Ornamental Sweet Potatoes

I over winter slips with grow lights on 10 hrs a day about 5 inches from the tallest leaves. Start them in a jar of water - they root in just a few days - then put them in 6 inch pots. They get straggly looking towards the end of winter, but most survive long enough to make it to Spring. I got 4 medium-small tubers from one plant - their original mama was one that got missed for Turkey Day on year, so they will get eaten here, pretty soon. Next year I hope to have enough plants to use them as major ground cover. Mine never bloomed, but they were a lush green counterpoint to the desert sand, and that is always a good thing, to me :-)

Kmom; That is strange not to have blossoms. but then non of my ornamentals had blossoms either. however the the Centennial SPs. did.
Of course The ornamentals were planted late.
I really needed more sand, for the SPs. in the garden. next spring I will have more sand. I can get fill sand for around $4.00 a ton, an they load it. I will have to make a trench an mix it in with some of the top soil, but that will help to make more uniform shaped tubers. Some of my garden the dirt got rather hard this year and what I did dig,from that area looked like they turned around to find softer soil.. Kind of folded over in the middle. Only dug 1 hill. as it was early and they were not mature enough yet.

KY that's tough when the animals won't let you have a garden. Maybe you need a moat around the garden, with some crocs in it and lay down some fence wire on top of the SPs. LOL Not really, But at least a spitter sprinkler connected to a motion detector so that it scares them away, when they come to nibble away on those tender plants.
I get rather obstenate when things like that happen to me. So sometimes try hard to make it harder for the critters to get at my plants. LOL

Hi Everyone, I've been traveling for the last 4 weeks and won't be home for another 2 weeks. I guess I'll see want kind of tubers are growing when I get home. I put a blackie and a margarita in the garden just to grow potatoes hopefully for next year and also put some into the window boxes. Last year I put my potatoes in peat moss and stored them in a crawl space under my utility room. They looked fine when I got them out but none of them grew. The only ones that did grow were the ones I had let lay on a laundry room shelf. So this year I'm going to put some of them in brown paper bags on my laundry room shelf and see how they do. I've had good success with that method before. A new twist this year, my DIL collected a few seeds from the flowering Blackies guess we will see what they do. Won't be back on line till I get home. Good luck everyone with your plants. Holly

I thought this old thread deserved a bump. Holly are you still out there? How did your experiments go last year?

I have a few small tubers that formed in planters and I expect to find a few more in the flower beds. I do intend to save them but I'm not yet sure which route I'll take.

Yes, I was going to ask Rand how his did. We had a ground hog this year that pretty much decimated most of the sweet potatoes and OSP in the garden. I haven't pull anything out of the garden yet to see what might be underground but I have no tops so I don't expect much if anything. He even got my tire tower that was looking pretty nice.

Hi Holly; I had several G-Hs too but I sent them to another hunting ground. Rabbits were trying their best to take more than their share too. That I was able to cure with deer and rabbit repellent and a fence of chicken wire. I also had a problem with grasshoppers. They must have cast iron stomachs. There are very few leaves that aren't riddled by the grasshoppers but with persistence I think I had a good survival rate of the garden.
I haven't dug any of the ornamental SPs yet. I did dig a couple hills of my other sweet potatoes. The kind I raised last year were doing ok. not as big as last years, but ok. I also had some bush type. There were a lot of taders but nothing of any size. So I am holding off untill we are threatened with a killing frost, or a couple more weeks. Whichever is first.
Still have my fingers crossed.
I agree with you on the no tops, the SPs were probably spending all their energy on growing leaves for the ground hogs.
I actually gave up on my cabbages. I have one lone surviver that won't have time to make a head. I think I may have to stock up on some spray, to go around the outside edge of the garden for next year. Like the fence lines. the stuff I wouldn't want to have in the garden.

I'll have to get back with you after I dig up the ornamentals. I hope They do better than their vines. They didn't fill in as much area as last year.

Holly did your taters fare well in the brown paper bag in the laundry room over the winter? (By the way, what are the conditions in your laundry room? Temp, humidity, etc.) And how about your DILs seed experiment?

Lala_Jane, DIL's seeds didn't germinate. She didn't try saving any this year and now that I am home again it is probably too late to find any seeds.
I did notice that for some reason this year we had a lot of flowers on the ones in the deck boxes. Usually I only ever see a few if any flowers and this year there were really a lot and I barely gave seed collecting a passing thought.
My laundry room is pretty warm as it is just off the mud/utility room. The mud/utility room is where our coal/wood stove is which is our primary source of heat for the winter. We also vent the clothes dryer into the laundry room in the winter to get extra heat and humidity into the house. I had such good luck with my OSP tubers in the brown paper bags that last year I saved some of my Caladium bulbs that way and they did very well for me. I'm going to try that again this winter.
Rand, I'll be interested in seeing how you do when you dig yours up. I will be doing that pretty soon.
I've been traveling for the last several weeks and have an awful lot to catch up on. Here is a picture I took earlier this summer of my OSP flowers.

