Last spring I read about a particular variety of sweet potato that is said to be much more nutritious than the more common varieties: The Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato. Excited (and before doing any real research), I ordered a few starter slips online since the variety did not seem to be available in my area.
I should mention that I did do some research after the purchase and discovered that many gardeners who had tried to grow them reported problems. Some complained about poor harvests, some complained about slips with a poor survival rate, and some (who had picked up tubers at local farmers' markets) said they could not get slips to grow from the tubers.
I was disappointed, as well. The two fragile little slips that survived (I had ordered three) were very slow to establish themselves. At season's end, I had only harvested one very large tuber and a few smaller ones. In the end, I ripped out the original vines from the location where I had planted them and figured the variety just wasn't worth growing.
However, that wasn't the end of the story...
I've been getting my garden back in shape lately, ripping out stands of weeds and grass that I allowed to take over during the winter months. Although the original bed in which I'd planted the sweet potatoes was, of course, empty, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for me underneath all that weedy overgrowth. The Okinawan Purple Sweet Potatoes had somehow quietly migrated on their own and have become naturalized in several spots in my garden. I will, of course, not make the mistake of trying to move them back into a location of my choosing. These intrepid survivors obviously have a mind of their own.
Oh, they taste very good, too. And their deep purple color, when cooked, is really beautiful!
Here's a link for curious gardeners who might like to try them:
I should mention that I did do some research after the purchase and discovered that many gardeners who had tried to grow them reported problems. Some complained about poor harvests, some complained about slips with a poor survival rate, and some (who had picked up tubers at local farmers' markets) said they could not get slips to grow from the tubers.
I was disappointed, as well. The two fragile little slips that survived (I had ordered three) were very slow to establish themselves. At season's end, I had only harvested one very large tuber and a few smaller ones. In the end, I ripped out the original vines from the location where I had planted them and figured the variety just wasn't worth growing.
However, that wasn't the end of the story...
I've been getting my garden back in shape lately, ripping out stands of weeds and grass that I allowed to take over during the winter months. Although the original bed in which I'd planted the sweet potatoes was, of course, empty, there was a pleasant surprise waiting for me underneath all that weedy overgrowth. The Okinawan Purple Sweet Potatoes had somehow quietly migrated on their own and have become naturalized in several spots in my garden. I will, of course, not make the mistake of trying to move them back into a location of my choosing. These intrepid survivors obviously have a mind of their own.
Oh, they taste very good, too. And their deep purple color, when cooked, is really beautiful!
Here's a link for curious gardeners who might like to try them: