Ornamental Sweet Potatoes

Gapeahen, Thanks so very much for the beautiful pictures. So nice to see them used in a landscape.

Great combo! Very nice - I love it when a planting takes on a life like that.

Does anyone know how low of a zone they'll stay root-hardy to?

Thanks for the suggestion, Cordeledawg!

I thought gapeahen did a great job combining colors but most importantly, using the spv effectively on a hard to landscape sloping hill.

HollyAnn, didn't you say at one time, or even on this thread, that yours made little potatoe tubers in one season? That's what's so hard to find are the tubers. Nurseries sale the plants but not the tubers. I like the fact that you can grow cuttings inside and multiply your plants with it.

cordeledawg...i grew cuttings inside all winter without a tuber...

great thread all....didn't even know there was such a thing as a tuber...will be digging in my 'aged' plants from last year to see if there is a tuber....

Don't laugh, but those potatoes that the vine grows underground are delicious to eat.
I have only grown the lime green SPV and they make bright red potatoes--all shapes. Some quite large.

I wash them and poke at them with a fork a bit, then wrap them in a paper towel and microwave them for 3-4 minutes (depending on size).
Then I eat them up with a little butter on each bite. Awesome!!!!

The flesh is more creamy color than the Yukon Gold potatoes and a bit like Sweet Potatoes in texture, but nowhere near as fibrous.

Every time I tell this to someone, they think I am a bit weird. Well, I might be, but they still are delicious to ear. After all-it IS a potato!!!

Try one--or two--or three??? You will love them!

Gapeahen--you should get a bushel from that bed of yours!

Gita

gita...hopefully you didnt treat yours with chemicals for any pests....mine got mealy worms and i had to treat them systemically ....i will stay far far away from mine if i find any:)

If you can eat daylilies I don't see why you can't eat an ornamental sweet potatoe. After I get borders full of them growing as good looking as gapeahen's then I may start eating them. With my terrible luck at water rooting though, I might have to go hungry. "grin"

Don't think I won't to eat any of them! I was told they're bitter tasting!
I'll just grow they & enjoy there beauty! Glad yall like the pic's!

The ones I have had are NOT bitter at all. They taste very, very nice!

Again, I have never grown the dark red ones or the tri-color ones. Just the light green ones.

Gita

Yes, I got several very large and some much smaller potatoes from the ones growing in my window boxes. Up here they are only good for one season. I dug out the potatoes and used them to start the next seasons plants. I can't even imagine how big and how many potatoes Gapeahen has under those beautiful plants. I am planing to plant a couple in the corner of my yard just to see what kind of potatoes I can get if they are not confined in a window box.

Has anyone tried to leave them in the ground in a cooler climate than Georgia? Or shall I be the first to strike out....>grin< ...

Wowzers, Donna! Your plantings look awesome together! That's amazing that the tubers overwinter for you!!
:) Donna

I just posted asking about sweet tators. Here is a picture of one I accidently started growing.
Can I grow in a pot indoors?
Thanks, Elizabeth

they will need alota sun....

Hey all. I found some Try Color plants and sweet Carolines.
So now I can attempt to keep them year after year.
It may be a while before I can plant any tho as this storm system just isn't moveing out. DW and I did luck out though as we went to the IARU. at Cedar Rapids. While all the rest of Iowa was experiencing heavy down pours and high winds. Saturday in Cedar Rapids was warm and dry for the RU. The temp even exceeded 70 degrees. All the nasty weather waited untill Sunday when we were all heading back home, we were all very thankful even though most of us had to drive through all that to get back home.

Elizabeth, You asked about growing in a pot indoors. I haven't tried growing indoors other than to start them. But in this picture (taken last year) you see two of my Margarita Ornamental Sweet Potatoes. The one on the wall is planted in a half pot. and the one on the steps in the watering can is just a potato growing in water in a plastic tub that I squeezed into that watering can. Holly

holly...love the picture

rand...i grew spv all winter in my sunroom...had alot of plants come spring time...

