Sweet potatoes advice

pboae

tomterm8 wrote: »

If you are going to grow it in a large container, it is fine. If you are going to grow it in your soil, I'd go for a commercial slip.

If you live in the north, you will need to grow them in a greenhouse / polytunnel.

When you say large, how large? Will rubble sacks do or do they need a large garden refuse bin?

Do the tubers tend to form below the plant, or do they need room to spread out sideways?

katskorner

Going to have a go with them - Lidl have them at half price at the moment (not seed ones). I have a greenhouse and I live in the South Midlands so I think it might work if they get enough moisture!

tomterm8

pboae wrote: »

When you say large, how large? Will rubble sacks do or do they need a large garden refuse bin?

Do the tubers tend to form below the plant, or do they need room to spread out sideways?

I haven't grown them in a container, but I would think a large grow bag / compost bag would be large enough although just like potatoes the bigger the container the better.

There is a picture of a freshly dug plant on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato.

I think gardeners world is growing sweet potatoes in containers this year, IIRC so far they've just put the slips in a normal pot so far. They will transplant latter.

pboae

Thanks tomterm8, I am going to look at getting some bins for them to go in my greenhouse!

louise_1981

pboae wrote: »

When you say large, how large? Will rubble sacks do or do they need a large garden refuse bin?

Do the tubers tend to form below the plant, or do they need room to spread out sideways?

I live in manchester, going to try my luck with rubble sacks in a warm sheltered area of my garden.

Louise

katskorner

Started trying to produce sweet potato slips today. Might be too late to do too well this year but it is worth a shot. Will keep you posted as to how I get on!!

nodwah

THe beechgrove garden on BBC scotland tonight did a piece on sweet potatoes. THere was a grower somewhere in scotland who grows them in polytunnels and cloches and he had fantastic crops. He said you mustn't use slips from supermarket sweet potatoes as they may be habouring exotic plant diseases, but if you get bought slips you can use them to make your own slips in subsequent years.
There is a programme factsheet on the BBC website, but I don't know if they do a watch again thingy

TheShrew

Hi
Has anyone tried growing sweet potatoes? I've got a couple from the supermarket that sprouted in the cupboard and am debating planting them. I'd have to plant them in a pot/bag as I only have a small garden. Is it worth me taking up a pot with supermarket one? will it grown? will it work?!
thanks for any help
Salx

Farway

This was mentioned on Gardeners QT a few weeks back

You can grow them & they will look very tropical, however it is very unlikely you will get any tubers due to our climate

TheShrew

Ahh. Thanks for letting me know. You've probably saved me a lot of disappointment after I nurtured the plants all summer and got nothing in return!