As for the foliage, it’s lovely to admire in the garden. Store them in a cool, dry place. While store-bought sweet potatoes are likely to be orange-fleshed and sugary tasting, the tubers of the decorative vine are generally white and don’t taste very appealing. I grow one that has a red-brown skin and a dark purple flesh. How to Grow Sweet Potato Vines as a Perennial, Delicata Squash-The Sweet Potato Tasting Squash. To save them year to year, you can dig up the tubers making sure not to slice into them. Whatever their name – sweet potato leaves, sweet potato tops or kamote tops – the vines are rich and tasty, although, like most vegetables, they can be somewhat bitter. However, you can use the tubers you find in your container garden to grow new plants. The foliage lends a tropical feel to the garden and comes in a range of colors and varying forms. Relatives of the familiar garden morning glory, sweet potatoes have the Latin name Ipomea batatas.In their native habitat, the plants will produce flowers. It takes 100 to 140 days for sweet potatoes to grow harvestable tubers, depending on the variety. Disease, pests, and problems No common serious problems The morning glory family Convolvulaceae and the morning glory genus (Ipomoea spp.) That said, ornamental sweet potato tubers are planted for their lovely chartreuse, purple or variegated trailing foliage that serves as the perfect counterpoint to offset annual blooms. Ornamental Sweet Potato. The sweet potato vines will be planted in a large pot in which a Japanese maple, purchased at the Home Depot Garden Center, is growing. Here's how to tell the differences between each architectural style. All three species fall under the same order: Solanales. Choose one about 3 feet square to provide enough room for the roots. Their eye-popping foliage creates a splash of bright color faster than just about any plant I know. This unique plant is popular for containers and borders. You can also continue to grow them in water. To start, set one end of a sweet potato tuber in a jar of water so that half of it is submerged. You can also allow the vines to cover the ground and fill in large areas. Yes, ornamental sweet potatoes are edible! They are edible raw or cooked. Again, we recommend leaving those alone to grow underground, and perhaps to divide into slips for rooting and planting out when you want to start new vines. Cut away the dead portion of the leaves and vines, leaving just a couple of inches of old growth showing. You can save them like bulbs and plant them in containers the next spring. Their beautiful pink and white flowers are great for… Why Eating Potato Vine Leaves is Good for You. In fact, the leaves create so much shade that weeds often have trouble growing near sweet potatoes! The taste is a cross between a regular potato and sweet potato! This is 'Batatas' not 'Bulbifera'. All varieties of the sweet potato produce edible tubers. Yes. They're essential to holidays and casual gatherings. Even the Irish potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a long-distance cousin of the sweet potato and the wild potato vine. Yes, you can store the tubers for next spring’s planting. Can you eat sweet potato leaves? It does best in full sun and warm weather (temperatures should remain above 55ºF before planting outside). Botanical name: Ipomoea batatas. Find a glass container slightly larger in diameter than the tuber. The entire plant is edible. A: Sure – and you’ll get 200 percent of your daily roughage requirements in the bargain! Sweet potato vine is edible in my country. Sweet Potato Vines Sweet Potatoes: An Entirely Edible Plant. The ornamental sweet potato is a bold tropical plant that grows as a perennial in Florida. Vitamin B6 is another valuable nutrient found in sweet potato leaves. Sweet potato plants are typically grown for their sweet tubers, but the leaves are great too. Both edible and ornamental varieties of sweet potato grow quite well in large pots. The varieties grown as vegetables will produce mature sweet potatoes ready to be dug up in 95 to 150 days after the slips are set out in the garden. Get tips for arranging living room furniture in a way that creates a comfortable and welcoming environment and makes the most of your space. Yes, you can store the tubers for next spring’s planting. Ornamental sweet potato vines may start small, but some varieties will have you swimming in lush leaves by mid summer. Even the Irish potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a long-distance cousin of the sweet potato and the wild potato vine. Although edible, the sweet potato vine is generally grown as an ornamental. Andreas Trauttmansdorff, Can You Eat Ornamental Sweet Potato Vines? When you're ready to start growing more plants for a new growing season, you can easily make cuttings, known as sweet potato slips. And very low in calories! I came across an old thread from iVillage Garden Web's Far North Gardening Forum, where people were saying they were edible, but there were differing views on the taste, and whether a person would want to eat them. While your ornamental sweet potato plants may be edible, this does not mean you should be eating them. A slip is a rooted sprout from a mature sweet potato. With so many types of house styles, narrowing the list down to your favorite can be overwhelming. 