Sweet Potato Vine Tubers Edible

Sure and you ll get 200 percent of your daily roughage requirements in the bargain.

Sweet potato vine tubers edible.

However the leafy green tops are edible too. 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. The ornamental varieties are simply cultivars of the species plant. 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.

That means the tubers it forms are actually edible. 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. Popular varieties like marguerite have small round tubers while varieties like blackie have longer narrower 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.

Growth habits sweet potatoes fill out quickly and can take over small spaces. 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. 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. Overwintering sweet potato 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. With edible sweet potatoes as with most root crops and herbs it is important to remove any flowers. If the energy of the plant is going to flower growth and production then other areas like the tubers will suffer. Bulb like tubers grow just beneath the surface of the soil.

Ornamental sweet potato vines are in the same family as edible sweet potatoes and are in fact the same species. Sweet potato vine winter care. However the leafy green tops are edible too. In the united states most gardeners grow sweet potatoes for the big sweet tubers.

All cultivars share the traits of plain though still edible white tubers and sprawling growth. One of the easiest ways to create multi seasonal interest in the garden is to use plants with interesting foliage. If you ve never tried eating potato vine leaves you re missing out on a tasty highly nutritious veggie. It is important to have a fertilizer that is high in potash in order to encourage tuber or root growth.

If you have space you can simply bring the plants indoors and grow them as houseplants until spring. Grow your own sweet potato vines.