Ornamental Sweet Potato, Sweet Potato Vine 'Ace of Spades' (Ipomoea batatas)

Dave, can sweet potato vine be used as an annual? Would they grow enough in a year to be worthwhile? Also, are they one of those hot weather plants, like morning glories? They don't work for us in Seward, AK.

Well, they aren't annuals, but rather tubers (like sweet potatoes, in fact, that's just what they are).

We grow them in containers and store the tubers inside during the winter, and repot them again in the spring. I think you should be able to grow these in the same manner.

dave

I am really a dunce! I have forgotten growing sweet potato vines in the house from a tuber we bought at the grocery! How do you get these fancy ones... are they sold, or do you folks just share them.

Trish got these, I think, from Calalily. The Ace of Spades is a beautiful cultivar and can be obtained anywhere, I suppose.

What does the "Ace of spades" mean? The maroon coloured Scabiosa also has got this name? What does it have to do with the colour?

The ace of spades is a card in a standard card game (52 cards in a deck). The Ace of Spades is black and the leaves of this plant look very much like an Ace of Spades.

http://www.fractalus.com/paul/smallaceofspades.jpg

dave

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Well, I know the cards and the symbol, but wonder why the Scabiosa has that name?

Can the sweet potato vine which grew in a container outside for the summer be brought inside for the winter and be treated as a house plant or does the tuber have to be put away?

does anyone come her anymore?

Hi, Petiesue

I just happened to have this on my watch list, but I don't grow ornamental sweet potato. Dave lives in the south, so I don't know if he needs to bring his vine inside in the winter, but click on his name in this thread. That will take you to his homepage from which you can send him an email to ask him. Maybe all the participants of this thread quit 'watching' it and that is why you are not getting a response. Hope I was of some help.

Petiesue, I usually let them die back and remove the tuber until the spring. Otherwise, it will rot. The vine needs plenty of light. I have never overwintered them so I do not know how well they would do. You could try it and if it starts looking shabby, then remove the tuber. But be sure not to water it too much. It will need less water during the winter. But I think that it probably needs a period of dormancy to do well the following spring sort of like caladiums. Like I said, though, I really don't know. Hope this helps.

We dig our sweet potato vines up around first frost time and store them on catering racks in our greenhouse. I have also started them from stem tip cuttings simply by placing the cutting on wet bark mulch on a plastic lined flat tray. They're really very easy to start.

Thanks for answering all three of you. I just thought the vine was so pretty I wanted to save it. I brought it in a couple times it was supposed to freeze and then a couple nights ago it did freeze when they didn't predict it! So, that takes care of that! But sounding from your answers, I think it would be a bit of a nuisance to try to carry over and starting from scratch next spring is probably the answer. Maybe I can still save this tuber . Thanks!