Saving Sweet Potato

[Colin2016]

I have emptied my first bucket of sweet potato not a lot of large veg but there is lot of red roots.

Could I save these for next year & if so what is best way of preserving them?

[Westi]

I think it would be a challenge getting them through the winter as they are tropical & these wee roots would dehydrate. If you have some reasonable sized fruit then you could just store them safely & use them to make your own slips for planting next year. I have had limited success with the toothpicks in the fruit with the end in water & got my best ones from just putting one in the airing cupboard, forgot about it but when I remembered it had little shoots like a spud, so I then did the toothpick thing & they got to about 7" - 10". Unfortunately it was a poor summer, but I will be trying that again now I have the tunnel.

[Chantal]

Hi Colin, whatever you do, don't put them somewhere cool.

I had a massive harvest some years ago, stored them in a tray in my outhouse and they went black within a week. I

[Colin2016]

Thanks for comments.

[Westi]

Today when I went into the tunnel I noted the sweet potatoes had pushed themselves out of the soil. I couldn't resist & tried to pull a couple for the neighbour & myself but no way they would budge, so got the fork out & was totally amazed at the size. In that one spot I had 4 that were over a foot long & one smaller one. I'll be interested to see what size they are where the vines have rooted but it is going to take me a while to use my 3 up. It proves they need the heat so Colin it might be opportunistic to plan some sort of clear plastic tunnel to cover them. I grew a fair crop in an old broken cold frame that I patched up with some old fridge shelves I found, but I just netted the top & on reflection they would have probably done better if I had searched around for a glass top & done some more watering.

Anyway I hope this might encourage you to keep trying - only taken me a decade & although I'm lucky to have the tunnel I'm sure you could be successful if you could try to replicate the warmth!

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[retropants]

Wowzers! What a couple of beauties!

[robo]

The guy next to me on the allotment is trying to grow them this year for the first time

[Colin2016]

Brilliant Westi good to see they can be grown in the UK. Have a few growing options for next stage/year, just hoping that I can use what has grown this year rather than buying more slips.

Wondering if the heat from my compost could be used to keep them warm over winter storage.

[Westi]

Hi Colin. Even if your tubers don't make it to use for slips, just buy a couple of organic ones which should not have growth inhibitors on them & use them to get some slips. Start them off early though in a warm spot at home, maybe over a radiator or a sunny windowsill but take them away from the glass overnight as if cold enough even the double glazing glass cools down a fair bit. Good luck with your venture. Looking forward to sharing our successes - note the optimism there!

[Stephen]

Well done Westi. Those are exemplary.

[giaur500]

Has anybody tried to grow sweet potato from seeds? As sweet potato produces flowers and seeds, it shoud be possible to grow from seeds and afaik commercial plantators use that way quite often. But I am unable to find any tips how to grow (grow temperature etc), because growing from seeds is not popular.

[Westi]

giaur500! That would be a challenge! We can barely get tubers to grow in our climate let alone letting them seed! I'm not sure you would ever succeed. I've never even seen a flower just leaves on my vines!

[giaur500]

Well I'm sure I won't get flowers or seeds, need to buy them. But I think grow from seeds should be possible. I purchased seeds pack, they are cheap ( I hope that's real seeds, not a fake). Maybe I will post my results here.

The problem is that nobody cares how to germinate seeds, so I am unable to find any info how to do that correctly.

[Westi]

Definitely possible to grow, give it a go if you can get the seeds. We learn more from trying than succeeding immediately. I'm sure the information is somewhere on the www, uTube seems to have loads of people willing to share & from all corners of the planet! Please keep in touch on the forum as I for one is definitely interested! Elmigo possibly will be as well!

[Colin2016]

Comments on Amazon for growing from seed do not look very positive.