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No tubers on my sweet potatoes

 
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Andrea



Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal
PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 15 4:59 pm    Post subject: No tubers on my sweet potatoes Reply with quote
    

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?

Slim



Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6533
Location: New England (In the US of A)
PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 15 5:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

They like a good soil. Did you get enough heat? Long growing season?

sean
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon
PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 15 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Andrea's in Portugal so probably yes to both.

Jam Lady



Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2501
Location: New Jersey, USA
PostPosted: Sat Nov 28, 15 5:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Sweet potato leaves are edible

Andrea



Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal
PostPosted: Sun Nov 29, 15 12:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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 ...

Slim



Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6533
Location: New England (In the US of A)
PostPosted: Sun Nov 29, 15 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

days of growth might have been the trick. Why did they die off?

I've only ever seen them go down after frost

roobarb



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 139
Location: Carmarthenshire
PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 15 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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.

Andrea



Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal
PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 15 6:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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.

Slim



Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6533
Location: New England (In the US of A)
PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 15 10:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

So can you give a guesstimate of how many good growing days they had?

Andrea



Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 15 7:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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.

OtleyLad



Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire
PostPosted: Thu Dec 17, 15 7:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

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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