Sweet potatoes, how do you grow them, the ones in australia come from south america or so i am told please correct me if i`m wrong. I dont think they grow like the normal potatoe, or do they? help please Brian
Yes, they grow just like a normal potato. Every potato originally comes from south/central America. Lots of varieties have been bred else were but the species is native to SA.
Re: Sweet Potatos Sweet potatos are not exactly like regular potatos. Regular potatos are grown from cut pieces of potato that contain an eye. They also grow during the cool part of the late winter and early spring-- here they are planted in Jan and harvested in May/June. Sweet Potatos are grown from slips-- pieces of the vine grown from the whole sweet potato in a seed bed --that are planted after all cold weather has passed. They grow best during the heat of the summer and are harvested in late summer or early fall. Skeet
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is in the Morning Glory family while the potato (Solanum tuberosum) is in the Nightshade family. Both are distantly related through the Order Solanales. As skeeterbug points out, they require distinctly different conditions for ideal growth and are similar only by virtue that they both have a tuber. Simon
Thanks for that Skeet i planted a couple of sweet potatoes in a pot full of horse manure and soil with a plate of glass over it to generate some heat did this over a week ago nothing has happened yet will just wait and see Brian
You are probably a little early for starting, however, here in the south a lot of people use to grow sweet potatoes as a house plant. They would just take a whole potatoe and stick toothpicks in it to hold it suspended in a glass of water (one end in the water the other end out). The vines eventually cover the glass. Anyway, if you keep the sweet potatoe warm and moist it will grow plenty of vines that can then be cut into "slips". Slips are just short sections of the vine with 3-4 leaf nodes. When you are ready to plant, build a row that is 8 to 10 inches high, poke a hole in the row, drop in a slip and pour a little water in the hole. Plant slips 12-18 inches apart. No need to root the slips before planting, they will root and start growing rapidly if it is warm to hot. Skeet
Brian, I just realized you are in Australia and it is mid summer there. It may take a little while to get the potaotoe to start sprouting, but keep it warm and moist and you should see growth soon. Once you get some vine started, you can cut slips from it and let it continue to grow if you want more slips to plant later. Skeet