Holly, I guess we will try it and find out? I can't believe sweet potatoes do that. I knew regular potatoes grew eyes. I just overlooked this one and thought it looked kinda pretty.
I can't wait to see what happens!! :)
Elizabeth

elizabeth...you can pop those sprouts off the tater and root in water....try it with a couple and do the tater thing that they talk about above

Sticks-N-stones. I had been searching for inexpensive SPV the Tri Color in particular. I know they will grow indoors if they get enough sun or good light.
I was just trying to find the plant so I could get some started. Once I get one growing, and get a start of some tubers. I will have more than enough.
Not all GH's have a large selection or choices. I just happen to get lucky. These are the first Tri Color I've seen around here. So I was just tickled to find them. at a reasonable price.
I started all my SPs this year, Rooted enough to take to the Iowa RU and exchange for other plants. I supplied enough for 4 family gardens. but those were the Centenial. ( garden variety ) A dozen plants will usually do the 2 of us for the winter. The Centenial don't always have nice uniform tubers but I like the flavor. and last year I had one tuber that was six and a half pounds. Way too big for the two of us for one meal. that was the last one so I cut the top of it off. and started about 75 or 80 plants, most from that one potato.
Right about now Barb will appriciate getting full use of her kitchen again. and I will need to take the plant stand out to the garage. lol!!!!!

How big do you let your SPV get in the sun room?????
I have seen some that they have trained to grow up over a door way. and another was trained or tied to grow around the crown molding nearly around the room. Rather different!

Russ

My apologies if this has been answered already in this thread... But can you root cuttings from ornamental sweet potato vine? I was "talking plants" with the high school horticulture teacher (had to stop in at their plant sale), and she asked that question... we figured it was worth a try, but I didn't really know.

Jill,

YES! You can. I imagine in water would be the best way to start.

Did you ever get all the LOV's and the Daisies planted? So far I have had NO takers for all the rest that i dug up. Too many to take to the Swap, but I sure will take some. They are all potted up and growing....

I am sooo looking forward to the Plant Swap. This will be my first.

Gita

Holly, I put some sprouts in water Monday night and they already have roots!! How big should I let the roots get before planting?
Does it make a difference what kind of sweet potatoe? How can you tell the difference in them?
I need all the help and advice on this that I can get. I'd love to see how this plant grows!!
Thank you, Elizabeth

Elizabeth, When they had 3 or 4 roots about 2 inches long. I put mine into small pots (like a market pack) and let the roots develop a little more there, then I planted them out in the window boxes. Also the sweet potatoes that I grew were Ornamental Sweet Potatoes which are grown for foliage not potatoes. Although I don't think there would be any difference in the growing process. Just a different type of SP

Critter, Some of my starters got pretty long so I trimmed them and rooted the ends. I made sure that I had several leaf sets on the new cutting and they always wilted but picked up in a couple of days. I got a lot more plants that way.

Gita, oh gosh, you have to come over to see how fabulous your lilies of the valley look along the back of my bed! They are even blooming!! I can't believe the rest of them haven't been snapped up. I've potted up some of the shasta daisies you shared with me (sent 3 pots home with my mom last weekend), and I planted out half a dozen nice big divisions among the daylilies that Nancy gave me. Between your generosity and hers, my garden has really expanded this spring! Hopefully, you and I will be able to get together before the plant swap... got to get your tomatoes to you!

Thanks for letting me know about rooting the cuttings. I've got an email address for the teacher I talked to, so I'll let her know. I'm going to see about volunteering to work with her students and the greenhouse next year... sounds like they've got a good program going now!

i would just keep them in water for a week....till there are alot of roots....then just plant in soil....i kinda leave them in soil in an outdoor shady place to sort of harden them off...then gradually move them to full sun locations...

Okay, I had seen the variegated green/white/pink, but didn't know there was a variegated yellow/ green. Has anyone else seen it? The leaves are much smaller....

Nope, of course this area must not be into SPVs that much. other than the Blackie as its leaves are so different.
That does sound interesting though.
I'm kind of over my limit for this year though so hopefully I will have all the tubers to start new vines for next year, and can slip one new one in. Ha. I may have to talk nice, so I can set up in the kitchen again. lol
By the way all t6he sweet tader plants I took to the RU,, I could have had more. It did make me feel good about bringing them. And those were just the table sweet taters ( Centenial's ). Now next year I plan to have ornamentals as well.
Got to get back to work now. Took a couple days off from gardening. to help youngest girl work on her Jeep. It seems they have a problem with the exhaust manifold cracking. This one was broken in two. pluss had various cracks in it and she didn't have the $200. to replace it, so her and I took it off and welded it. Got by with a $20. gasket, and whatever welding wire I used. She is tickled! And ya, I'm happy too. Oh well back to work.

HollyAnn, luv the way you placed your containers with the taters.

Pagancat, I know our Home Depot had quite a selection of ornamental potatoes some that were new to me and I think I saw the yellow/green one there to.

