It's Ornamental Sweet Potato Time

Holly, my roots are growing along just fine. :) I think I'm going to plant these in a hanging pot and let them trail a bit. Thinking about ordering some of the other types as well. I love the color of the leaves......it's so rich looking.

Can you actually order the tubers from somewhere?? If so where?

I've seen the plants for sale online but not the tubers. One of the places had wholesale plugs for sale. I can't remember which one but if you do a search online for Ornamental Sweet Potatoes you will get all kind of info.

I've been giving away so many of my starters that I haven't gotten around to potting up any of them. Today I finally got around to potting up a few. These have been sitting in the rooting jars just growing a few roots and are now ready to be potted.

There we go 7 new plants all potted up just waiting till spring.

Here are a few more that have just been harvested from their tubers and moved into the rooting jar and a tuber waiting to be harvested. The circle complete all but the planting in the yard.

Holly, Holly!!! Lookee, lookee.........your OSP slips on Bokashi.................

Major duh, got excited......

They are looking great, they look large enough to pull the bigger ones off and put in a rooting jar. Have you decided where you will plant them yet?

I think I'm going to grow them in containers on the porch. I'm sooooooo pleased and excited. And these are so pretty. Thanks ;)

Hey Sarv and all NC Farms has cutings of these potatoe vines. You get 100 for 16.00
But there may be a minimum order I don't know. They also have coleus cuttings, and LOTS of other plant
vegitative cuttings which root to grow much faster than seed!!
Check it out!
Julie

http://ncfarmsinc.com/store/index.php?cPath=66

I haven't see that but I do know that there is (was) a coleus cutting co-op. I've seen the postings before. I've heard they did very well last year with the plants from that co-op. Wonder if it's the same place?
PS Now that it is getting warmer I could send out a few cuttings myself, if anyone is interested in a few. I only have Blackies to share.

HollyAnnS;
I have been checking around. and that web site that Jazzy704 posted, may have shed some light on my confusion over my cream colored tuber for what bought as blackies. The Sweet Caroline Purple is very similar to the blackie.
It is possible that they sold me Sweet Caroline Purple. I don't know, but it is a thought. Anyway that is what the pictures looked like on that web site.
I would love to trade for two or three Blackies. But I'm thinking PA is quite a distance and our weather isn't very dependable yet for shipping plants. I guess I will have to pass and take a chance again just buying local later.
I am getting quite a few sprouts off that tuber, so will grow them again anyway. They will still be an ornamental S/P vine.
I'm not quite ready to order a hundred cuttings, for $16.00 yet but that might be a good way to get a bunch started, and I do love trading at our RU. I have gone way over my budget this year for garden plants, so I will save that hyperlink untill next spring.

I know that the Sweet Caroline Purple looks quite a lot like the Blackies. I've only seen pictures and I quite often wonder what exactly is the difference some of the pictures look pretty close, I thought the leaf shape has more of a difference than those pictures look. I'd really like to see the two plants next to each other. That's the new Bronze color I had heard about it's the Bronze Sweet Caroline. When I get up to the nursery I'm going to see what I can find out about the difference between the two. Bet this nursery will have the new bronze color this year. This one nursery in our area has pretty high prices but their plants are always nice and they have a good selection of plants that I don't see at other nurseries. I don't buy a lot there but I do pick up a plant from time to time and I still have some money left on a gift certificate that my daughter gave me for my last Birthday.
" I have gone way over my budget this year for garden plants" Yea I know just what you mean. Boy I have really hit the co-op sales again this year. Most of those prices are just too good to pass up. LOL

Holly
This one was labled as Sweet Caroline Purple
I will post the blackie as well.
That is what was labled as such.

I hope these pics are clear enough
I too saw the Bronze Would like to have it as well.
That will probably have to wait , unless brother in law has it this year.

This message was edited Mar 18, 2008 8:32 AM

This thread was a great read! I'm wondering, though, what is the purpose of rooting the tubers in water rather than just planting them in soil to begin with?
Thanks-

Nothing really, some of us just like to see the roots form. I done a few by watching them root in water. the rest I diped in root hormone and stuck in pots of potting soil and kept them moist. If you put them directly in the garden with no roots, you would have to water, probably every day, unless it rained until you knew you had root growth.
Here in zone 4 we need to pull a few tricks to give SPs their 100 days to maturity. So starting them in pots is just one way. Some even cover the area to be planted with black plastic to warm the soil which can give quite a jump on the growing season.
Russ

I have one SP that I put in water...it got one tiny little sprout...The sprout never grew..never died either. Now I have a second sprout...same thing...tiny...doesn't get any bigger. The SP has never made any roots either. What is happening??

Sarv48; Is this potato root one you grew. or a store bought? Also is it a ornamental SP vine?
I had a little trouble this year with mine not wanting to sprout very well either.
I think it was because we decided to conserve on propane this year. Instead of the normal 67/o F, we turned it down to 60 F. Which made our kitchen even colder. When I plugged in my heater for the plants , and placed the roots on that they started livening up. I have tried placing the root in water to help them sprout. But have decided that the majority of the eyes are in the upper half of the root. For my good table SP's. I cut the top 1/4 or 1/3 off, stick round tooth picks around the lower portion or where the cut is. Then I place it over a glass of water. The lower part of the potato we have for dinner.
The root only needs the extra humidity to help the process along. The sprouting can also be helped along just by placing the root in a bowl and cover the bowl and keep it warm. But not much will work if the whole root has dried up. putting it in water will just cause it to rot.

