Ornamental Sweet Potatoes

Just a pic of my grocery store SP starts :) (Proud mama here...first year starting ANYTHING)

No, not a teacher, just a Mother of 4. Which means getting involved in everything. I was a 4H leader for years, Horse Club.
I know the feeling Mskatt, Last year was the first time I tried it and everyday I would rush home from work and the first thing I did was check out my potatoes to see what they did. Come to think of it, I did that this year too. LOL

HollyAnn - how often did you change the water? or did you just add water? I put my potato in water on March 24, and I still have nothing happening.

Holly will answer you soon I know, ghia. But until then, here's what I've learned from her:

Don't completely submerge the potatoe. I just used an oblong plastic dish and laid the potato acrossed the dish. Some of the dry potatoe was sticking over the side of the dish as well as the top. The eyes aren't apparent on mine but it started rooting sprouts in about a month or so. I don't know if this is a normal time or not. On my Margarita, although the potatoe looks more like a reg sweet potatoe in size, it did have a little pointed end. This is where all the sprouts are coming from and no where else even though I couldn't see any eyes.

I changed the water about every 3 or four days. Now that the potatoe has a good root system intertwining around and around the dish, I'm having to add water often since it is drinking it up so fast. I could probably use a deeper dish now that the root system is so big.

I use this potatoe as my "mother" plant to take sprouts from. Mine is sitting in my kitchen with under the counter lighting. I've had my potatoe in the same dish ever since I started it last fall. I just plunk off growth when it gets about 4 or 5 leaves and start this cutting for water rooting in another cup of water. I also use room temp water, not cold from the tap. It's actually tap water that I run between warm and cold.

Holly, I didn't mean to steal your thunder. Please make any corrections or additions to answer her question. This has been my experience eventhough it is a first time one at that. Just excited that I think I learned a little something from you that I can now pass along.


Here's my problem and question.

Yesterday, I got adventurous and decided to repot some well-rooted first cuttings that I had started from that mother plant last fall. The vine is loooonnnngggg to say the least. When I took it out of the pot the roots were massive and also had two twin baby potatoes attached. (Yea! I'm a grandmother!) I was able to brake off the little potatoes while leaving the roots still connected to the cutting and went about repotting the vine. This morning, the leaves on the vine have that drooping, pouting wet look like old lettuce from the refridgerator. Oh no, have I killed it even though it had a wad of roots? Will these leaves perk back up? What to do??? Wringing my hands!!


Deborah

Ghia,

This time of year might be too late to start the Sweet potatoes from the grocery. I believe they (somebody, but probably not the grocery store itself) spray a growth inhibitor on them because they sprout too easily and therefore would be unsalable.

I have only had good luck with potatoes I started in February but somebody told me to buy them from a health food store where they don't purchase sprayed plants.

Suzy

Mine are from last years Margarita, I stored them in a box in the basement this winter. When I unboxed them, they looked wonderful, firm, pink, no soft spots at all. I'm doing just like the picture on the first post. half water, half dry, in the sunniest window I have. That same window is were the tropical hibiscus has been all winter, with no leaf drop. I would think my potato is getting enough light. I check the potato every week I have a few hairs, I wouldn't call them roots, it is still firm. Using warm tap water.

OIC, Sorry, I was going by the Margarita being termed a SPV and the potatoes are just the regular ones from the store, I only have done the potatoes from the store.

I stored my SPV potato in a pot with damp potting soil in the refrigerator. I haven't taken it out because I don't have space and it's too cold for outside. Boy, is it too cold for outside!

Holly did indicate she had some trouble this year with SPVpotatoes, but her problem was rotting, wasn't it?, so I guess you could consider yours a success even though there is nothing growing yet.. LOL! I would love to know how to get them rooted and growing from last year's!!!

I'm leaving for a week's vacation, but hopefully there will be all kinds of insightful messages upon my return which will give me full operating instructions for a perfect vine in two weeks! LOL!

