they all say you can grow them here, but not outside.
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Chantal
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I bought slips from T&M last year and successfully grew them on my allotment. I planted them as soon as they arrived (they looked pathetic) into well dug soil covered in black plastic. The had a good soaking when they went in and then again every day for a week or so, after which I left them to their own devices. They thrived and I had a decent crop of delicious sweet potatoes. However, a word of warning. These things HATE the frost and the cold. The few that I didn't dig before the frosts came out of the ground looking great and rotted within days. The ones I dug earlier and kept in the warm were fine for a good while but the ones I dug and left in the cold cupboard with the rest of the veg also rotted within a week. Apparently the sweet potatoes you buy from the supermarkets are heat treated. Having said that, I bought two from Sainsbury's and kept one in the warm and one in the cold; same result. Warm one still in my kitchen, cold one binned over 2 weeks ago. Temperamental little blighters but if you know the pitfalls an easy thing to grow.
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LakeView
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I have ordered some, and will try them for the first time this year.

At Thanksgiving, I usually buy a small case from the green grocer (15-16 pounds) so I thought I'd try to grow them this year. Thanks for the warning about the cold.

I serve them as 'candied sweet potatoes' - parboil, and bake covered in butter, brown sugar and orange juice (I would use frozen condensed OJ but it's not available here in the UK, so I just use juice with bits). All 15 pounds are always devoured - a favourite of my 40 or so Thanksgiving guests!
mazmezroz
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Maybe your link to BBC website will answer this, Tigger, but I'll ask anyway. When are they harvested? Do they taste better for being home grown?? (I know, it's a matter of opinion!) And are the plants like ordinary potatoes???
Railway Child
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Hi Mazmezroz,

Jenny Green is our resident forum expert on sweet potatoes. Hopefully she will see this thread and give you some tips; alternatively you could try a search of the archive as there were a few threads on this about a year ago.

RC
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Tigger
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In this month's HDRA magazine (or whatever it's new name is) from Ryton, there's two letters about growing sweet potatoes. If you're not a member, so don't get the magazine, let me know if you want me to summarise them on a posting.
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