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Post by chrysanthemum on Oct 25, 2021 7:56:11 GMT -6
Those Japanese White and Okinawa Purple both look beautiful. I’m glad you got some to keep for slip production.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Nov 5, 2021 7:14:22 GMT -6
For most of my life, I never liked Ipomoea batatas (sweet potatoes), when prepared as they usually are for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. More recently I discovered that I can appreciate them best, raw, cut into strips like french fries, or made into sweet potato chips. I also hadn't realized there was so much variety available in sweet potatoes. Maybe I'll have to try growing a few, perhaps a purple fleshed variety (if there is one). After-all my wife has always liked sweet potatoes, and she really loves the color purple.
Edit: In my defense, I only read the first page of this thread, before deciding to add this post. Otherwise I would have already known about the Okinawa purple.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Nov 5, 2021 7:32:19 GMT -6
Oops, I forgot to mention that when visiting the Philippines, while in the Navy and spending time with a native family, I learned that the vine tips, boiled or steamed, were delicious.
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Post by macmex on Nov 5, 2021 10:32:18 GMT -6
Yes, the vine tips and leaves make excellent greens. Last week I made chicken stew, adding sweet potato vine tips and leaves for greens. It came out great! My only complaint with them is that a large bowl of fresh greens cooks down into a very small bowl of cooked greens.
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Post by macmex on Nov 5, 2021 12:09:14 GMT -6
The other two, you don't know what they are? Did you get them from me?
I'm very very close to finishing my harvest. Hope to finish this weekend.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Nov 5, 2021 21:32:21 GMT -6
I've heard that it's possible to take cuttings/slips from already rooted and growing vines. That way, if you have a limited quantity of a desirable plant you can make increase as early as you desire, at least sooner than waiting for the slips produced early the next season, from the prior seasons tubers. Hopefully any later created plants will also produce some amount of usable crop/tubers.
Those Okinawa Purple look very interesting, even oddly beautiful.
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Post by macmex on Nov 6, 2021 6:30:22 GMT -6
Yes, I often make cuttings from the plants I put out in May, planting new plants as late as the middle of July. Usually the newer plants produce well. It all depends on conditions. HEAT and MOISTURE are the main requirements. Sweet potato plants make their crop fairly rapidly given the right conditions. So early planted slips often do not out produce later planted slips.
When we are in the dog days of summer I look at my sweet potatoes and imagine them working at high speed, putting on weight. I am convinced that those are the days to really pump water into the sweet potato patch, because that's when they are going to utilize everything they receive and optimize their crop.
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