Sweet Potato Vine Care

Ornamental sweet potato vine ipomoea batatas is valued for its colorful foliage and rapid easy care growth habits.

Sweet potato vine care.

In this article we will share some smart tips and information to help you grow these lively colorful plants successfully in any setting. It is said that columbus brought the plant to europe from the new world on his expedition missouri botanical garden though the variety of sweet potato plant that produces the edible tubers can be planted for its trailing vines more recently different variations have been. While tolerant of drought these plants prefer to be kept moist not soggy. Overwintering sweet potato tubers.

Some of the older varieties may even grace your garden with a few sporadic lavender blooms that look like a slightly more tubular morning glory and for good. Ornamental sweet potato vine ipomoea batatas makes an excellent addition to any garden they do well in traditional flowerbeds in landscaping and are wonderful container plants. Though prolific growers you may fertilize monthly if desired using a general all purpose water soluble fertilizer. As a tropical plant it prefers warmer temperatures.

Otherwise there are several easy ways of overwintering a sweet potato vine. A vigorous annual or a tender perennial it takes off in summer heat. Sweet potato vine does well in containers where it is a common spiller plant. 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.

When to plant sweet potato vine. However depending on your growing zone it can be planted at other times of year. Bulb like tubers grow just beneath the surface of the soil. The one season in which it s generally not advisable to plant sweet potato vines is the winter.

Gardeners turn to the sweet potato vine for its ability to power through just about anything while bringing interesting shapes sizes and colors to a pot or plot. Sweet potato vine ipomoea batatas named for its edible cousin is an ornamental warm season annual grown for its attractive leaves and vining habit. Care of sweet potato plants. If you have space you can simply bring the plants indoors and grow them as houseplants until spring.

Sweet potato vine winter care. They can also be kept as house plants. The ornamental varieties are simply cultivars of the species plant. The sweet potato plant or sweet potato vine has been cultivated for around 2 000 years for its sweet tasting tubers.

Although the plant works well as a ground cover it is especially effective. The foliage lends a tropical feel to the garden and comes in a range of colors and varying forms. Typically used as spillers in containers they also make fantastic groundcovers typically spreading 4 to 6 feet. Most of the time the sweet potato plant is planted in the spring.