Starting Sweet Potatoes from Seed (True Seed/biological seed

[Tucson Grower]

I got desperate and took some pics with my cell phone (not a smart phone - but soon it looks like I'll be forced into a smart phone). My really nice digital camera is still MIA, and I need to install my favorite image editing software on my current PC.

It's the first time I've had my own sweet potato vines, bloom. 

Here are the pics -->  The bottom one has the sweet potato blossoms.

[chrysanthemum]

I don’t have experience with the seed aspect, but I agree about loving it when they flower. We had morning glories that grew up the pillars on our carport when I was little, and I loved those flowers, and the sweet potatoes remind me of those, of course.

[Tucson Grower]

New pics of the three, seed-grown plants, each in its own 15 gallon pot.

[amyinowasso]

So, my understanding is true potato seed rarely grows true to the variety it came from. Does anyone know if sweet potato seed has the same issue?

[macmex]

That is my understanding, and so far, experience seems to prove it to be true. Last year I did grow out a seedling, which appeared to come from Becca's Purple and I didn't regrow it this year because it was so similar to Becca's Purple I didn't see the point of it, but most other seedlings seem unique.  #1Seedling2021 was a really large plant that produced large albeit not plentiful roots. The first year I grew it one root had a purple core and white outer flesh but in the second year grow out no purple coloring was observed. I didn't grow it out this year since it was similar enough to Grand Asia (probably one of the parents) that I didn't think it merited its own variety name. I also learned from this one, that seedlings may be a little unstable for the first year or two. They can actually change a bit. I had read this about Irish potato seedlings but it too appears to be true with sweet potato seedlings.

[Tucson Grower]

I've been reading, and apparently sweet potato plants only set seed when pollinated by non-related other sweet potato plants.

Of the three plants I acquired, from seed donated by macmex; one has many smaller leaves than the other two, is also more green, with less red/purple coloration in its leaves, but with many/many pretty purple/lavender flowers, the second has slightly larger leaves, and has more red/purple color to its leaves, many pretty lavender flowers, but many fewer than plant number 1. Plant no. 3 has the largest, and most dark red/purple color to its leaves, but has not produced a single flower.

[macmex]

What I have observed is that some varieties of sweet potatoes never do flower. I assume that they need shorter days than they get in North America or some other condition we can't offer them. Somewhere I read that Beauregard is a "terminal variety," that it won't flower. I don't understand the dynamics of this.

One would think that seed grown plants from seeds produced at this latitude, would produce flowers and seed themselves.

Some varieties are more prolific in flowering and, I think, in seed production.

One of the things I love about growing from seed is finding out what you get. Sometimes it takes more than one growing season to really know.

[macmex]

I think I'm ready to name my first home grown sweet potato variety. Been calling the seedling KaukuraX, since one of its parents was Kaukura Sweet, a patented ornamental/edible variety. Last year I grew it out enough to save roots. The plants seemed smaller than other, regular varieties, but this year they grew long vines. The roots were smaller last year, albeit quite attractive and easy to harvest. This year the roots were larger too. At harvest one would think the flesh is white, but after some months in storage it turns yellow. The flavor and texture is moist and sweet. It's not as ornamental as Kaukura Sweet but I find it quite beautiful, nonetheless.



I need to come up with a permanent name for it now and will start distributing slips next spring. I won't be advertising any more. Can't keep up with all the orders and details that come with them, but I do hope to provide slips for some friends. This one has earned a permanent home. I really like it.

Any ideas on a name? I will be contemplating a name for a bit.

Here's a link to more info on the Sweet Potato Network.

[chrysanthemum]

That looks like a beautiful root, macmex. Congratulations on such a fine growout. I saw your other pictures over on the Sweet Potato Network. You sure have a beauty.

I was thinking about the name, and I wondered what you thought of the idea of naming the potato with a name of a Cherokee landform or something. I think the parent sweet potato was named after an atoll in French Polynesia, I guess in keeping with some sort of Treasure Island theme, so that’s what got me thinking about landforms. I believe that your county in Oklahoma is Cherokee County in Oklahoma, so I thought a geographic name in that language might be appropriate since that’s where it was developed.

I did a quick Google search on something like “Cherokee landforms” just to see what turned up, and it mostly turned out to be articles about Clingman’s Dome in the Smoky Mountains and a proposal to have the name revert to Kuwahi or Kuwohi. That caught my attention because the articles translated that original Cherokee name as “Mulberry Place,” and it made me think of your mulberry growing efforts. Even though Clingman’s Dome isn’t in Oklahoma, I thought that the name Kuwahi might be a fun one for a sweet potato grown in your own “Mulberry Place,” especially as it keeps the K from the parent even if nothing else.

