Your comments and tips

06 May 17, Jack (Australia - temperate climate)

Sweet potatoes and Potatoes are both tubers. They start forming while the plant is actively growing but don't ripen until after flowering. Potatoes that are harvested early are called 'new' potatoes and do not keep very long.

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30 Apr 17, Barb (Australia - temperate climate)

We grow sweet potato as a perennial it in a separate bed (South Coast NSW with no frosts). I trim the lengthy vines to keep them within their bed: this seems to enhance formation of tubers, and also increases the small leafy shoots that we use as a yummy leafy vegetable (eg: Asian Stir-fry greens). We add compost and mulch when growth slows in winter, so it has plenty to feed on the following summer. We don't store the roots - just harvest and eat the roots as required.

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01 May 17, Giovanni (Australia - temperate climate)

Good comment about the greens. I will try it. I am further south, well into Victoria and we can grow them.

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20 Apr 17, Vicki (Australia - temperate climate)

Hi I live west of Inverell NSW and have been growing Sweet potatoes for a few years now in wicking beds and have been getting a good harvest each year why is it that temperate areas for this veggie are not recommended to be grown here. You are right when you say the vines will travel one of mine was going up a palm tree. I find your sight very informative thank you.

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21 Apr 17, Jo (Australia - temperate climate)

They are often not recommended for temperate areas because of shorter seasons. If you strike them from cuttings and get them growing early you should be able to harvest a good crop. I Know of them growing in Toowoomba (cold winters) and they were bordering on being weeds. They are also grown by many people in southern Victoria.

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09 Feb 17, eric pearson (Australia - temperate climate)

Do you cut the end of runners off

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09 Feb 17, John (Australia - temperate climate)

You certainly can cut the runners back. Kumera/sweet potato is a member of the same family as the blue flowered Morning Glory vine and needs containing to stop it spreading. Do not cut it back too hard as the leaves are also feeding the plant. the runners will form more sweet potatoes where they are in contact with the ground and can form roots. You could also put a stake in when you plant them next time and tie all of the growth to the stake then at the end of the season cut the growth off, let it dry and use it for mulch or compost. Trust this helps.

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16 Feb 17, Africanaussie (Australia - tropical climate)

You can eat the tender shoots like spinach!

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29 Dec 16, Robwyn Mugg (Australia - temperate climate)

When is the best time to plant sweet potato for Adelaide, S.A.? I have grown them in the past and only got a few as Curl Grubs ate the rest of my produce, they were planted in a raised bed.

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24 Sep 16, Kay (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I have planted slips that I grew about 2-3 months ago, The slips are in soil, in large plastic tubes with holes in the bottom & sides to drain as much water I can. We have had soooo much rain, & I checked the top & bottom soil. The top soil is dry, but the bottom soil is very wet. Should I leave them to do what it automatically do itself to grow, or remove the soil & slips & start again? I dug to bottom of the vines to see how they have been growing. The slips have lots of roots.

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