Well, I've learned that I am better at growing ornamental sweet potatoes by mistake than I am at
growing regular potatoes intentionally.
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| A large sweet potato that formed underneath my ornamental sweet potato plants (Ipomoea batatas 'Blackie') |
My regular potato crop this year netted me a small bowl full of potatoes. On the other hand, my ornamental Sweet Potato vines that fill the tulip bed after the tulips are out of season produced a large crop of some pretty big potatoes!
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| My crop of ornamental sweet potatoes |
I have read that these potatoes are actually edible, though they're not very tasty. Rather than suffer through a bunch of bland potatoes, I plan to save these potatoes and plant them next Spring to fill the tulip bed once again. It will save us some money. In fact, the reason I found these large potatoes, is because I was digging up a couple of the sweet potato plants (Ipomoea batatas 'Blackie') to keep in the greenhouse over the winter and replant it next Spring.
I put a couple of plants in a hanging basket in the greenhouse and will try to keep them happy over the winter. But now I have a large group of backups that will probably produce even better for me next year.
WOW! Those are very large potatoes. Hope that they can be replanted for plants. I will have to check and see if there are any in my pots.
ReplyDeleteDo these ornamental sweet potatoes have "eyes" like "regular" potatoes? Do you cut the sweet potatoes up with an "eye" in each piece, then plant all the pieces? Would each "planted eye" then produce a new batch of potatoes?
ReplyDeleteyou don't grow sweet potatoes with eyes. you grow them with slips or stem cuttings. you can over winter roots with stems on then start cuttings in the spring
ReplyDeleteHow do you prepare these potatoes for best dining results?
ReplyDelete