I’m not bothered in the slightest if that name has no appeal to you. It was just something I thought about this morning and thought I’d share. Maybe it will get the discussion going for more ideas. I’d love to hear what other people think.

[heavyhitterokra]

Interesting, an Okie-Kaukura cross. I've always admired ornamental sweet potatoes as hanging basket and high garden wall plantings, but the fact that they bore next to no edible roots was kind of off-putting while trying to convert flowerbed space to productive horticulture. This new strain is exciting news.

[macmex]

Chrysanthemum, that is a great idea! I will definitely consider it. Will have to ask some Cherokee friends how they pronounce Kuwahi and what they think. Most everything I don't know how to pronounce, I end up using a Spanish pronunciation, which is very logical and consistent, but, I've noticed that Cherokee is quite different in pronunciation. I especially like the "mulberry connection." I believe the mulberry has become my favorite fruit for this area.

[chrysanthemum]

Macmex, I’m glad you have some Cherokee friends who can give you some insight on it. It was really the mulberry connection that grabbed my attention, too, because of your postings recently on grafting and mulberry leaf tea.

[macmex]

Yesterday our Cherokee neighbors invited us to their annual family hog fry, so while there, I asked one of the about Kuwahi as a name. I don' t believe any of them are fluent in Cherokee, though they all have the carryover intonation of a Cherokee speaker even when speaking English. He and his wife are studying Cherokee with the Cherokee Nation, which is striving to reinvigorate the language. For generations they were shamed and discouraged from speaking their native tongue, causing most to lose it. But now the tribe is making a concerted effort to revive its use. I wish them well. The only reason I haven't tried to learn it is that I felt I would never have opportunity to speak it! If I start to hear Cherokee around here, I will consider picking it up.


Anyway, it appeared that my friend took my word for the meaning of Kuwahi, but he knew how to pronounce it. Of that, I'm pretty sure.  He pronounced it Coo-wáh-he. I will go with this name. I really like it for all the reasons that Chrysanthemum mentioned.

Side note: Our friend's five year old grand daughter is going to a Cherokee immersion school, run by the Cherokee Nation. I'm pretty sure she is going to be fluent.

[macmex]

Yesterday I started my first seeds for the 2024 season. I started some Baker Family Heirloom seed in a damp paper towel and five true sweet potato seed from last year's crop of seed. Old Yellow, which is a fairly new variety for me, produced more seed than I've ever before seen in my garden. (Some years I don't get any seed.) I set some of the "Old Yellow" seed apart and started 5. 

I won't start more because I'll be pressed for space. I'm only going to put out about 160' of sweet potatoes. I need to grow each variety I maintain plus the seedlings I've already "launched." I have two or three seedlings whcih will be coming into their third growing season. This year I'll either name them, in order to keep, or discard them. I suspect I'll be keeping them.

Thus far I've learned that it can take 3 years, maybe more, to really know what you've got, when growing out from true seed. I've observed that roots, even from the same plant, grown from seed the first year, can vary in character and... they pass on these differences if one pulls slips from the right root. Hence, it's conceivable that one might end up with more than one variety, grown from the original seed! The second year, which is the first for growing from slips, is when the "variety" stabilizes. I have not found any changes after the second growing season.

Kuwahi was interesting. The year I grew it from seed I made more than one plant through cuttings of the original seedling. All of the resulting plants produced identical plant growth and root characteristics, but they were all small. I thought I had found a compact sweet potato. Yet last year, the second year of growing (first from slips) this one produced uniformly long vines and standard size roots.

Growing from true seed takes patience and space. If one isn't in a hurry and cares to savor the process, it can be very rewarding.

[macmex]

Seems we've lost contact with Tuscon. I'd love to know how his sweet potato seedlings came out.

Here's a link to a new thread about one of my seedlings. It's still called #1Seedling2022 but if it tastes like I think, it'll get a proper name this winter. On the outside it looks like it should be white fleshed, but if I'm correct, it's orange fleshed. We'll see.

I first grew this one from seed in 2022. If I recall correctly, the original seed came from a friend in Oklahoma City who grew a number of sweet potato varieties, some of which were unnamed Oriental grocery varieties (good place to find unique sweet potatoes). In 2022 I just got enough root to propagate for the coming year. In 2023 rodents got to this one and I only harvested some "nubbins" or root. I did manage to cook and taste a small one in March of this year (2024). I was surprised to find that it was orange fleshed. It was good.

This year I only managed to get three slips from what root I had for propagation. I put them right in the "front row" of my planting, where they'd receive the best watering and most vigilance from predators.  Then, as the season progressed, I managed two small cuttings from those plants, bringing my total planting up to 5 plants.

Above is a photo of the crop from those 5 plants. Not bad!

Some of the roots were exceptionally large. Most were large to medium in size.

This one looks promising.