I didn't see any blooms on any of my OSPs. However I did on the other SPs in the veggie garden.
I scratched the edge of a hill of Beauregarrd today. I pulled out some farely good sized ones. Ummmm delishious. Wouldn't you know it I was thinking about digging all of those tomorrow, they say it's going to rain.
I'm not diging the OSPs untill we get a light frost. I want to give them all the time I can, in hopes of getting some large tubers from them.
This week it is to be cooler, I don't need a frost just yet. Although at this point I might welcome it as that would mean I could stop picking tomatoes. LOL

Russ, I can't believe you guys have not had any frost. All this last week we have had low 20 nights. 23 last night. Everything that was out was a goner, at least the tops. The roots in the containers haven't frozen yet because the days are in the 50s.

I did get all but one OSP in, BTW, those blossoms look like a cross between a petunia and a morning glory. Very pretty. Anyway, I am keeping the mother plants in the house, don't know if I will keep them growing all winter in the kitchen or let them go dormant in the plant room.

I did put some in water and you are right, they did root in just a couple of days. Tri color, Blackie, and the black heart shaped leaf. In fact, they rooted and my coleuses didn't. Not yet anyway.

Hey you guys, why wouldn't it work to put that plastic deer or bird netting over your plants? I know it wouldn't stop the root chewing ones, but it would the ones that are getting the leaves. I had to do that with my tomatoes last year to keep the squirrels away from them and it worked. LOL, this year I planted a real good cherry tomato right on the end of the hoophouse where the squirrels found it first thing and the little buggers liked them so well I didn't have to keep them from the others. Now we all share.

Jeanette

Holly something you said has excited me very much. This is straying slightly from the SP conversation, but now I have to ask about the caladiums. I know VERY few people who can overwinter those bulbs successfully and I'm one of them. Can you give me (us) a short tutorial on how you dry and store them including when you bring them in? I know I'm not the only one who would love to hear your success story.

Lala_Jane, Last year was my first year for Caladiums I only over wintered them last winter we will see how I do this year. I had 2 large pots 2 at my mom's house 2 at my daughter Jens and 2 at my house. Plus I had some in window boxes. In the fall just about this time we took all the pots into the houses and stopped watering them. Mine were stored in an upstairs room under my growing tables. It is a pretty warm room as it is right over the mud/utility room with the stove. The other pots were put in their basements both of which are heated. Early last spring we all pulled out the pots and started to water them and they all grew pretty well. I'm going to do the same thing again this year but next spring I will re-pot them with new soil.
All the bulbs in the window boxes were pulled out let lay for a couple of days and then put into brown paper bags just like I do with my OSP. The bags were stored upstairs with the ones in pots. I would say that 90% of all the bulbs regrew for me.
Of course I wasn't expecting that so I ordered quite a few new bulbs from the Co-op and now I have a whole lot of caladiums and I'm not sure what to do about next years Co-op if I don't order more and mine don't overwinter this year I will not have any and if I do order more and mine overwinter fine I will have way too many. LOL
This was taken back in mid June. The larger pot in the back are the ones I overwintered, the smaller pot in front are the new bulbs. Both of these pots really filled in over the summer.

And the one in front is - a Tabby Caladium???
I love the plant in the little pot to the right too. I looked it up a couple times but I have forgotten what it is but I like it.
It will be a must have for me next year.

Jeanette; no frost yet, for me anyway. I will call that a plus, for IA. However you have many things in your favor that we don't, so I will call it a draw. LOL

I hope I'm not being a royal pain Holly, but if I could get even ONE caladium bulb to overwinter I'd do carwheels down main street next spring.

Since space is a huge issue here I'm going to try your paper bag method. I understand that you dry them for a few days first then put them into paper bags. One bulb per bag or did fill them up and let them "touch each other?" My hope is to then keep them in the basement which stays about 60°.

I understand you're new to this yourself and I won't get ticked off if they don't survive, LOL. Like I said I've NEVER had them survive so this is just one more experiment for me.

