Cuttings from Sweet Potatoes ?

[pepper]

There's no question in my mind that it will produce tubers...given enough time in warm/humid/fertile conditions with plenty of water. Time = about 5 months and you can't get that in most places starting in August....no way.

Once again, the use of the term "works" is very vague and can mean just about anything. It can mean anything from "yes it will make roots" to "yes it produces as many tubers as the original slip". No dig "works", a lot of things "works", but in my view that is a very imprecise way of describing something. It's always been a pet peeve of mine, the scientist in me, and often drives me to experiments to determine what "works" actually means in precise terms.



By the way, have you ever tried the "new" varieties like Murasaki, Okinawa, and the other Asian? They are far superior in taste to our "orange" ones in my opinion. Like going from "don't like" to "wow that's good " but taste is an opinion not fact.

I completely agree with that. There are always factors involved for something that "works". With gardening there is tons of different factors, like what you mentioned.

If I see those ones I'll try them, usually I just see the orange ones but I guess it depends on the time of year. I'd even try planting one next year just to see what happens. I enjoy sweet potatoes but for some reason it just reminds me of a Christmas food. Although I do sometimes get things like sweet potato fries so I guess I do eat them other then at Christmas.

 

[PaulZone8b]

By the way, have you ever tried the "new" varieties like Murasaki, Okinawa, and the other Asian? They are far superior in taste to our "orange" ones in my opinion. Like going from "don't like" to "wow that's good " but taste is an opinion not fact.

I actually have tried the Okinawa...this summer and not such a big fan. Its OK, but VERY starchy and too rich for my taste. My wife thought the same thing...so its all up to your buds (taste). We were going to try to grow some for ourselves and changed our mind.

 

[Meadowlark]

I actually have tried the Okinawa...this summer and not such a big fan. Its OK, but VERY starchy and too rich for my taste. My wife thought the same thing...so its all up to your buds (taste). We were going to try to grow some for ourselves and changed our mind.

Interesting. How about the Murasaki? I just harvested some and the taste was very good to me. See the thread:

Murasaki Sweet Potatoes

The suspense has been killing me. I don't like the taste of "regular" sweet potatoes...the orange ones. This spring I planted some of the Murasaki slips and also some of the Asian sweet potato slips in hopes they would produce a potato I would like better. They have been doing great all...

www.gardening-forums.com

But you are certainly correct that taste is a very individual thing.

 

[PaulZone8b]

No haven't tried the Murasaki yet. When we bought the Okinawa, we bought a few of them and tried burying 2 of them to see if they would create slips (spring) ...but they just sat there in the soil and did nothing. We ate them too.

 

[Meadowlark]

Now I am told from someone else that the vines I have now will not produce new tubers... Only from slips from the actual potatoes, not the vines. Which is it ? People are saying both.

Ok, PaulZone8b, I can positively confirm that my sweet potatoes did in fact produce new tubers from the new vines. The number and size of the tubers was much smaller but given more time they would have been normal.

Previous post confirmed, "There's no question in my mind that it will produce tubers...given enough time in warm/humid/fertile conditions with plenty of water. Time = about 5 months and you can't get that in most places starting in August....no way."

 

[PaulZone8b]

Thanks Meadowlark.
We put half of those cutting in the ground (which wont have enough time) and the others in pots that I can move into the greenhouse when it gets cold and pray I can keep the GH warm enough until Dec-Jan and maybe we get a few from those.

 

[PaulZone8b]

As a follow up to the conversation...we finally harvested the sweet potatoes in pots that we planted from the cuttings from the original slips...and we did get tubers, but as you can see, nothing to write home about. I wouldn't do it again. This was probably 8 (7 gal) pots worth. We grew them inside the house (with AC) and grow lights.

So what I have seen, it will produce tubers, but not really...unless you want a snack. From now on, we will plant from slips or actual potatoes.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I've shopped at a few different grocery stores all my life and if I didn't see it there, it didn't exist. Seed catalogues were
quite the awakening!

I don't know about American seed catalogues, but English ones can be very optimistic sometimes. I remember someone who had just got his first allotment talking very enthusiastically about all the things he was going to grow. The old boy and I listening looked at each other and then the old boy asked, "Have you been reading the Thompson and Morgan catalogue?" "How did you know?".