Growing Sweet Potato, also Kumara

Ipomoea batatas : Convolvulaceae / the morning glory family

Jan F M A M J J A S O N Dec

Not recommended for growing in USA - Zone 5a regions

  • Plant shoots or cuttings (Slips). Best planted at soil temperatures between 63°F and 95°F. (Show °C/cm)
  • Space plants: 16 - 24 inches apart
  • Harvest in 15-17 weeks.
  • Compatible with (can grow beside): Best in Separate bed

Your comments and tips

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08 Jun 15, Winsom (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Hello, saw where you have the purple sweet potato cuttings and would post to someone who was looking for it. I live in Brisbane and was looking for the purple skinned sweet potato. How do I go about sending you the costs for this? regards Winsom
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16 May 15, Carole Hanley (USA - Zone 10b climate)
I would like to grow these wonderful sweet potato here in Nevada. We ate them in New Zealand and they are beyond good.
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13 Apr 15, Charles Lee (Australia - tropical climate)
I bought my "seed" tuber as a vegetable in the supermarket. Some gardening experts say to wait until leaves yellow & plants die back before harvesting. I am in Townsville and that did not work. Plants grew 12 months a year. Tubers were bigger than footballs, woody and had insect attack and rot. Suggest you follow other advise that recommends harvest in 16 weeks. Tubers are smaller and tender.
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09 Apr 15, Bill (Australia - temperate climate)
The orange sweet potato/kumara can grow like a weed. I recently dug up a patch and for months tiny kumara plants were sprouting. Some from the smallest pieces of broken root. If you see one you like in the supermarket, I suggest you chop some up and plant it. To harvest, they poke out of the ground when ready. Feel around for a big one, then remove it by hand. Be careful not to break it in two.
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30 Jan 15, Shona (Australia - temperate climate)
Bunnings sells the kumara plant in QLD along with feijoa trees which were both thought to be a NZ thing only? Or you can get on eBay though there are certain restrictions with sending fruit or plant matter between states.
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05 Aug 14, Peter Wheldon (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
I saw Jerry Coleby-Williams of Gardening Australia use a crop of marigold in a garden bed for a season to 'gas' or fumigate the nematodes organically. Apparently farmer's friends or cobblers pegs do the same thing. So you could pull the kumara up, cultivate the bed and plant a heap of marigold in to deal with the nematodes if that is what the grubs were.
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09 May 14, Joe De Ornelas (Australia - temperate climate)
Hello, I live in Perth and I've been in search of the ORANGE KUMARA, but to no luck. Does anybody know were I might be able to purchase this elusive plant?
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18 Feb 16, Carol (Australia - temperate climate)
The orange one is called Beaurgard. See if you can find a supplier in WA :)
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07 Apr 15, Susan Johnson (Australia - sub-tropical climate)
Diggers Club (Vic) and Green Harvest (Q'ld) sell the orange sweet potato, which is quite distinct from NZ Kumera.
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26 Jan 15, Peter (Australia - cool/mountain climate)
Kumara are purple and lemon on the inside and taste chestnutty not like the sweet potato in Australia. When you taste a kumara it taste nothing like what some supermarkets are selling as New Zealand kumara.
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I have had for over one year a half 200 litre plastic drum with a sweet potatoes growing in it. Just this past weekend I have dug around in the totally dry soil looking to see what was there. I did this with my hands after loosening it up with a garden fork all around the side of the drum. The leaves were not dying off in fact new shoots are forming. I only did this as we have had 1 week of dry hot weather. I harvested 3 very good sized spuds and put the rest back and topped up with well mulched soil. No extra fertilizer has been used and this is the second time I have turned this drum. As the soil lowers and parts of tubers show I top up with more well mulch soil. With watering and good old mother nature we have bought no sweet potatoes at all for quite some time. I have no idea how long they have been growing I don't garden like that.

- Garden Gnome

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