Rand, That is Bubbles our very old cat although she has aged very well you wouldn't know that she is somewhere around 16-18 yrs old. When ever I'm gardening she is usually right under my nose and quite often in my garden pictures. LOL
That plant is an Alocasia Polly “African Mask” I picked it up last year in Fl. one of my favorites. It has been struggling but still holding on, the spider-mites really seem to like it.
Lala_Jane, I put about 5 or 6 bulbs in a med to large brown paper bag. I dig them up let sit a day or two depending on how wet they are when I pull them. Usual by that time I have stopped watering my boxes and they really don't get any rain where they hang. So they are usually pretty dry starting out and usually all the growth has gone dry. I pull off the dried leaves and brush off the dirt and toss them in. It is exactly what I did with my OSP. Other than depending on the size I will put more or less of them in the bags. If I have big OSP tubers I might only put in 3 and if I have a lot of small ones I could put in 7. I'm very casual about things, one year I collected quite a few OSP in a 5 gal plastic bucket and set it in a corner till I could get to them. The bucket got pushed back into a corner and never thought about until the next spring when I started looking around for my OSP tubers. About half of those produced starters for me.

Thanks on the,Alocasia Polly; Holly.
I will search that a little. I hope it will survive here.
And it looks like I will be digging all my sweet potatoes tomorrow, weather I want to or not. I would like to have it a little drier but, supposed to get down to lower 30s or even upper 20s tonight. Think I filled every bucket, box and basket with tomatoes tonight.
I think a some people are going to have to accept a few. I may lay them out on the lawn after it warms up. After I get the SPs all dug, I may take a bunch to the Gospel Mission. I know they would appriciate them.
I'll save a few to ripen on the counter. I think I almost have all my jars full.
The House smells really good right at the moment. I have a pan of apple butter finishing up in the oven. Still have about 100 or so still in the box, plus what is on my tree. A friend stopped by and offered three bags. on top of the big box that I picked from a neighbors tree. They have four trees and don't pick any for canning or even freeze any.
Anyway I couldn't turn the friend down, as I gave her tomatoes and cucumbers several times during the summer. I hope it won't be too late but she has an Asian pear tree that is just loaded. I would like to put some of those up for winter.

Jeanette; Guess I will have to say the frost may have snuck up on me.
I was trying to wish it to stay away a little longer. LOL

It has a habit of doing that Russ. Russ, you should show these gals that picture you sent me of the one hill of sweet potatoes. Or are you waiting until you dig them all??

Holly, Rand is Russ and b is Barb his wife. Randbponder. Never did ask him what the ponder was. I know it isn't his last name. Huh Russ??

Jeanette

Yes, I do know that they are Russ and Barb. But got in the habit of just shorting it to Rand before I knew, now I just seem to still do that even though I know better, I should shorten it to R and B. LOL
Good question on the pond part I wonder if they have a pond, or just like to ponder things. Like their wonderful veggie garden that feeds so many people. How nice to provide for so many.
I've been out to the garden again first time I have seen it in 3 weeks (we were traveling) I have some hope for the SP and OSP. Very little leaves on the SP but the stems are green and there are a few more leaves that have grown while we were away. The OSP in the tire tower are looking promising more leave on them. This shot of my tire tower shows what they look like now. Before the GH it was completely covered with both Blackies and Margaritas you couldn't even see the tires.

Yeah, Jeanette, you got it right, the B is for Barb. The ponder came from the DG computer, because we have a pond by our patio.
Incidentally at present there are no fish in it. That is due to an issue of somebody coming in and taking half of them. I am almost positive that it won't happen again. I believe I confronted the guilty party. Of course he denied it but he has had a change of attitude since then.
The rest of my fish are safe in another friends pond at present.
Nuff of that.
Guys - I see frost on the lawn. My thermometer only showed a low of 34, so it wasn't a killing frost. 20 miles away in Sioux City, they recorded 31.
That picture, to me showed they weren't quite ready to be dug- up. I
I will have to see how much difference a couple rains and a little more time made.
I scraped away the side of one of the hills of some Beauregards that I planted in another patch and found, the extra time made a big difference there. I pulled six nice ones from there. I'M sure there more as I only took from about a third of the way around.
Jeanette; I brought every thing in last night that I could. The kitchen is a mess. LOL I also brought in the begonias.
I'll be able to set most everything out again for a while but first dig the rest of about 70 some hills of SPs. I will check the leaves on the OSPs to see if I can leave them a while longer..
Anyway here is the picture of 1 hill of the bush type Vardamans.
They are on the tailgate, of our S10. That is DWs hand holding the largest one of that hill.
Russ.