Suzy

Deb, looks like you got it just right to me. Congrats on your grandmother status. LOL Your plants should pick up. Mine always go a little limp when I disturb them. Some of my vines were getting a little long so I cut the ends off several of them and they are rooting for me, too.
Suzy, that is a good point too. I never thought about the stores spraying their Sweet potatoes with a growth inhibitor.
Ghia, Sounds like your doing everything right. I usually just add water, but every so often if it's looking a little yucky, I'll dump it out and put in new. I always use room temp water now. Thanks to some tips I picked up here on DG. You should have some sign of roots by now. I had some good root development within the first three weeks. I only had one potato that didn't rot. When I got my potatoes out of the buckets they looked fine, solid with no soft spots. I had packed all but one of them in buckets of peat moss to overwinter. The only one that didn't rot was the one that was in a brown bag and left laying on a shelf in my laundry room. All I can suggest is give it more time, and see what happens.
Here is what mine look like, Pretty disappointing to me. They are supposed to be a Tri-color and when the leave first open they are rather pretty dark green with a burgundy edge but then they go into this med green. They will make a nice back drop but nothing outstanding.

Here's a close up showing a new leaf against an older leaf. Wonder what they will do when it finally gets warm enought to put them out in my boxes.

Holly, those are gorgeous! Thanks again for all the great info you've shared. My grocery store sweet taters have produced quite a few vines for me and they are all doing well and rooting in water right now. They have all produced solid green leaves. I'll take some pics when I have a chance. They are just about ready for me to put them in soil.

Oh my oh my! I'm glad I found this thread. This is way too cool and looks like so much fun! Why is it everytime I see something new I can't sit still untill I try it? I suppose that's why every crook and cranny of my house is filled with green (although come to think about it that's better than every nook being filled with brown, eh)?

Am I too late to try this and if not where do I find the ornamental spuds? I'm guessing I'll have to go online to buy them? I live in a pretty rural area and our ONE local nursery doesn't open for the season for another couple of weeks yet. I don't recall ever seeing them at any of the box stores, but that's not to say they've not been there.

Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories and your pictures.

La

Heathrjoy, I am so glad that your grocery store SP are growing for you. It really is a lot of fun. I think they will be just as decorative as the Ornamental and they will taste a lot better if you decide to eat them.
Lala Jane, I didn't think about looking for any Ornamental on line. Good idea. The ones some of us are growing came from plants that we grew last year and we kept the potatoes produced from those plants. Some of us bought regular Sweet Potatoes from the grocery store. Not Ornamental just regular Sweet Potatoes that you would eat. And they have had some luck with those. I think you have time to start plants if you can find any. Please come back and let us know if you find a place to buy Ornamental Sweet Potatoes. I lost all my Blackie and Margarita. So I only have the one that I am working with.

Holly a cursory search has left me empty-handed. Maybe I'm putting the wrong thing in the search box, but all I'm finding are the vines themselves. Fooey. Am I going to have to try to grow a potato so I can give this a try next year? How does that work anyway? Is it just a hit and miss thing? If I planted some nursery-grown vines how do you get them to actually produce a potato? Ergh. I'm kind of afraid to try the regular ones from the grocery at this stage considering Suzy's comment about the anti-growth spray.

Lala_Jane, That's is how I got my original potatoes. 2 years ago I bought several Margarita plants for my window boxes and when I cleaned them out at the end of summer I had potatoes. I got Blackies from a friend that had the same experience. I just tossed them on a shelf in my laundry room to over winter and last year they produced more plants than I needed. This year I haven't done as well, I had plenty of potatoes last fall, I gave some away and saved a lot of them in buckets of peat moss. They looked fine coming out of the buckets but all of them rotted shortly after I tried to start them. Although a friend gave me one Tri-color potato that got left out sitting on that old laundry room shelf and it has been producing a lot of plants for me.

OK I couldn't stand it. I bought a sweet potato at the grocery store tonight, LOL. Even if it produces too late to use the sprouts this year at least I'll get some practice.

Good Luck with it Lala_Jane. Let us know how it goes and post a couple of pictures if you can.

