Dark is as Dark Does... I. batatas Blackie

This is just such a neat color..

WOW I love it!!!

Thanks Ronnie!

Mine don't make seeds, do yours?

Yes, they have seedpods on them now and I've collected some already, let me know if you would like some. I keep some just to compare with other seeds. I've not tried growing them. I buy plants each year. I hand pollinated one plant to see if there was any difference in seedpod production and left the others alone, but it seems to me that the ants did a great job on the others, they all produced seeds. I think there were six plants total.

I like these blooms too.

This message was edited Dec 5, 2007 12:26 PM

I guess I may have to bring mine inside at the end of the summer to get seeds. I just dig up the tubers after they freeze. I'll try for seeds next year.

Mine are in baskets, maybe I should see if there are tubers in there. I didn't get to them last year, so bought more, I may just try to see if there are tubers in there.

Patootie, yours also make seeds? Or would you like seeds?

I think they like certain amounts of light. Maybe I need to get out of my PJs today and get outside..lol. and start digging and harvest some potatoes.

A.

A - if you have any leftovers, you can set aside a few for me!

A, I let the spider mites kill mine so I didn't get seeds. If we swap seeds next yr, I would like just a few seeds.
One yr my Marguerite bloomed. The color was different like cream with a
pink throat or vise a versa, been so long I can't remember. I always lose these
to the spider mites. Im sick of the bugs already and winter just getting started. lol

I hang the tubers in a net from the ceiling all winter. That keeps any curious dogs or mice away from them, and they get good air circulation.

Well, I went outside and there were no potatoes, I think they use cuttings for all the plants they sell here. I wonder if they would form potatoes in the future? I did find a dozen or more seeds. Also, I have a question about the potatoe storage.

Beth, I got some giant air potatoes this year and was wondering if I should hang those the same way, right now I just have them in a bag. Each time i try to grow these vines, I've found only the shell/skin of the potatoes and they are gone. So, this time, I was told to just lay them on top of the soil when it is time to plant in spring. But, in the meantime, How do it store them? I am so anxious for Spring already...

I tried growing air potatoees for the first time last summer. I got a nice vine but no new taters so maybe it wasn't hot enough here. I dug up the original tuber and am trying to store it overwinter. These are new to me, too...so I can't offer much advice.

I grow the common air potato, Dioscorea battatus.
They grow all summer and go dormant in winter, even in the green house.
I give them a small drink about once a month while they're dormant. By late spring, they start
sending up new stems and it's ok to repot at that time. This works for me.
A you can google air potato storage or dioscorea storage and see what hits.

These are huge airpotatoes, they are about the size of a hardball. I hope they stay alive till I get them going.

Patootie, when you say you give your air potato little occasional sips of water during the winter, are you keeping the root/tuber in its pot so that the soil is just barely moist? Woodspirit said that's how she has successfully wintered over Ipomoea batatas. The same thing works for brugs in our cellar - no light, just an occasional visit with a tad of water. Works for a surprising number of tropicals and subtropicals.

Your I. batatas 'Blackie' glowers nicely, A.

Blue, Yes I just top it off with water occassionally so that the tubers
don't shrivel. About once a month.

Jackie

Patootie, do you do this with any other plants? We overwinter plastic bags of dahlia tubers with barely damp peat moss and the bag tops loose, down in the cellar, too - stays around 55*F...and cannas. I mentioned elsewhere that Henry Mitchell did this with Cestrum nocturnum.

Karen, I fogot to say that mine is in a pot in the ghouse. Everything is back
in the g house for winter. I've lost it temporarily, it could
be anywhere.
I have a couple of plants that go dormant, one is an Amaryllis relative
that's never bloomed. My Globba ginger, Purple Globe, dies down for the
winter. I just give these 2 plants a couple of small drinks till spring.
I was not good at storing Dahlia roots for the winter. If I had just treated it
like my pot of air potatoes, probably would have been just fine.
People are growing Brugs in the ground here, zone 7. If we can grow Brugs
you would think a Dahlia would not present any problems. Maybe needing 1 to 2 feet of mulch for the winter? Lowes or Wally's gets in Dahlia's in the spring
for about 1.99 each, we should try one in the ground and mulch it well for
winter, just as a test. The only reason the Brugs are coming back in the spring is we haven't had a bitter cold night here for yrs where it gets down to 0 degrees.
IMHO

Does anyone know if the Batatas cuttings form potatoes later on? Or do you have to start with a potatoe in order to get some tubers? I didn't see any on mine, but if I remember correctly, when I put cuttings down in Southern Cal of the green marguerite vine, they had huge potatoes at the end of the year (at least that is what I think they were).. they looked like white long tubers.

I am assuming they are propagated by cuttings commercially. All of mine formed tubers this year.

A and Beth,
Anytime I lost a Marguerite or Blackie to spider mites, I never checked to see if it had formed tubers. Wish I had instead of discarding my plant. Now I know :)

I've had terrible luck with bringing these inside with the other MGs. They seem to get all the mites and diseases first. I'm just going to stick to storing the tubers over winter!

I've got cuttings rooted now inside and the only ones that have mites so far are plants that are in the Living room, it is very dry. I think I'll bring the pond that was here inside when we moved, now I know why they had a pond in the house (for moisture).