Holly; Your Tires, remind me of the mineral tubs, I have. I think I will use them, next year. The tubs are about 17" deep and 21" across. Maybe if I use a really good mix of compost and sand with some straw mixed in, I may get more OSP taders. I would think after they vine out it will look like a mound with vines trailing out from them. I'll give that a shot, see how it looks. That can be another picture.
R

Well the rain worked against me. I got the one patch on the North side of the garage done. The further I went there were less and less taders.
That was shaded more. I will have to make a note, don't raise SPs there.
Back to the rain. It was going to force me to quit anyway but just about that time, Our friend Helen, came by she wanted to go out to a restaurant she heard about. but it was further than her son wants her to drive. He is a problem for her. Long story, won't go into it. Anyway we decided to taker her. It was a nice place. It had the old time tin ceiling but all re done. It had kind of a western atmosphere to it. The food was good as well. Most of all Helen needed somebody to visit with. This is still her first year alone.
The SPs really only had the upper leaves nipped by the frost. so I'm not as concerned as I was. It isn't suposed to get down that low tonight, so I should be OK anyway. I don't think it bothered the peppers or the tomatoes.
I choped up some of the vines with the chiper shredder, and gave them to my ( compost digesters) "Goats" They loved them. LOL
Been choping up corn stalks and weeds and they turn them into fertilizer. I give them some regular goat and sheep pellets too. But as long as I have the cornstalks and they like them, that saves buying all their feed. I'll have to get some hay for them, later.
Well tomorrow is another day, maybe I can get a little further with the SPs then.
Russ

I think you really worked for every tater, mater, etc. that you got this year Russ. It was a tough one for all of us.

Jeanette

Yeah Jeanett I think you are right! Next year, Not As Many tomatoes!
LOL
Russ

Has anyone tried to keep the SPV alive and growing over winter. After 2 animal attacks I'm sure I don't have any tubers yet.
I tried to root a SP from the grocers store but it never worked it got mushy. I think they must get sprayed with something to keep them fresh longer at the grocery store.
Mickey

Mickey, I have several growing in the house and a couple trying to go dormant in my plant room in the basement. The ones in the house are tri-color, blackie, and a heart shaped black. Very pretty. This is my first year with them. I dug a couple out of larger containers and put in 6 inch pots, one blackie had I guess what you would call very small tubers. but the rest that I got a look at roots were just that, fiberous roots. So, it will be interesting.

I have also taken some cuttings off of all 3 of the above and started them for a DGer to send to her. They actually rooted faster than the coleus did. Within a week to 10 days. I now have them in soil to give them a little better start before mailing.

Jeanette

Russ, Do you grow comfrey for your goats? They really love that. Ric and I had goats for years, such fun and good milk, too.

No Holly, I haven't. This my first year with goats. Only two are mine and two belong to Gary at the restaurant.
Do you try to grow it where they can get to it themselves, or grow a bunch of it and mix it with some feed?
I know that they love lambs quarter, at least the leaves. I have a lot of that growing on its own. As I pull it up from where I don't want it, I carry it to them.
I need to increase the size of their containment area. I first have to put a fence around two fruit trees that would be within the area to be fenced in.
I really wasn't ready for them when I agreed to go into this little venture, with Gary. He has bigger ideas but I am the one who gets to give them the most care. Therefore it will stay at 4 and raise the little ones for other purposes. I may change my mind later but for now, 4 is enough to over winter. It does take more of my time that I would otherwise spend going fishing or just visiting.
One note on over wintering OSPs . If for any reason you think they are dieing just clip off about a 3 or 4 inch section and keep a couple leaves on that 4" section and start all over by rooting that section.
I do this when I want to double the number of plants for spring planting, OSPs that is.
Russ

I grew mine in an area that the goats couldn't reach and gave it to them as a special treat not everyday. Although I don't know that you couldn't I'll ask Ric and get his opinion on that. If you don't have any comfrey I could send you some now or next spring. We had a small herd of Nubian's, a buck and about 6 milking does. Of course the herd would swell a little at kidding time and we also had a few dwarfs for a little while. Ric had a larger herd when we first met but since he sold his property and moved here we had a much smaller herd as my place isn't near as large as his was. But his was much farther away and I couldn't deal with the distance back and forth to work.

Holly; I didn't mean to change this forum to goats.
If you want you can D mail me on that or My
email [] If you don't want to clog this up with other subjects.