Last year I planted all three types of vines: Blackie, Marguerite &Tricolor. They absolutely took over the long bed I had them in - and my husband didn't like it that they so quickly grew out of the beds and into the paths - so I was always out there trimming them back. I had also planted regular sweet potatoes in the back yard as an experiment. As I saw how lovely their vines were, I began to regret having planted the ornamentals - as I liked the idea of being able to harvest sweet potatoes at the end of the season. I got HUGE potatoes from my ornamentals, which I hadn't expected. I guess I figured that since they were ornamentals, there wouldn't be potatoes. I was digging up the whole bed, as I had decided to put roses there. My favorite little potato actually looked like a duck. It was so funny. But there were some HUGE potatoes that were probably close to 3 inches thick, and with a diameter of 5 - 6 inches. Being an ornamental, I didn't know if it was safe to eat them, or I would have tried. I also didn't know you could save the potato for the following season, to grow new babies. I did have a few of my eating potatoes left that was lying in the counter. I set that into water the way my mom used to do: with toothpicks on the sides, to hold it above the jar. It has several slips growing out of it. Was just going to let it grow as a vine on the window sill - but perhaps I will root the little slips and put them into the ground. I am hesitant to plant the ornamentals again just because they seemed so aggressive; sure do love the look though.

My Margaritas took over the window boxes to the point you could barely see the other flowers. I'd like to try growing them in a corner of my yard just for the potato production for the next season. I had some very big potatoes come out of those boxes, too.

Wow, Holly (and all) - excellent information, thanks so much!!!

Just as a side note - I found a "Blackie" today that is a) at least somewhat upright (I hope it falls over!!!) and b) blooming. Am I just too new on the OSPVs to know that they bloom or is it kind of uncommon?

I'll stop hi-jacking now...

My Blackie bloomed a small pink flower. Really hard to find under all the foliage. Trumpet shaped similar to a small morning glory. Very pretty and unexpected.

Hope no one minds if I step in for a quick tip. And question. First I like S/Ps. That is the garden variety. I have the best luck with the size and number of tubers. by mounding the loose soil up around the base of the vine. A S/P is a S/P they are all edible. Some are bred for fancy leaves others are bred for size or flavor, or tuber uniformity and color. They all like water. so if raising them in a container they will need more watering than in the ground. I found this out by loosing 2 blackies last year. but had great success with the regular ones. So this spring I'm trying two more blackies. I will transplant them at the edge of the garden. and put up a trellis there and will treat them the same as the rest of the S/Ps . Then next year plant in containers and what have you.
And last; Where would y-all recomend getting the tricolor and margarita. All I have found locally besides the garden variety are the blackies. I would do them the same way so I could get a number of tubers of each. so I could start my own. They cost too much to keep buying the plant. and they are so easy to start a bunch of new vines.
I've started about 50 ( centenials) this spring, am taking a bunch to the Iowa RU. to use for plant trades.. That is along with some other plants as well. Hopefully next year I will be able to use several decorative SPVs for trade as well Thank you in advance.
Russ

Hey, Russ, Thanks for the tips.

I found the yellow-green Margurite (sorry about the spelling) at Wal-Mart today, but unfortunately, they didn't have Blackie, which is the one I really want.

Suzy

Parks has 'Margarita' (I think they re-name everything - it's chartreuse, but the leaves might be different shapes) and Blackie as well - 3 plants but I think they're charging 3.31 apiece, which is really quite high. Check it out and see if I'm delusional - it happens!

I'd suggest looking the one you want up on the plant files (tab at top of page) and clicking on "this plant is for sale by these vendors" and that way you at least have some idea of how good the company is.

I saw the Parks add. I've seen them around here at the Nurseries for any where from 3 to 6 dollars. Although I haven't looked yet this year.

IIIoquin. I found blackies at Menards. store is like Lowes.
I almost left them set. but bought two.

pagancat; Thanks I'll check that out.


Holly I'll look around some more.
Thanks to you all for the info. We will be going into town tomorrow. There are 3 Wal-Marts all within 10 miles of one another there.
and 2 Bomgaars and and a couple grocery stores that are setting up mini nursery outlets. I think at least two get their plants from Bonnies gardens in Alabama.
With that many places to look I may still find some different varieties. I'll let you know on the prices as well. Thanks again.

