Where To Buy Ornamental Sweet Potato Vine Tubers
Sweet potato vines are easy to cultivate, maintain, and keep alive for many years as long as they remain inside or are temperature-controlled during periods of freezing temperatures."}},"@type": "Question","name": "How fast do sweet potato vines grow?","acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer","text": "These plants are fast-growing vines that can grow up to 10 feet long in a single growing season.","@type": "Question","name": "What's the difference between sweet potato vines and sweet potato plants?","acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer","text": "Sweet potato vines are the same species as that plant that grows sweet potatoes. The ornamental vines are cultivars that are grown for their beautiful-looking leaves and not their tuberous roots. Ornament sweet potato vines have tuberous roots that are edible but are not sweet-tasting and are rather bitter.","@type": "Question","name": "Can sweet potato vine grow inside?","acceptedAnswer": "@type": "Answer","text": "As long as you have a sunny spot or a grow light, sweet potato vines can grow well indoors."]}]}] .icon-garden-review-1fill:#b1dede.icon-garden-review-2fill:none;stroke:#01727a;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-linejoin:round > buttonbuttonThe Spruce The Spruce's Instagram The Spruce's TikTok The Spruce's Pinterest The Spruce's Facebook NewslettersClose search formOpen search formSearch DecorRoom Design
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Learn tips for creating your most beautiful home and garden ever.Subscribe The Spruce's Instagram The Spruce's TikTok The Spruce's Pinterest The Spruce's Facebook About UsNewsletterPress and MediaContact UsEditorial GuidelinesGardeningPlants & FlowersGroundcovers & VinesHow to Grow and Care for Sweet Potato VineBy
where to buy ornamental sweet potato vine tubers
Sweet potato vines are the same species as that plant that grows sweet potatoes. The ornamental vines are cultivars that are grown for their beautiful-looking leaves and not their tuberous roots. Ornament sweet potato vines have tuberous roots that are edible but are not sweet-tasting and are rather bitter.
Ornamental sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas) are frost-tender vines with colorful foliage that climbs or trails. The plants grow from a fleshy underground bulb called a tuber. Sweet potato vines are hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 through 11, and in those zones you can leave them in the ground all year, according to Missouri Botanical Garden. When overwintering sweet potato vines indoors, you can dig up the tubers and replant in the spring.
Tubers are similar to bulbs. Both are a fleshy part of the stem that grows and develops underground. Roots grow out of the tuber into the soil and the stalk grows out the top, above the soil line. The fleshy tuber stores nutrients, water and genetic material for the plant. Each growing season, the plant creates new tubers. A simple way to propagate sweet potato vine plants is to divide the tubers and replant them in the soil. Each section will grow a new plant.
In areas outside their plant hardiness zone, sweet potato vines can be grown as annuals. In winter, cut down the foliage at the soil line and dig the tubers from the ground. A garden fork or shovel work well for digging under the tubers but it is important to make sure not to damage the tubers when digging or they will not store well. Brush off the dirt and they're ready to store.
Store sweet potato vine tubers in a dry, insulating medium. Sand, peat moss or vermiculite work well. Gently clean the tubers to remove most of the soil. Avoid rubbing, washing or scraping the skin. Damaged skin allows rot to develop and can ruin the tubers. A bucket or barrel makes a good spot to store sweet potato vine tubers for the winter.
Make sure there is enough of the packing medium so each one is covered and not touching. Place them in a cool location, such as a basement or a garage, where they can remain dry and cold, recommends Better Homes and Gardens. In areas within the climate zone range, the tubers can be left in the ground year-round.
Spring is the time to plant sweet potato vines. After removing the tubers from storage, cut them into sections and plant them directly in the soil. Each section should have an "eye" on it. The eye is an indentation from which a new shoot will grow. When planting sweet potato vines from tubers, make sure the eye is facing up.
Choose a sunny location, as sweet potato vines require at least six hours of sun daily, and ensure that the soil is well-draining, recommends Plant Care Today. After covering each section with 1 inch of soil, keep the area damp and watch for new shoots over the next couple of weeks.
You can also grow ornamental sweet potato vines in containers, either inside or outside. If inside, place the pots in a window facing west or south to ensure enough sun. Try to maintain a temperature of between 70 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, water the plants deeply once a week, and regularly pinch off dead or old growth to encourage new growth.
While Sweet Potatoes all come from the same parent material out of Southeast Asia, there is a big difference between the Sweet Potato you buy in the store and the tubers produced by the Sweet Caroline and the Illusion plants. Commercial sweet potatoes have been bred for over 100 years selecting for those with the best sugar to starch content (hence the name SWEET Potato), the ornamental have been bred to produce good leaves and no tubers, though they do form, they are composed of almost pure starch and no sugar; making them a poor choice for eating. So yes you can eat the tubers, but don't expect anyone to come back for seconds! Also always be careful when eating any ornamental plant unless you know how it was grown, and if pesticides or fungicides were used on it before you got it; a tuber is a storage root, and yes they store chemical as well as starch.
I put some of the Raven sweet potatoes in two different mixed planters. I was astonished at how fast they grew! I wanted something that wouldn't get too long, and these were perfect. They grow very bushy and full, and have such an interesting almost-black color. I had to trim them a bit so they wouldn't overpower the other plants in the pots. I would happily plant them again.
For long-lasting color and sheer drama in the landscape, few plants rival ornamental sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas). Grown for its showy, exotic-looking foliage, this fast-growing heat lover comes in various colors and forms.
Lush, vigorous foliage occurs in a range of bold hues, including chartreuse, green, bronze, red, brown, burgundy, purple, black and variegated. Leaves are heart-shaped, deeply lobed or lacy, creating textural interest in the landscape. One of the most popular trailing plants for containers, hanging baskets and window boxes. Sweet potato vine can also be grown as a groundcover, trained vertically on a trellis, or allowed to cascade along a wall or slope.
Though sweet potato vines can produce tubers like their edible sweet potato relatives, they were bred for their attractive foliage rather than edible qualities. The tubers are not particularly flavorful, and production can be scant or non-existent.
When pulling some ornamental sweet potato vines recently from one large flower pot, we came upon several large tubers resembling white sweet potatoes. The thought occurred to us that these may be edible. Hmmm . . . . perhaps some research on the topic was in order before we baked these sweet potatoes in the oven and served them for dinner.
The bottom line is that ornamental sweet potatoes are bred specifically for their foliage, whether it be bright purple or vivid green. They produce fleshy, tuberous roots like their edible counterparts, but the quality of the tubers is generally not suitable for eating.
Ornamental sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a flowering vine that is similar to the edible sweet potato, except that the ornamental varieties have been selectively bred to produce very colorful foliage. The tuber system in the ornamental variety is not edible and is use specifically as a landscape specimen. This flowering vine is often planted in the spring, but can be planted during other seasons depending on the climate zone. No matter which season the vines are planted, choose a full to partial sunlight area with a consistently moist soil for best results with growth.
Plant ornamental sweet potato vines in a garden bed once the nighttime temperatures stay above 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the spring. The vines can be planted year-round in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8b through 11 where the temperatures remain above 70 degrees throughout the year. Many nurseries stock the vines from early spring to early summer, making this the ideal time to plant when you are not propagating plants from your garden. 041b061a72