Growing Sweet Potato in Melbourne? Impossible Dream?

A couple of months ago I found this in my cupboard.

I posted the picture with my Monday Harvest post and Shawn Ann helpfully told me what she did with hers.  She twisted off the shoots and placed them in a glass of water to grow roots.  I did as instructed and this was the result:

Look at those beautiful roots!  Here they are again from another angle in which you can also see the leaves.  It was the evolution of the leaves that I found most interesting and really regret not having photographed along the way.

Essentially the leaves went from those strange pinky orange things to the beautiful green heart shapes they were when I planted them out yesterday.

All in all it has taken 2 months for them to go from; shoots on a plant, to developing roots, to being potted up, left on my daughters windowshelf to grow, then in the past 2 weeks taken outside to harden off before being planted out yesterday.  It will be interesting to see if they do anything.  I would love a harvest like Dave’s at Our Happy Acre’s but in Melbourne’s climate that is unlikely.  I think I will settle for any sort of tuber at all, and eating a few leaves along the way.

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9 Responses to Growing Sweet Potato in Melbourne? Impossible Dream?

  1. Frogdancer says:

    Good luck! I’ll be watching with interest.

  2. ali says:

    Oh that photo looks just wonderful! You have managed to make me appreciate the beauty of sweet potato, which is something I usually overlook. Sweet potato makes me cranky. I can’t grow a decent one – and I am in BRISBANE! I don’t know what I am doing wrong… good luck with yours 🙂

    • Liz says:

      Thanks Ali, I suspect I may have simillar results to you- although I keep reading about people eating the leaves, so I’m hoping they will be delicious and make up for any lack of underground action.

  3. Mary Hysong says:

    I used to grow sweet potatoes when I live near the Gulf Coast of Texas. They love sandy slightly acid soil and lots of heat. I have not been successful at getting decent roots here in the desert with our poor alkaline clay but I try every few years. I start mine just as you are doing yours, except I root them by sticking toothpics in the potato and sticking it in a jar of water, and then break off shoots as they are big enough and beginning to root. I found you through Daphne’s Harvest Monday

    • Liz says:

      Thanks for visiting! I might be in trouble with the sandy soil – ours is pretty clayish in places, oh well if all goes wrong at least now I can blame the soil.

  4. Diana says:

    Good Luck with sweet potatoes. We are growing 3 types this year, purple ones as new member this year. Their new shoots also can be eaten.

  5. Mike says:

    Good job, looks like they are off to an excellent start. 🙂

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