Russ

I went to 2 nurseries Monday and all I found was PW vines for $3.99 per container. Maybe I'M delusional, but I swear last year I found them in the 4 pack containers much cheaper.

Yeah, it's the "ooo - they LIKE these..." syndrome. As long as they're this popular, they'll be expensive as all get out. For instance, I bought a Mandevilla in Phoenix for $10 - one of those leetle-tiny 3" pots with a little stem and one bloom. Here, they use them as annuals and I can get a 10 gal pot with 3 full stems and tons of blooms for $20.... grrr.

The regular S/Ps we can still get for around $3. for a 4or 6 pack I haven't checked yet this year. We will be going in tomorrow so I'll have a chance to check around. but then I'm doing my own and helping a few others as well. Have made a few direct trades with a few other DGers that are going to the IARU. usually we never know what we will come away from the RU. with. but sometimes we have prearanged swaps as well.. But I also like the free for all too. Mostly I like making new friends, an finaly putting a face with the DG name. And the amount of money one has doesn't matter. Just the fact that we all have gardens. like a family reunion. Oh well nuff said. I'll check around tomorrow and see what is available.

Our Walmart has both Margurite and Blackie for 2.96 per container. Most have three plants in each container. I also bought the tri-color or so I thought. Turns out I didn't read the label, it was Coleus. Still pretty thought. Just had to dig it up and put it in some shade.

I'm so bummed - every time I try to put them outside they wilt - it seems that we're very windy here. And it doesn't seem to matter which direction its coming from - I feel like Dorothy!!!

Hello; I finally got back from the city. Found some SPVs, Ace of Spades, Marguerite, and Purple Night. $1.88 ea. But no Tri Color. I only got one of each, as I will need to either do them in containers, or dig up a new area, to keep them seperate. And checking the price of reg. SPs they were $2.99 for six pac, at Bomgaars. Sort of a farm home type store. I may look around a little more for the Tri Color. I may even ask our group of DGers going to the IARU. if any one has a slip from one, an work out a trade.
Cordeledawg. Coleus are a very good addition to a shady spot. I put a ring around a walnut tree as it was always too sharp a turn with the rider mower. Put about 10 inches of amended soil in the ring. and had Coleus, Huchuras ( spell) EEs. Hostas and Jack in the pulpits in it.
Pagancat; we had a strong South wind for three days then rain for another three. Today it is beautiful and we had to spend half of it in town for Dr. apointment. But taking advantage of being in town looked for the SPVs I'm planing on still setting out some tomatoes today and I have some diging to do for the RU trades, also devide some water lilies as someone has asked for some in another trade. This gets to be fun Right???? Oh well I'm looking forward to it. With the price of gas it may be our only getaway this year. Thats sad all the profits they ring up and they now keep the price up whatever the market will bear. Wonder what the city would do if we started to go back to the horse and buggy???

I just thought of another place to check. We also have a Home Depot in town.
I guess we have another trip to town before the RU. So I guess I'll look there too, in the next day or two. Maybe- - - - - -?????

Reporting in on the SP vine price gouging. LOL!

I just came from my local Walmart where their SP vines in 4" pots were going for $1.99. They didn't have any blackies but I bought 2 "Sweet Carolines" and a tri-color from which I promptly took a couple of cuttings. Hopefully in a few weeks when it's time to plant out I'll have 9 plants intstead of 3.

La

Gosh, what a good deal! And also a smart move by taking cuttings right off the bat!

Hello All,
I haven't read up on this thread but my friend, Coredeledawg wanted me to share these pictures with yall.

Planted margurtie, neon phlox with a row of golden lantana with evergreen Mary Nell Holly. Was planted 3 yrs ago & margurtie keeps coming back. This bed is a big show stopper at my driveway entrance. I'm hopfully they'll return this year too!

Donna

another pic

just one more view!

My phlox did not return after the first year, so I plant purple verbena instead with the Red Knock Out Rose. But I have not picture yet, will share when I do!

Donna

very pretty...how do you get the spv to v out like they are doing...cut them back?