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Andrea
Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal
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 Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 4:59 pm Post subject: No tubers on my sweet potatoes |
 
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Beautiful crop of leaves but no root to speak of. Where may I have gone wrong?
Doubtful it would be a lack of sun or water. Wondering if a too rich soil might be to blame? |
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Slim
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 5477
Location: New England (In the US of A)
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| Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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They like a good soil. Did you get enough heat? Long growing season? |
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sean
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 41983
Location: North Devon
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| Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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Andrea's in Portugal so probably yes to both. |
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Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2134
Location: New Jersey, USA
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| Posted: Sat Nov 28, 15 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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Sweet potato leaves are edible |
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Andrea
Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal
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| Posted: Sun Nov 29, 15 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Jam Lady wrote: |
| Sweet potato leaves are edible |
Yes, which means the crop wasn't entirely wasted!
Sun, lots of. Good soil, tick. Water, no problem. Can't remember when they went in, but perhaps they were simply not in the ground for long enough before they died off.
There's always next year ... |
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Slim
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 5477
Location: New England (In the US of A)
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| Posted: Sun Nov 29, 15 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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days of growth might have been the trick. Why did they die off?
I've only ever seen them go down after frost |
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roobarb
Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 135
Location: Carmarthenshire
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| Posted: Mon Nov 30, 15 12:31 pm Post subject: |
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Did you let the vines grow across the ground? They can end up re-rooting along the stems and not putting their energy into making tubers. I made mine climb up a grow string, and cut out the tops once they had reached the roof to encourage the tubers to swell. I also believe they need good drainage - the book I have says to plant them on a ridge for this reason. |
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Andrea
Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal
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| Posted: Wed Dec 16, 15 6:25 am Post subject: |
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Only just seen the updates to this.
Slim, they died off following our first frost.
Roobarb, that's really interesting thankyou. Yes, they were sprawling beautifully and I did notice multiple root points. Might be a significant factor. |
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Slim
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 5477
Location: New England (In the US of A)
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| Posted: Wed Dec 16, 15 10:52 am Post subject: |
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So can you give a guesstimate of how many good growing days they had? |
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Andrea
Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17, 15 7:08 am Post subject: |
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| Slim wrote: |
| So can you give a guesstimate of how many good growing days they had? |
May to November? Went in as fairly decently rooted plants, so got away fairly quickly. |
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OtleyLad
Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire
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| Posted: Thu Dec 17, 15 7:25 am Post subject: |
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| Andrea wrote: |
| Slim wrote: |
| So can you give a guesstimate of how many good growing days they had? |
May to November? Went in as fairly decently rooted plants, so got away fairly quickly. |
I've read somewhere that the shortening daylength triggers tuber growth but by then its getting much cooler in the UK. So autumn temperatures will affect yields.
There's also the need to prevent the trailing plants forming roots - see here under Training and Pruning. |
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