Also some of the ornamentals are a little harder to sprout.

Last year I put some roots in a mini green house in the living room. I had other plants in there that I watered. That was enough to grow roots all along the sprouts.
However I usually break the sprout off the sweet potato as soon as it is a couple inches long and has a couple leaves. Then either put it in moist soil or stick the broken off end in water, wait for the roots to grow and plant.

Some store bought sweet potatoes have been treated to retard sprouting. It would be harder to get them to sprout.
At any rate I think I would raise the temp a bit and see if that helps They need the humidity to form roots. which placing it in water should be sufficient for this to happen.
I hope you can find some help in all of this.

Russ

Russ....it is a tuber that I dug up from last summer..it as an ornamental one and was gorgeous. I dug it up...washed it off with plain water, let it dry and laid it in a rubbermaid dish on a piece of paper toweling. Stuck it in a cold closet that was light when we opened the door...otherwise it was dark. It kept beautifully!! In the same closet, I had regular white eating potatoes...those sprouted!! But the SP has done nothing.. I am so bummed...

I had a little hard luck with the ornamental roots I stores last winter. Someone told me to wrap them in news paper. I won't do that again. The ones to survive was one big Blackie, and one smaller root I think is a Margurite. or possibly a Sweet Caroline lime green. So far I have pulled 14 sprouts off the Blackie. All have rooted. So far there has only been three sprouts on the other root that survived, and is starting to sprout. I have one other root that looks like it could sprout. So far nothing.
Now my table SPs The centennial are all sprouting like crazy. But like I said they started late so I only have 25 that are in small pots and growing.
I bought one from a store. I'm sure it is a Georgia Jet. It isn't real lively but has 7 sprouts that are long enough but the leaves haven't opened up. So that one will take time too. We ate the bottom 2/3rds of that one as well.
Do you remember which ornamental yours was?
I'll post a pic of my Blackie from last year

This one was Margurite

This one
Sweet Caroline Lime Green

I have one that did just the same thing. It hasn't grown any roots and had just one small multi stemmed stalk. I finally pulled the very small stalk off and put it in water. It rooted just fine, although it still seems to be growing very slowly. Also the potato made another small stalk and it is doing much the same thing. I'm babying it along because it is the only Margarita that I have. Of course the Blackies are growing like crazy. I have found that some do very well and others don't. Some just keep on making more and more others may only produce one and some not any at all. They are all getting pretty much the same treatment but the difference may just be in the tubers them self.
DP, I do mine this way for two reason first it's really fun to watch them root and second I think I get a lot more starters this way.
This is what I have right now, I've given a lot of them away already.

I have 7 plants each in a 4 inch pot. At this point these are ready to plant outside but it won't be warm enough for another 6 weeks. They are the ones in the blue dish pan.

I have 30 rooted starters. Most are ready to be potted up only two of them are from my Margarita. That's a crystal toothpick holder in the front I use that for my very smallest starters. I'll let those grow a little before potting up.

I have 7 tubers right now there are about 25 new starters coming and there could very likely be more after I harvest those. Everything I have here now has been grown from these 7 tubers since about Feb 23rd. I went to a seed swap and shared several extra tubers and all the rooted cutting I had at that point.
DP, The round one is my Margarita, That's the one that hasn't developed any roots. You can see that the growth is stunted multi-stemmed and the leaves don't seem to develop. The first one I pulled off of it was just the same. I put it in my toothpick holder to develop and it is but very slowly. This second one started after I took the first one off. I'll be pulling it pretty soon and hopefully it will root and grow. I don't know why it is growing this way but it does not have anything to do with the fact that it is a Margarita. I have grown them before and had very good production.

Randbponder, I forgot to mention how nice your pictures look. Nice plants.

Thanks; Holly.
I'm still scratching my head on the difference in the tuber color between your blackie, and mine.
So far- - - -every thing looks "Blackie".
After I read your post, I went out to the kitchen. Took some pictures of the sprouting tuber. I will download them and post again.
Russ.

Here is one of the White tuber

Here is one of the sprouts, rooted and potted,

The first one seemed a little blured, Here is another shot

Different angle

Might as well send one more

Holly; So now I ask. Is that any help? Does it look like it's a blackie???
Russ

Thanks for all the information on these. I love the potato vines and I am quite upset with myself because I was not at DG last year and discarded so many of these plants at the end of the season.... Oh My!! The plant abuse police will be after me now for sure.

Again, thanks for the info. I can't wait to try this myself. Merpeg

merpeg;
Sounds like an admission of being human. LOL
I'm sure we have all thrown stuff out, only to find later that you could have used it..
Welcome to DG. We all like getting dirt under our finger nails.
Most of all talk about our plants and gardens. Some of us need a fence to lean on. Happy gardening, and if you have a question just fire away. Surely someone has had the same experience.
Russ

Sorry Rand forgot to get back here. Your plants look just like mine. I really don't see a difference other than your potato is white and mine are red, interesting.
Some one asked me for starters and I can't remember who. I have some to share so please D-mail me if you are interested in some.

And another pic