[wneva]

We are both on a mediterranean diet!  and it works - we have both lost over 2 stone, and our meals are better than they've ever been.   Potatoes are definitely off limits, but we can eat sweet potatoes.    So in late May I planted 2 sweet potato plants - Beauregard - outside on the allotment, to see what they do.  On the surface they have grown quite well.  Today I dug one out too see what's below ground.   Not a huge amount.

Can someone who knows about sweet potatoes please advise!  Should I have planted earlier?  or left it in longer?  I don't have a greenhouse - only a puny little "growhouse"  that I haven't used much yet.   There is of course still the other plant - can I leave it in when the frosts start?

Has my photo attached?  It shows a single potato with some little stringy things that have't yet grown into potatoes.  If it's not there - please advise how do I attach a pic - I always find that difficult!

20221017_115209.jpg

[wneva]

Oh!  it did attach - 5 times!!  Sorry about that. 

[Nobbie]

Our summer is just too short and cool to get a decent crop outside. You’ve done well to get anything, but we did have a hot summer by our standards. I wonder what is so special about Sweet potatoes compared with ordinary ones, maybe there is another starchy vegetable that could be used instead of them? Parsnip, swede, squash?

[mumofstig]

I grew some in my greenhouse, years ago. The yield was about the same as yours, so I've never bothered again. I don't know anybody who's had a really good yield with them.
I grow Butternut squashes instead, much easier 

[Subversive_plot]

Wneva, I think you did pretty well with your sweet potatoes.

here's a link regarding growing conditions:  https://harvesttotable.com/how_to_grow_sweet_potatoes/

To do better, you need a long, warm growing season (90 days or more of warm to hot); loose, friable sandy soil, almost powdery at the surface; no rocks or other obstructions in the soil.

I see them fairly often in the coastal plain soils of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina.  Good sweet potato fields always have that fine sandy, nearly powdery soil.

[Aunt Sally]

Oh!  it did attach - 5 times!!  Sorry about that.

I’ve pruned it down to one photo for you, wneva. 

[Aunt Sally]

Wneva, I think you did pretty well with your sweet potatoes.

here's a link regarding growing conditions:  https://harvesttotable.com/how_to_grow_sweet_potatoes/

To do better, you need a long, warm growing season (90 days or more of warm to hot); loose, friable sandy soil, almost powdery at the surface; no rocks or other obstructions in the soil.

I see them fairly often in the coastal plain soils of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina.  Good sweet potato fields always have that fine sandy, nearly powdery soil.

Thanks for that information SP.  It shows they will not be easy to grow in the UK climate.   

A number of our members here have tried to grow them, but usually without very good results.

[Subversive_plot]

Wneva, I think you did pretty well with your sweet potatoes.

here's a link regarding growing conditions:  https://harvesttotable.com/how_to_grow_sweet_potatoes/

To do better, you need a long, warm growing season (90 days or more of warm to hot); loose, friable sandy soil, almost powdery at the surface; no rocks or other obstructions in the soil.

I see them fairly often in the coastal plain soils of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina.  Good sweet potato fields always have that fine sandy, nearly powdery soil.

Thanks for that information SP.  It shows they will not be easy to grow in the UK climate.   

A number of our members here have tried to grow them, but usually without very good results.

Still, wneva seems to do better than you could hope for with sweet potatoes!

I'm a big fan of trying "that can't be grown here", just to see how far you can push the envelope.  This summer I grew rhubarb, 2 plants out of 4 are still growing.  My broad beans are in the ground and growing (Walter Reeves says those don't succeed in Georgia either). We'll see, maybe I'm just being foolish.