Growing sweet potatoes in England
Margaret emailed allotmentblogger@gmail.com to ask what I knew about growing sweet potatoes. The answer is virtually nothing! But I do know a man who grows them, so I wandered along to talk to Andy, whose allotment work is supervised by a seagull called Henry who shares Andy’s lunch and will eat from a fork (I kid you not!)Apparently the key thing here is to get some organic sweet potatoes if you’re using supermarket stock – because most of the other ones they sell have been treated in some way to stop them sprouting. It’s not that easy to get seed tubers of sweet potatoes in the UK, but Andy doesn’t even bother, he just grows supermarket tubers.
He lays them lengthways, half-covered only, in damp sand over a heated base tray to promote sprouting in early March and this causes ‘slips’ to grow and when they are four or five inches long he breaks them off and pots them into 1 litre pots. Other people grow the slips by setting the lower half (generally more pointy) of the tuber in a jar of water on a windowsill apparently.
Then in late May or early June, once all risk of frost has passed, he sets them out into a sunny trench. Where they go insane! It takes at least 110 days for them to mature and because they are Ipomeas (morning glories) they spread out like jungle plants and tend to take over nearby areas. Keep them warm, keep them watered but don’t worry about pests, it appears they don’t really have any – a bit of wire worm in late tubers is about all he’s seen, he says.
Dig them up as late in September as the good weather permits, then put them in a greenhouse for a week to let the skins cure and the tubers sweeten and Bob’s your uncle, apparently!
Now this is all based on growing in the South East of England, and shouldn't be taken as a guide to anywhere else, but if you treat sweet potatoes as a semi-tropical plant, I think you'll do okay
Labels: allotment-greenhouse, allotment-sweet-potatoes
Posted by The Allotment Blogger on Sunday, February 21, 2010
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7 Comments:
I've been meaning to look up information on sweet potatoes so this post is timely.
I'm starting the slips of sweet potatoes now--they'll be the first I've ever grown. I'm so excited! Woohoo!
I'm trying the bottom in water approach. Once the slips get to be 4 or 5 inches long, I'll snip them off then root them in water before potting them up.
Thanks for the comment on the beet salad. The Dame Edna remark cracked me up. Unfortunately, I have been getting so many spam comments lately, and I accidentally deleted your very good comment with the bad ones. Ugh. I'm sorry.
sounds interesting...I haven't even eaten sweet potatoes let alone gown them but I am now quietly curious...I may just buy one to give it a go.
Thanks for this. I bought some organic tubors/slips last weekend and have been looking around since for information. From what I've found out, and your feature... I think I'll curry them and eat them now!
Thanks for this. I bought some organic tubors/slips last weekend on a whim and have been reading up on the internetabout growing them. What a pleasant surprise to find you've given a first hand account of the reality in the UK. Being in snowbound Edinburgh...
...I think I'll curry them this weekend.
Jo, good luck!
Christina - do please let us know how you get on.
Tanya and Mal - seet potatoes are wonderful and very good for you - sweet potato curry is one of our favourite vegetarian dishes. But needing 110 days of sunshine strikes me as a pretty tough call almost anywhere in the UK.
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