Oh I think I wore out for the day. I filled the top and benches of our picnic table with today's dig. I haven't started on the vardamans yet other than that one hill. These are mostly small ones and they went deep. I stabbed a bunch of them so those have to be used first.
I haven't dug any of the OSPs so I have no idea what I'll find there. This was just not the year for spectacular growth this year. I will hold out for next year. Just as soon as I rest up a bit, I'm going to go out and just cover the rest of the SPs. They said it is going to get down into the upper 20s tonight. That is a killing frost. Everything pulled through the last frost but this one I don't think so.. I need a rest from the garden for a while anyway. LOL
Russ

I don't mean to drag this back to goats either but Holly Ann someone told me one time "Jeanette it's your thread, you can hyjack it any time you want".

Anyway, back to comfrey. My sister bought a place with a patch of it probably 10 x 25 feet and the deer would sleep in it at night, must have made them feel good, anyway, when she got married her husband spent a month putting round up on that comfrey before he finally got rid of it.

She didn't have any animals to feed it to and it does spread.

Jeanette

Jeanette; Hi! I have quite a variety of weeds. I think if it got to spreading too much, I could just turn the compost digesters loose on it. LOL They will eat the sour dock, leaves that is. I have noticed though that they are particular though. They don't like velvet leaf,squash or cucumber leaves. Don't have much Burr Dock so don't know about that.
They also seem to leave stinging nettle till last too.
I have a junk truck down back that is in their pen, they get up on that and stand on hind legs and get the maple leaves. That tree must be 100 years old, so it can afford to loose a few. LOL

LOL Jeanette, I don't mind when a topic wanders a little off course especially since ours is as old as it is.
Russ, Ric thinks it would be fine for you to plant Comfrey where your goats can help themselves. They really do love it and it is very good to add to your compost. I find that a digging fork is the best way to dig it up but it really does have long thick roots and is pretty persistent. If you have any areas that need cleaned your goats will do that wild rose bushes don't stand a chance.

do you think you might start a new thread for goats? I'm wearing out my mouse checking for sweet potato messages and reading about goats. Many thanks.

Dp Thanks for dropping in for a visit. We do like talking about sweet potatoes especially on propagating ornamental Sp's. and sharing each others methods of rooting and such. What has worked for Holly, what has worked for myself, Jeanette, Lala_Jane and KY Woods.
If you have a question on Osp's we will be more than happy to give assistance anyway we can. We can all learn more from each other.
I also raise" regular "what I call table Sp's. And eat way more Sp's than white potatoes. It is basically for the nutritional value of the deeper orange fleshed ones, that we do this. Drop in again, any time. Sorry if a little wandering around upsets anyone.
Russ

Hi, Russ and others who like ornamental sweet potatoes. If I came across as upset, apologies are in order, but I'm not sure how you got that impression. I just like for threads to pertain to the topic. Sorry if that is out of order.

I'll wander a bit myself. You mentioned SP as food. I remember being told in a nutrition class that greens, esp. collards and mustard greens, and sweet potatoes (not YAMS) are the most nutritious vegetables commonly used as food in this country. And they're all so good TASTING!!!

Dp; I'll say Amen.
This year I shared many sweet potato plants as well as ornamentals. I wound up planting right at 70 plants some Georgia jets, Beauregard, Centennial and Vardaman. This year I'm glad I planted that number, as it really hasn't been the best year here for sweet potatoes. I am getting a good number per hill but not as many good sized, uniform in looks and appeal. But then I am not marketing them. Just wanting to be sure and have enough to last the winter. I am hoping the bush type Vardaman has gained in size in the couple weeks since I dug o hill of them. I should know tomorrow. I covered them for the night to keep the frost damage to a minimum. It is supposed to be down in the 20s tonight.
Dug one hill of the Blackie and I don't think those roots are big enough to keep over winter, not much bigger than a pencil. Now that is very small from what I had last year at this time.

Thanks Russ

I told my friend she had dig the tubers up on hers so she wouldn't lose them. She didn't beleive there would be tubers or potatoes in the ground. Well, she dug them up this weekend. This is what she got!

pic#2

When she called me over and said I was not going to believe it she was right!
The white ones are the purple leaf SPV and the purple ones are the green leaf SPV. My mouth fell open when I saw this. She planted 8 plants altogether. She is going to try and keep them over winter, I have been telling everthing I've been reading on here. Oh, and by the way. I got one measly little potato about the size of a, well... small potato... go figure!

This message was edited Nov 5, 2008 5:32 PM

Pdoyle, I've been meaning to post here. I did not do well with my OSP tubers this year either. Very few and very small but I did save what I got. Last year some of the small ones (I'm talking not much bigger than my finger) produced several plants for me. Funny my OSP flowered more than they ever had before and I got one of the worst harvests. This year I took several cutting to try and over winter something I never bother to do. Thanks for posting.