Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?

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Sparkyrog

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Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« on: June 22, 2015, 21:46 »
Even in the poly I am wondering if it was worth the cost of plants as they look dodo :(
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LotuSeed

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2015, 22:03 »
Mine are growing like mad. Even the ones that haven't be planted out yet lol. I will say that it's been unseasonably hot here so far this growing season, and sweet potatoes like lots of light and lots of heat. This is my first time growing them so I'm not really sure how much to expect from them. I may try overwintering slips for use next season.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2015, 22:51 by LotuSeed »
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Silkworm

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2015, 23:28 »
Mine are looking pretty poor l must admit, they are just on the lotty in the open.
I was expecting much more growth .

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tosca100

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2015, 05:30 »
Here in BG our's are just taking off. I also have slips growing for next year and hope I can keep them going.

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mjg000

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2015, 11:05 »
I bought 5 very expensive slips about 5 weeks ago, they arrived and seemed dead for several days despite being in water but then came back after planting in pots and being left in the g'house for a couple of weeks.  They are now sitting outside waiting to go in the ground, don't know if the growing season will be long enough to get anything from them.  have tried before and got lots of small tubers late in the season. 

I am interested in this idea of "over-wintering" slips, I have a shop bough sweet potato ( still whole) which sat on the window sill and only started to grow after I'd ordered the ones mentioned above.... interestingly this potato is now thriving, with lots of growth coming from several different points, it's sitting in a bowl of water. Question is, do I cut each shoot off and pot up or leave it as a whole potato and pot up as one plant?

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JayG

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2015, 11:26 »
Mine are growing like mad. Even the ones that haven't be planted out yet lol. I will say that it's been unseasonably hot here so far this growing season, and sweet potatoes like lots of light and lots of heat. This is my first time growing them so I'm not really sure how much to expect from them. I may try overwintering slips for use next season.

Says it all - sweet potatoes need a long hot summer in the UK and it's just not happening so far this year - I grew mine in the GH a few years ago and they did quite well, but no doubt would have done even better given another month of warmth.
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tosca100

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2015, 11:40 »
If you can overwinter slips in the UK it would give a great start, and hope that you get a summer like last year. The sweet poatoes can be grown in pots too which would ensure an earlier start, there is a lot of vine but the potaoes are under the slip (Watching youtube  :lol:) Not sure if we will be able to keep slips going here, it depends if I remember to take them away from windows at night as the night temps here are very low, we averaged -18 for a fortnight last winter. Saying that, the light quality is good.
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LotuSeed

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2015, 12:40 »
I read somewhere that if you train the vines to grow vertically you'll get fewer, but larger tubers. If you let them trail along the ground they will form roots wherever they touch the soil and you'll get more, but smaller tubers. For overwintering I plan on sticking a vine in water and breaking sections off and leaving them under a grow light.  The slips aren't too expensive here, but most companies are limited as to when they can ship them in the spring because of temperature variations from state to state. I probably could have planted mind out a month before they actually arrived. The variety I'm growing is called Beauregard and needs 100 days to maturity.

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tosca100

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2015, 15:19 »
Mine were from a supermarket, variety unknown.

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Sparkyrog

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2015, 16:19 »
I read somewhere that if you train the vines to grow vertically you'll get fewer, but larger tubers. If you let them trail along the ground they will form roots wherever they touch the soil and you'll get more, but smaller tubers. For overwintering I plan on sticking a vine in water and breaking sections off and leaving them under a grow light.  The slips aren't too expensive here, but most companies are limited as to when they can ship them in the spring because of temperature variations from state to state. I probably could have planted mind out a month before they actually arrived. The variety I'm growing is called Beauregard and needs 100 days to maturity.
Beauregard is what I have .

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LotuSeed

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #10 on: June 23, 2015, 18:44 »
Mjg, the trouble with using a shop bought one is that you may not know what variety it is, which means you have no idea how long it will take them to mature. For the most part they all require a long, hot season, but there are varieties/cultivars that mature faster. There's no harm in trying, but it might be worth it to look for earlier maturing varieties, or even look into growing yams.
Depending on how mine turn out, I plan on curing them before use, which will take even more time, but is a necessary step in getting them to go "sweet".

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Headgardener22

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #11 on: June 23, 2015, 20:12 »
The variety I'm growing is called Beauregard and needs 100 days to maturity.

I'm also growing Beauregard and (here in the UK) the weather seems to be making life difficult. The plants are only 2ft long.

100 Days from when? Planting out?

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LotuSeed

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #12 on: June 23, 2015, 20:46 »
100 days from planting out. Several of my vines are 3 feet long and have nice big healthy leaves on them. After they are harvested, they have to be cured for I believe another month (not in the ground) in order for them to become sweet. This is my first year growing them, so it's a bit experimental for me lol.
« Last Edit: June 24, 2015, 04:37 by LotuSeed »

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3759allen

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2015, 21:06 »
mine are very slow compared to last year. they look very lush but a little compact. having said this last year they took a while to do something and them went absolutely nuts, so i'm hoping they will do the same this year.

i did notice that on one of the first ones that i started and had to wait a while before the temperatures were high enough in the tunnel it already had a tuber about 5cm long, it was only in a 20cm wide pot.

this year seems to be slow for everything but all we can do is hope is that the summer goes on a little longer this year.

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tosca100

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Re: Sweet Potatoes how are yours looking ?
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2015, 04:15 »
Unfortunately I have no choice but to use supermarket potatoes, a normal summer here should be long enough to get something, though I believe last year, with all the rain we had, was no good.



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