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bcskye

Sweet Potatoes

bcskye
10 years ago

I put three different sweet potatoes in their individual containers of water and they have sone great sending out slips. In fact, I have eight slips off one potato in a glass jar of water ready to be planted in the garden and more on the same potato ready to pop off and put into water. Two of the potatoes have put out beautiful bright green leaved slips while the third one is producing more of a dark, dark green leaved slips. Is this because it was a different variety maybe? I didn't buy the potatoes all at the same time. Also, on two of the bigger leaves of this third potato, there is a very sparse very light amount of a powdery substance. Is this the sweet potato type of powdery mildew or something I should be concerned about? It doesn't seem to be effecting them and its only on those two, none of the others. Opinions, please.

Comments (11)

  • wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
    10 years ago

    I would guess that the darker leafed one could be a different variety. I never remember sweetpotatoes having leaf diseases.. Plant them soon as the middle of June is about as late as you want them planted.

  • Slimy_Okra
    10 years ago

    I have had the leaf guttation issue. It is apparently caused by overwatering late in the evening, especially if accompanied by cool air and/or soil temperatures.
    I second the suggestion to plant them ASAP.

  • Anne Wolfley
    10 years ago

    I grow beauregard sweet potatoes and the leaves start off a dark color (almost purple) and then turn green. Don't worry about that.

  • bcskye
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks wayne_5 and annew21. It is apparently a different type of sweet potato and I look forward to comparing the differences at harvest time. Where are you located in Indiana, wayne_5?

    Slimy_Okra, these are just slips growing on the potato with the bottom of the potato in the water.

    These have grown like crazy and will be putting them in their bed in the garden this afternoon or this evening after I get home from church. Again, thanks for the input.

  • wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
    10 years ago

    bcske, I am located in Madison County. I about always harvest them in October when it begins to frost a bit.

  • bcskye
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Gee, wayne_5, we used to live outside of Pendleton, across the road and west of the reformatory. I loved Madison County. We sold our place there and moved to our property down here about 10 miles northeast of Nashville.

    I tried sweet potatoes from commercial slips a little over 26 years ago when we moved down here. All I got was a bunch of pitiful tubers about the size of a pencil. Thank you for giving me an estimate on when to harvest them. I think I'll have much better luck with them now since I've learned more about growing them.

  • edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
    10 years ago

    Lucky you with all those slips. I tried several different ways to grow some this year and struck out.

  • Anne Wolfley
    10 years ago

    Just to add to what wayne_5 said, sweet potatoes need approximately 4 months of warm weather to fully mature. You can check them before you decide to dig them up to make sure they've gotten big enough. I sometimes check them after they've started to flower and then I have an idea of how much longer they need. Of course, if frost comes to your area then you have no choice but to dig them.

  • bcskye
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Edweather, you might have gotten sweet potatoes that were treated so they wouldn't sprout or you didn't wait long enough for them to sprout. One of mine started growing little teeny sprouts right away, another one took about a week longer and the one did nothing. I forgot about the one that did nothing as it was in my sewing room, but after a couple of weeks it was even sprouting. And I noticed that once they did get started, they grew very quickly.

    Annew21, I'm going to keep a close eye on my sweets when we start into October. I'm between 75-85 miles south of wayne_5 so I will watch his posts. Thank you for your advice, too. That's what I love about all the Gardenweb forums I'm in - so many people contribute their knowledge. I know a lot about veggie growing and some other things, but sweet potatoes are a new challenge to me that I think will be a success due to the help I've gotten here. My motto: The older I get the more I realize I have to learn!

  • edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
    10 years ago

    I tried almost everything including organic untreated potatoes. I put it right in potting mix, and it rooted, but no soots. Oh well, better luck next time. I grew 4 slips last year that my father in law brought up from Florida. This is what they looked like when I dug them up, and yes, they take a LONG time to mature especially up north. I used black landscape fabric.

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  • bcskye
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Edweather, those are beautiful sweet potatoes you harvested. I used the toothpicks method to suspend my sweet potatoes over water with about a third of the potato or less in the water. I've gotten lots of beautiful slips. When the slips are about 6" long I put them in a canning jar with a couple of inches of water in the bottom. They developed roots so fast I couldn't believe it. I hope I get as nice a harvest from each of mine as you did.

    The sweet potato leaves from the one potato that developed a little sprinkling of white on them have died and it looks like it's spread to a couple of leaves on the potato I had next to it and the newest leaves on it have died. Isolation and destruction time. No matter, I have plenty more slips on the first sweet potato growing like weeds.

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