[RJR_38]

I have recently been diagnosed as gluten intolerant as well as intolerant to the nightshade family - potatoes/tomatoes/peppers/aubergines.

This is typical as I have just harvested tons of potatoes! Although it is likely I will be able to eat small amounts of potatoes/tomatoes again it will obviously be in my best interests to keep the amount to a minimum. Sweet potato I am able to eat freely so I have been looking into how to grow it in the UK.

It seems I may well be able to if I put it in the sunniest part of my plot and keep it well protected as living n the south it is generally warmer (well if we ignore this summer!). However, the slips of varieties suited to the UK are expensive - T&M are charging £20 for 12 plants. Has anyone grown them and know what the yield is? I know it isn't all about growing things more cheaply than the supermarkets but when I can get a bag of 10 smaller ones for £1.50 in the local supermarket I am wondering if it will really be worth the hassle or if it is a crop I should resign myself to getting from the supermarket

[mumofstig]

The only way, IMO, is to buy them - I tried in the greenhouse with very poor results 

[surbie100]

I knew there was a thread about this knocking about - here you go: http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=101119.0

I tried and failed to get my supermarket one to sprout and I don't think I could have provided enough heat at that time. A guy on my site has tried them this year outside, there are plenty of green leaves, but I am not sure what there will be underneath.

Do you grow oca at all? It's not the same as spuds, but they are useful.

[mumofstig]

There are 2011 and 2012 threads as well, if you search, but this post from 2013 gives you some idea of the yield.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=101119.msg1253223#msg1253223

[RJR_38]

Ok, thanks for that. I have read that supermarket ones are the wrong cultivar for the UK which is why we get rubbish results with them so if I do try them I will have to bute the bullet with the expensive slips in year 1 and then increase my own ones from that.... Lots to think about though

[Comfreypatch]

I have tried growing them several times. However I have decided the yield is not worth the effort.

[Headgardener22]

I've grown them for the first time this year, in a pot on a shelf in the greenhouse. They apparently need lots of water so the pot is in a tray to hold the water. The foliage has taken over and fills about 25% of the 8x6 greenhouse. Furtling around there looks to be one reasonable sized tuber.

Would I grow them again? Probably not they seem to take up a lot of space and if I grew them in the borders of the polytunnel would need more water than most other things.

[Snoop]

Sorry to hear of your intolerances. That's a big blow. Bread I could probably live without, but no pasta or members of the solanaceae family would really be a loss.

You might be able to grow enough sweet potatoes for use as and when you pick them, but I think it very unlikely that you would be able to store them in the same way that you can store potatoes in hessian sacks in the dark over winter.

Sweet potatoes have to be cured in a particular way and are very prone to going mouldy in my experience.

If I were you, I'd just bite the bullet and buy them and give the space over to something else. Growing (more) sweetcorn might provide you with a nice summer-time carb.

[Annen]

I tried them in a growbag in the corner of the greenhouse in 2012, you know that year that it was gloomy and rained for six months solid? Didn't do well...by October I had a bag full of pink threads, nothing big enough to call a tuber, so I gave up at that point.
If I had heat and growing lights it might work this far north but I haven't...

[RJR_38]

Thanks everyone. After doing lots of reading I think you are right - sweet potato is not the thing to grow over here at the moment. I have discovered Quinoa grows very well over here though so I think I may well give that a go in the large space I used for potatoes

Also tempted by giant achocha which is meant to be like green peppers...

Snoop - pasta is fine as you can get gluten free dried pasta and if I am honest I can taste much difference (obviously not as good as fresh but...). Bread is harder as I love bread and the gluten free stuff I have found so far is just not the same at all. Potatoes and tomatoes are surprisingly hard to live without as I didn't realise how much I relied on them in my cooking but I will just have to save them as 'treats'

[Ema]

Hi I've grown sweet potato outside as you will probably see in the previous sweet potato thread. I grew the slips myself from an organic potato. yield wasn't great as the slugs and voles got them. I would probably give them another try if my soil was a little richer.

Can you eat Jerusalem artichokes they are very easy to grow and you get a good yield, after a while your guts get used to the fiber and they don't make you trump.

I've had ok yield from Oca but find they are a little fiddly to clean.

[RJR_38]

I have oca growing this year thanks to some generous members in here who sent me some - the bushes are huge (but didn't flower) so it will be interesting to see what I get in a few months.

I think I can eat Jerusalem artichoke but I am a bit dubious about the wind aspect I have to admit.

[Snoop]

Snoop - pasta is fine as you can get gluten free dried pasta and if I am honest I can taste much difference (obviously not as good as fresh but...).

Pasta for coeliacs is prohibitively expensive here. I hope it's cheaper where you are.

[RJR_38]

It is dearer than normal pasta but thankfully not too bad. I think the fact going gluten free is currently 'trendy' means there is a much bigger range of food available - even in restaurants

[Headgardener22]

Bread is harder as I love bread and the gluten free stuff I have found so far is just not the same at all.

The thing I've found with Gluten Free bread is to make sure you buy the loaf with the furthest sell by date. It doesn't seem to keep very well. If you don't eat it quickly, freeze half the loaf because it seems to keep better frozen than in the breadbin