Sweet Potato Vine Tubers Edible

Are the tubers from the ornamental sweet potato vine edible.

Sweet potato vine tubers edible.

Bulb like tubers grow just beneath the surface of the soil. Purple vine plants are common as are green red bronze and even multicolored. That means the tubers it forms are actually edible. However the leafy green tops are edible too.

Sweet potato vine winter care. Popular varieties like marguerite have small round tubers while varieties like blackie have longer narrower tubers. They are bred for the beauty of their leaves rather than edible tubers and the vines from these plants make them look more like a morning glory or clematis than a member of the potato family. Sweet potato vine ipomoea batatas named for its edible cousin is an ornamental warm season annual grown for its attractive leaves and vining habit the foliage lends a tropical feel to the garden and comes in a range of colors and varying forms.

Often grown in container gardens for its trailing stems of purple chartreuse or variegated foliage ornamental sweet potato vine is actually related to the sweet potatoes you d grow in your vegetable garden. In the united states most gardeners grow sweet potatoes for the big sweet tubers. I understand that they are not the tastiest kinds of sweet potatoes but i would like to save them to plant again in the spring. Sure and you ll get 200 percent of your daily roughage requirements in the bargain.

All cultivars share the traits of plain though still edible white tubers and sprawling growth. It is important to have a fertilizer that is high in potash in order to encourage tuber or root growth. The ornamental varieties are simply cultivars of the species plant. I recently pulled out a decorative sweet potato vine as i was cleaning out my planters for the season and found huge tubers under the soil.

Growth habits sweet potatoes fill out quickly and can take over small spaces. Grow your own sweet potato vines. If you have space you can simply bring the plants indoors and grow them as houseplants until spring. If the energy of the plant is going to flower growth and production then other areas like the tubers will suffer.

Ornamental sweet potatoes are the same species as the edible kind but they have been selected for their interesting foliage not their tasty roots you ll need lots of brown sugar and. Ornamental sweet potato vines are in the same family as edible sweet potatoes and are in fact the same species. However the leafy green tops are edible too. While it is the same species as its edible relative ornamental sweet potato vines are bred for their incredible leaves rather than their tasty tubers.

Overwintering sweet potato tubers. With edible sweet potatoes as with most root crops and herbs it is important to remove any flowers.