Comments on: Gardening Tips & Tricks : How to Grow a Sweet Potato Plant

By: vawllms

vawllms — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:41:01 +0000

Thanks, perhaps I will work on posting a video. Muktismom I have to break some news to you as well. Those aren’t yams in the grocery store either. Sweet potatoes that we buy in the US are very commonly referred to as yams, and very commonly labeled as such, but they are actually sweet potatoes. I think yams are white and not really sold here at all fresh or canned. Am I right growit…?

By: muktismom

muktismom — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:34:22 +0000

thank you so very much for the clarification! All my life I have seen “Yams” and “Sweet Potatoes” in the markets. Every Christmas we eat “yams” – with marshmallows in casserole. BTW – Yams are much less expensive in the grocery stores than sweet potatoes. Leading to more confusion.
I am really happy “you are the one to break it to me” – your snide wording was not necessary.

By: growitlikegranddad

growitlikegranddad — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:51:24 +0000

wow… “a beautiful flowering plant”?
Sweet potatoes will never bloom the first year, so they will NEVER bloom anywhere it frosts. What you show is not really a sweet potato. It IS an ipomoea, just not one that makes potatoes. This plant you show is called the sweet potato ivy in most parts of the USA.
While a pretty climbing plant, it is a real stretch to call it a sweet potato. sorry

By: growitlikegranddad

growitlikegranddad — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:46:18 +0000

vawllms…
everything you say is correct. The reason we don’t get blooms on our sweet potatoes is the season is too short. The same plant in zone 10 will grow for several years and only bloom the second year…they make lots of potatoes the first year but never bloom (just like you say). Maybe you SHOULD post a video of your sweet potatoes. I would love to see it, too. Most of the folks here have no idea.

By: growitlikegranddad

growitlikegranddad — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:42:24 +0000

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but “yams” are not grown in the western hemisphere very often. because the conditions are not correct. True yams are native to Africa and are a woody bush. I know that many places in the USA call the orange sweet potato a yam, but it is really just a sweet potato. True sweet potatos are all colors…white to dark red (pink and orange included). As stated by vawllms…this “sweet potato” depicted is really not a bearing potato…but a flower.

By: paintball227

paintball227 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:23:00 +0000

i grow sweet potatoes and mine dont have light colored leaves like hers and dont flower. Idk what she is growing

By: vawllms

vawllms — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:46:48 +0000

This is not the plant you grow to produce true edible sweet potatoes. That comes from a slip, not a seed, and the leaves are dark green. We call this sweet potato ivy around here (zone 6) and it is cultivated in greenhouses for use in annual beds or hanging baskets. Maybe I need to make my own how to grow garden vegetable videos. This one and the others available pretty much suck. This lady doesn’t even show any footage of herself in a garden????

By: muktismom

muktismom — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:32:36 +0000

please clarify – everyone is calling yams a sweet potato. sweet potatoes grow off slips.
i wish people would starting using the correct references.

By: chucksheen

chucksheen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:41:26 +0000

Excellent video, thanks!