True sweet potato seeds ?

[cortona]

realy interested about this book...it seems realy interessant...i'm interested to find a copy of it.

[castanea]

You have to order it directly from the author in Canada.

[cortona]

thanks castanea!

[Hristo]

This year is my first year growing sweet potatoes. Here in Europe it's surprisingly hard to find good varieties. The ones sold at the big stores rarely are of good flavour. Luckily have managed to get 2 varieties - one of them should be Nancy Hall and the other one is no name. Unfortunately I lost their labels and now I do not know which is which. Week ago I noticed one of them has something that looks like flower buds, today I checked and indeed it's flower buds. I started them early April, since then until 2-3 weeks ago the temps here were unusually low (it's hot now), so the vines are around 50 cm. at the moment, but still all the plants of this one variety are loaded with buds. I wonder is it normal for Nancy Hall to flower? If the variety is self-fertile I should have seeds to share.

Edit: Which is more common - the self-fertile or self-sterile varieties?

[orflo]

Hristo, remind me at the beginning of the season next year, I have some varieties that could be interesting, especially in your climate. It's actually too cold here for most sweet potatoes, but Tainung 65 gives a marvelous crop and grows quite tall. Unfortunately it doesn't flower, at least not before the first frosts. I'm growing some sweet potatoes from Papua now, started from seeds. These seeds came from higher regions over there, so who knows there could be some fine results...

[Hristo]

Thanks Frank, if I do not forget... Also if you need of those I have...

As for my question, I think found the answer here:
tatermater.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=general&thread=56&post=491

Not good at all!

[castanea]

Flowers! I have flowers on one of my sweet potatoes!

[ilex]

I am VERY interested in these. It's almost impossible to get varieties in Europe. Our laws are too good at eliminating diversity of everything, specially those that reproduce by tubers. I don't think I can buy more than half a docen varieties here. You can find a few more buying tubers at stores (imported), but many of these are too tropical and obviously come with no name.

Sweet potatoes grow very well here and they flower well for me (some varieties). In one of my gardens I grow them as perennials (great ground cover for late summer and fall). I've never seen seeds, but will look closer.

You can speed flowering by grafting. Here's a video of it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_qixN_9J-8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=huyd79owzmY

[No sound]

This book also describes grafting. Lots of info:

La batata(Camote): Estudio de la planta y su producción comercial
books.google.es/books/about/La_batata_camote.html?id=wfxiAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

You might want to do searches for "injertar batata", "injertar camote", "injerto batata" and similar ones.

More info:

cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=284&Itemid=413&lang=es

[Deleted]

I sprouted two, unnamed varieties, last fall, over wintered the cuttings. One has purple flesh, and the other is beige. It has stayed warm, fairly late, this year. I am getting morning glory like flowers -- very light lavender, darker toward the center.

These were grown, on a south facing easement, lined with white gravel. Lots of sun.