Hi Christopher! I just found your channel today when looking at how to grow Japanese sweet potatoes, and your video was excellent. I noticed that you haven't made any new videos in the last 4 years. Hoping all is well with your family, and that you are just too busy to garden. Thanks so much, Laurie in southern California.
Great video! The Japanese people cook / eat the leaves. I like the purple ones inside . Its a great idea to learn people. Learn from Venezuela. Thank you for sharing .
I am growing second crop of asian sweet potato always with slips. Two vines per pot usually yield around 9 to 12 nice size. There was tiny potato setting in garage that sprouted and then really paid no attention. I was going to throw it out but decided to stick it in pot with dried up sprouts on it. Quickly sprouted putting out brighter and bigger leaves than slips. I will wait for harvest to see if potatoes follow suit but so far surprised as most say slips are the way to go.
@@snobiethepobie Sips are sprouts that grow out of the sweet potato. Pinch them off put them in water and let them root. Once rooted they can be planted.There are multitude of videos on you tube on how o do it.
Okinawans eat these rather than rice and a staple of daily diet - they have some of the greatest longevity in the world. Many attribute that to the hyarulonic acid. One cool thing to note is how clean this potato is, one doesn’t get so much starch on a knife etc, before and after cooking - you can even boil the crap out of it and it doesn’t take on water like an overboiled potato - for me translates to clean in the body too! (Not science 😉 but maybe) lol
@@sojourner2013 Beautiful. The doc I saw about Okinawan's longevity also attributed COMMUNITY, friendship...they like to socialize and gather, stay active, even just walking or dancing clubs for the elderly. Street festivals...so lovely. It's important, so important. I always think of the Okinawan vibe, when I THINK I've communicated with friends online, I check myself...you have to INTERACT IRL. Human beings are SOCIAL creatures. :D
you want to keep raising the vines every few weeks to prevent them from developing more roots....so, more energy will be concentrated on the original roots.
Hi there! LOVE your video's! I have to say this is one of my FAVORITES! Backstory is: When I was a kid, my Dad would MAKE us eat sweet potatoes (regular, not the Japanese like these) and I told him I was going to puke because I couldn't stand them. Well, I delivered in that, yuck,🤢🤮 lol and he never made me eat them again. Jump 35+ year's later, still haven't ever eaten another sweet potato until one night while I was with my Mom recently who was recovering from Brain surgery and she was making a *special* dinner for me for doing so much to help her... etc. (And she wouldn't let me help her which was weird... Well, I go into the kitchen to when she said "Your plate is ready Blue Eyes" (name she calls me) We sat down at the table and I see this weird colored baked potatoe looking thing with lots of butter (love any kind of other potatoes) and she said "Honey, I know you don't like sweet potatoes and I remember what your Dad did to you but please just take one bite of this *Japanese Potato* and I will NEVER ask you again. Promise." So, i did and OH MY GOD! I would actually tell you THAT baked Japanese Sweet potato was THE BEST POTATO of ANY kind I've EVER eaten!! She baked them like a regular baker in Aluminum foil in the oven and then used this YUMMY butter we have here at Costco called Irish butter... and my Lord I couldn't believe it! They are very expensive here where we live but each time she goes to the natural food store, she always gets me a few!! I am definately going to try to grow some of these at her house because she has a huge garden. Since my Dad passed away we don't garden like he used to. WAY too much work for her and I work a job m thru f. I'm wondering if I can just use one that started growing roots on it because I didn't eat it fast enough? Also, we live in the Kansas City MO area. Can these stay in the ground through the winter months or better to try this next spring? Thank you and sorry for the LONG story! #JapaneseSweetPotatoes #WantToGrow and #Harvest 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔
Denise Allison awesome story, you can definitely grow them outside of winter, take one from the store and put it 3/4 of the way in the ground horizontally and in a couple weeks you should start having vines. Pluck off and plant the vines when they are about a foot long where you want potatoes and you’ll have 2-4 potatoes per vine in 3-6 months.
I was introduced to Japanese sweet potatoes when I lived in japan. There we would bake them and eat them with salt pepper butter and something called Kewpie mayonnaise. At the end of world war II the Japanese were effectively starving and the Americans who were tasked with helping rebuild the country had to find a way to get more nutrients into their diet. Or at least that's the story I heard. So they introduced mayonnaise to the Japanese people. As I understand it they use whole egg instead of just the whites thus Japanese mayonnaise is a yellow color. All I know is Kewpie mayonnaise on Japanese sweet potatoes it is delicious. I'm sure it's not organic and it's probably loaded with MSG but you should try QP mayonnaise if you ever get a chance on your baked Japanese sweet potatoes. Had one of these potatoes grow a lot of starts after I forgot it in a paper bag. So I planted it in a medium size pot and it has been growing vines for two years. Maybe this spring I will try growing some to eat.
Christopher: Once you got year 1 crop, Potato, vine and whole Potato + vine plant, how do you go year to year. Do you dig out potato and plant those vines for next year? How they survive winters?