:) Donna

Interesting - I planted the yellow/green about a week ago - not only doesn't it have as large or interestingly shaped leaves as the others, it doesn't seem to be taking off as well, either. Hmmmm.....

My HD brought in (in the last couple of days) the smaller, dark maroon, deeply cut leafed Sweet Potato vine. Seemed very pretty.

These are in 4" pots and sell for $2.49, I believe. We have all the other ones also.

Gita

Sounds like it might be a Blackie, although there is another one that is similar. Not sure of the name.

I found a sweet caroline purple. leaves simular to the Blackie, only not as deeply cut. Then I found a purple knight, it's leaves are slightly motteld and a purpleish in color, I'm streaching my imagination "spear shaped". also a Ace of Spades its leaves are sort of heart shaped and a dark purple.
A sweet Caroline lime green. And then the Tri Color. Felt like I hit the jack pot. They were all at BLs GH.
Hoping to get tubers from each of them. then next year it should not be such a chore, as trying to find them. I don't know if I will be able to take cuttings and keep them alive all winter, but will certainly give it a go round

OOps I made a mistake. The purple knight was not a sweet potato. It is an alternanthera. I went back and was checking the markers. That's when I said whoops. Just wanted to make the correction before Ya'll started looking for it. Sorry//////// Russ

Oh geez - glad you caught that one, Russ! You could've started a riot, lol.

*sigh* I am a sweet potato failure. I finally tossed my grocery store tater into the compost heap today as it had rotted on me Well it didn't rot ON me, but you know what I mean. :-P

lala jane; That is odd. How were you trying to get it sprout. I was succesfull in getting over 70 slips from 4 cut ends of some of the potatoes. and when I had used up all the rest of last years tubers. I bought 3 from the grocery store, for a special occasion. I only need 2. the one left showed signs of sprouts, so I cut the end with the eys off the tuber. stuck tooth picks in the cut side to hold it over the water in a glass. and it is sending up sprouts. I didn't need more plants, I just couldn't resist giving them a chance to grow. Right now there are 10 sprouts that in 2 or 3 days I will be able to pull 3 of them off and stick them in water and watch them root. That is the way my Sis sprouted them. eventhough she didn't eat very many SPs she used them as a house plant. Some one went through the procedure earlier, with pictures. Their method was simular to the way I use. if you would like. I would take pictures of each step I use. Russ

Russ,

Look at the HollyAnn's very first post on this thread. That's exactly how I did it and had I taken a photo it would have looked exactly the same also...right down to the container size. Within a week or two it had a couple of very fine hair-like roots on the bottom, then it started getting soft spots. The water stagnated easily and I found myself changing it every couple of days 'till the soft spots eventually rotted completely. Might I have just had a bad potato?

La

Lala_Jane, That happens some time, several of mine did that this year. Although none did that last year. I wish I knew why. It's was very disappointing. I had to buy Blackies this year because all my Blackie potatoes rotted just like that. I contacted some of the gardeners that I had sent potatoes to last year and several told me they didn't have any trouble with their potatoes. I had stored them differently this year than I did last year and thought that might have had something to do with it. Well I will be growing a new batch this year to try again next year.

Lala & Holly;
Ok I see. I guess the only thing I do differently, is to cut the end off. aprox, 2" of the end. Stick tooth picks into the cut part. to hold the piece of tuber, upright. Kind of like a tee pee. then set it in a glass of water, tooth picks down. with the bottom of the tuber, or the cut, just touching the water. Of course these were the regular SPs, so I was interested in eating the rest of the potato. It seemed like they just did not want to stop producing new shoots. I did experiment with one, and put it in with the point down. I got a lot of roots, and the start of one shoot before it rotted. I think that with part of the tuber always in the water kept it too wet. Don't know for certian, just guessing.
Good luck on all your next, tubers.
Next year will be my first try, on the ornamentals. I intend on useing the same method, on them as well. Hoping for the same success rate. I am sure they would be appriciated at the next RU. I know every one that got the SPs this year; were very appreciative of the size of the plants. They were all ready to put out in the garden. I even had to give away the top of my 6and a half lb. tuber that was still putting out more shoots. Which was ok as I had left a dozen plants home, for our garden.
Now for next year, ( if I get the tubers I'm hoping for ) I can almost guess everyone who would be trying to get the ornamentals when we do the plant swap. Of course I am sure I will have to have the regular SPs as well. lol
One pic of 6.8lb SP.