1. The downside is that they also take up a lot of garden space and can only be grown in long-season areas. Sweet potato – Ipomea batatas – is a tropical perennial vine, probably native to India. — Hobby growers have a new edible option for their ornamental gardens by way of a Louisiana favorite: the sweet potato. Hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the first time or need a quick refresher? This winter front door display is layered with holiday cheer. Leave it in a warm, sunny spot. The potato vine is a member of the nightshade family. Brush off the excess soil and place them in peat moss, sand, or vermiculite making sure the tubers don’t touch each other. Although most gardeners are familiar with annual sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas) for their edible, smoky-sweet orange tubers, the ornamental sweet potato vine puts its energy into fountains of deeply lobed or heart-shaped, spring-to-fall leaves. The plant is a herbaceous perennial vine, bearing alternate heart-shaped or palmately lobed leaves and medium-sized sympetalous flowers. Q: Are the tubers from the ornamental sweet potato vine edible? The sliced leaves can be added to salads. If you like, you can use cuttings from a sweet potato vine to produce more plants. All Rights Reserved. The vines grow to 6” high and have a recommended spacing of 18” apart. Yes! Both edible and ornamental varieties of sweet potato grow quite well in large pots. Grab a glass of milk because we're about to dunk peanut butter cookies, oatmeal-raisin cookies, snickerdoodle cookies, and many more of our all-time favorite cookie recipes. Sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas), named for its edible cousin, is an ornamental warm-season annual grown for its attractive leaves and vining habit. Sweet potato vines can be toxic for animals … As for skin color and flesh color--these factors are quite variable. © Copyright 2020 Meredith Corporation. Garden varieties of the edible sweet potato have been selected for their flavor while the ornamental varieties were selected for their colorful foliage and trailing nature. With your hands or a small garden shovel, loosen the soil around the base of the vine. Sweet potato plants (Ipomoea batatas) are vines of tropical origin that thrive in hot weather. Yes, a family full of various morning glories; that dreaded vine which invades your beanstalks and fencelines like an invasive weed from Hades contains a few edible species, yet many toxic ones. Once the stems reach a few inches long, snip them off the tuber and place these cuttings in another jar of water. We reach for them after school and after dinner. Store on the vine and harvest as necessary. When you think of edible aquatic plants, sweet potato vine. It is quite vigorous as a ground cover. These popular container garden plants form thick, rootlike tubers similar to edible sweet potatoes (but not quite as tasty) and have edible leaves, too. Although most gardeners are familiar with annual sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas) for their edible, smoky-sweet orange tubers, the ornamental sweet potato vine puts its energy into fountains of deeply lobed or heart-shaped, spring-to-fall leaves. It takes 100 to 140 days for sweet potatoes to grow harvestable tubers, depending on the variety. Bring your new plant indoors before the slightest hint of frost. CHASE, La. Yes. Continue to collect these potatoes as you dig downward. Boiling the leaves of the sweet potato vine in a small amount of water removes any hardness or bitterness. For mid-winter fresh greens, sweet potato leaves can't be beat. Depending on what's growing in your garden, there's a lot you can do to get your ornamental plants ready for the colder months. Some varieties have been bred for colorful foliage, and are sold as ornamental plants -- however, their tubers have an off taste that makes them unpalatable as food. The sweet potato was developed in cultivation, probably from the central American species Ipomoea trifida (HBK.)D.Don[264]. We eat the young leaves and they're good. This is a good way to overwinter sweet potato vines because they will last all winter in the water and be ready to plant in the spring. Both types grow best in sunny conditions, but if you want to grow the garden varieties that produce edible tubers, it will take quite a long growing season. Frozen – blanch, shock in ice water and pack in zip-lock bags. Sweet potato vines are easy to grow from existing plants. The vine of this morning glory relative, however, can be grown indoors anywhere and used as a nutritious green, either cooked or in salads. Q: Are the tubers from the ornamental sweet potato vine edible? Ornamental sweet potato vines come in many varieties and colors, and they look beautiful as ground covers or for contrasts in pots and hanging baskets. 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