New For 2012 - No. 1 - Sweet Potato

A rainy November day seems a good time to get back to the computer and share some news from the allotment. I like to try something new each year and here is the first of this years experiments - growing sweet potatoes.
I took a cutting from a friends plant in 2011 about the start of September, and it quickly rooted then when the weather turned colder it started to look a bit sad so I brought it home to spend the winter on the window sill in the spare bedroom. In May it returned to the allotment and was planted in a large pot in the greenhouse. My pot was about 18" across and 12" deep. It spread well, going in all directions, covering about 12 foot end to end by autumn.

I wasn't quite sure when to dig it up and see what was there, but as the foliage began to die back I decided I couldn't wait any longer. November 7th I harvested these beauties. Hard to say whether they were limmited by the size of the pot or whether I should have waited a bit longer.

Arranged on a standard dinner plate to show the yield they weighed in at 1kg. The largest tuber was 7oz. Not a huge crop, but very usable and very tasty. I really like them mashed 50/50 with potato.
You can buy slips from lots of places, but if you know somebody else prepared to spend about £10 on an experiment do try to lift a couple of cuttings to rear your own, and once you have them don't feel you need to buy new stock every year. Being pleased with this years crop, I have already got three cuttings started in the spare room to grow for next year. Traditionaly where these were grown, new plants were raised from cuttings to perpetuate the crop shortly before harvesting.