The potatoes will not survive frost, so you have to harvest your last crop before the frost and start over in the spring by growing slips from potatoes or buying transplant from the garden stores. If you live in warmer climates like Florida you can grow them all year by replanting some of the vines or again growing slips from potatoes. I hope this helps!
Great video. But once you clip the vines to replant, do you not have to stick the newly clipped vine into a class of water to produce roots before planting it back in the ground? Ty
You don’t have to, when I pull a pack up now, I’ll snap an vine and put it in it’s place. When I plant them in rows, I’ll take a bunch of clippings and soak them.
You don’t have to, when I pull a pack up now, I’ll snap an vine and put it in it’s place. When I plant them in rows, I’ll take a bunch of clippings and soak them.
Did you know that you can steep the leaves to get additional nutrition. We have a friend who is from Taiwan. She is a 5th level Tia Chi master. She teaches marshal art. She is very educated about Chinese medicine. She is very big on homeopathic medicines. Look her up. Judy Fu of Tulsa OK.
Yes you can, there is debate on the best method. Some say that it should be half buried in moist dirt, others say it should just be set on top of moist soil, others say that it's okay to bury the sweet potatoes in moist soil. I personally have had luck with growing slips on my kitchen counter, also planting them 50/50 dirt, the only problem I had with planting underneath the ground was the sweet potato started to rot. It did give me several slips before it began to rot, I plucked that sweet potato from the soil, cut off the rotten end, place it back in different soil and it still gave me many more slips
I go by time (4-5 months in the summer, maybe 6 in the cooler season here) combined with digging a little around the tops to check for size. Some slips seem to mature faster than others, especially if theres one potato vs 2 or 3 so I’ll start poking and checking around 4 months.
@@theneckdoccollins Thanks so much for this video! I started growing these in my front yard here in South Florida with great results. We have grown so many that we can't keep up with them, lol. Do you know long you can leave them in the ground before they go bad? We are trying to figure out the best way to store them. Thanks!
I would love to hear your response to "Can you actually grow the potatoes outside in the winter weather? Maybe only if the area does not freeze? Golly, maybe a stupid question to begin with. Ha! Love your video and thank you for posting.
Thank you for such a great video! This may be a dumb question, but how do I start the process from the japanese sweet potato? Do you just plant one potato in the ground or does it need to be started first planted in a pot? My husband loves these so I'd like to grow them for him. Thanks so much!
@@theneckdoccollins thank you! I live in Charlotte, NC (7b) so I thought it would be too cold to just drop in the ground. How deep in the ground? Thanks again!
I've never seen a Japanese sweet potato before but I love eating the typical ones. Are they sweet tasting like regular sweet potatoes? I found you by searching zone 10a gardening. It's nice to see someone nearby that understands the health benefits of growing and eating our own food regardless of property size!
They are definitely sweeter with a finer texture. My experience is they are never grainy like all others can be. I discovered them about 3 years ago and have never bought anything else since. We planted our first just this year.
Do you use whole potato or cut small portion and bury it? How many vines one can put in 5 gallon pot? Would not you be spending more money by growing your own as yield is only 2 or 3 potato per vine. Potting mix is not cheap.
Acorn I use a whole potato and pluck out the vines it shoots off and replant them. Maybe 2 or 3 vines in a 5 gallon? One potato could be years of endless potatoes once you’ve paid for the dirt. I plant mine in the ground and they keep resprouting.
@@theneckdoccollins Thanks Christopher: I have conflicting information (I think). Most videos I have seen are show one plant per vine and after 4 or 5 months dig out potato and then start all over again next year. How many times potatoes can you harvest per year. I thought it is once per year and it is usually hot summer
Acorn I will find in my area that after I pull up all the potato vines, a week or two later there will be new sprouts coming up from starts or potatoes that I missed and if I let those go 4 to 6 months there will be a new pack of potatoes
Christopher, you are missing half the point of Sweet Potatoes which are super nutritious and delicious leaves. Sweet Potato is known as Famine Food. Best buddy, Christopher, start enjoying the fresh new sweet potato leaves on sandwiches and as a salad. Amen. Hallelujah.
Check the organic section as your super markets and health food stores. I get mine right at my local super market in my small town. Also, ask at your grocers'.
I know this was a year ago but i got some this past holiday season at trader joes and they still had them for sale a few weeks ago. We ate all but one that i just put in a half full pot of water. They were the Japanese Murasaki ones. Purplish skin cream to light yellow flesh. My grandson and i are hoping it makes a few slips for our little raised box beds out back. I also saw them being sold at meijer and walmart in the organic section. Ive grown the old fashioned orange ones from store tubers so im thinking these beautiful Japanese purple ones should do as well. But i did read they do better the longer they can grow so we are prepared to cover them with a small little pop up green house to prolong the season. I hope this helps. Looking at the 8 inches of snow is making wish for spring and starting little seeds under the grow lights.
Hey, there is no call to cast aspersions on the humble potato in route to praising sweet potatoes. Your comments, perhaps not intended, serve to reinforce ugly prejudices against this wonderful food, the delicious, nutritious potato. You should make an apology to the millions of potato lovers because your comments are downright offensive. Millions of people in thousands of cultures over hundreds of years have survived and thrived, eating this great food..
