Growing Sweet Potato Slips in the UK
Growing Sweet Potatoes in the UK
Sweet Potatoes are a healthy alternative to the humble spud but they are much more difficult to grow as they love a long period of heat which the British weather isn't renowned for.
Step 1
The Sweet Potatoes have arrived in the post packed carefully in a plastic greenhouse. All the plants are healthy, moist and not wilted. There are two varieties, three of each of Erato White (Pink skin, white flesh) and three of Erato Orange.
Sweet Potatoes are grown from slips. The slips are actually cuttings that have been taken from the Sweet Potato tubers and rooted to grow new plants. They are usually available to buy online from April onwards.
Step 2
The slips were potted individually into two litre pots to grow them on. They were potted in a multipurpose compost.
To give them some extra protection and warmth to get them going they were put into a growhouse.
Here you can see they have grown on slightly and are ready to be repotted into a larger pot and grown on to form tubers.
Step 3
The Sweet Potatoes have been potted on, with three of each variety in a potato growing bag. We have added some bamboo canes for the vines to climb up.
The pot has been placed in the sunniest part of the garden. For best results it should be left in a greenhouse. It has been kept well watered.
Step 4
This picture shows the Sweet Potatoes a few months later. Some have grown up the canes some haven't, this seems to depend on the variety.
The Sweet Potato Tubers will be ready in the autumn. The plant will signal that it is time to start to harvest the potatoes when the foliage starts to turn yellow and go brown.
Sweet Potatoes aren't frost hardy so don't let the tubers freeze, harvest the tubers before this happens.
Step 5
The Sweet Potatoes were harvested in early November before the first frosts . Results were mixed. Erato Orange did not produce any tubers of harvestable size, the roots were just starting to swell. The Erato White had produced some tubers that were large enough to be cooked, although they weren't the uniform size and shape you see if the shop! However once cooked they tasted great.
The summer had been fairly cold. Sweet Potatoes love a long season of hot weather to produce a decent crop of tubers and we didn't have many hot days this summer (2019). They were also grown outside. A greenhouse or growhouse would have been a better growing environment as it would have protected the Sweet Potatoes from the elements and kept them warm.
However they were fun to grow and try something new plus it was definitely a pleasant surprise to get something at all with the weather we have had. They are well worth a try if you want to grow something a bit different.
