SWEET POTATO TOWERS

Brisbane Qld

Back in 2013 a gardening friend posted a pic in our online group of a Sweet Potato Tower she was growing in a pot. I found it an intriguing idea as many of us were getting frustrated trying to grow SP in regular beds – they take up a lot of growing space and finding the tubers is always hit and miss.

I did a small experiment by growing one crop of SP in one of my raised beds full of rich soil – 4m x80cmx1.5m wide. Quite a lot of area to produce tubers. This is the end result – not bad, not good either for so much space used:

Entire SP crop from an 8mx1.5mx80cm bed. Not bad, but I found I could do just as well in a grow bag with a tower without taking up so much bed space and providing a good supply of edible leaves.

Then I tried the tower idea:

21.01.2013 I planted up some purple/white cuttings and added a tower. Pretty sure I just used a bag of Searles potting mix. I try slightly different growing mediums each time – mushroom compost didn’t work so well. Current crops are planted into well composted horse poo.

18.02.18 About a month later. Lots of good leaves to use in cooking.

05.04.2013 really good growth.

28.07.2013 Turn around for a crop can be as little as 4mths. I usually wait until the plant has flowered. Time to crop this lot.

Me cutting back the plant material from the top of the pot, helped by Hugo my Schipperke.

28.07.2013 What’s left doesn’t look to have much potential.

28.07.2013 Pretty darn heavy, so I enlisted my big strong son Andrew to tip it out.

28.07.2013 The end result. Not bad at all for a bag that size and certainly better value than the crop from an entire 4m bed.

28.07.2013 All washed, so pretty. I always leave the dirt on the tubers for storage these days. Scrubbing the tubers creates an environment for bacteria to get if they aren’t used straight after cleaning.

28.07.2013 I like to use the fresh plant material immediately as new growing material. You can keep it in a bucket of water/weed tea for up to a week if you don’t have time to replant immediately. The fresher the better in my book.

28.07.2013 Trimmed into individual cuttings. Each piece a potential new plant.

28.07.2013 Cuttings soaked in weed tea. Plain water would do fine.

28.07.2013 Some of the cuttings planted up. I tend to replant directly into the bag these days.

03.05.2014 I grow three varieties of SP these days and each has very individual leaves – this is the white/purple.

03.05.2014 And the purple/white. I also grow purple/purple.

26.04.2014 A crop of white/purple from one of the bags. Not as prolific as some of the other varieties but definitely my favourite – firm, sweet and delicious.