Growing sweet potatoes in Scotland

Anyone else out there mad enough to grow sweet potatoes in Scotland? North East Scotland?

3 years ago, I decided to buy some slips. I know, they grow in warm climates, but I like a challenge. They’re expensive, but I thought I’d give them a try. They arrived early July, I rooted them, planted them and waited. The results – pencil size pointless waste of time and money.

I decided not to bother buying slips again, so the following year I tried to grow my own slips from a shop-bought sweet potato. I know, the slips you can buy have been developed to grow in the UK and those grown in Peru… in Scotland… I know! The results were worse – the slips didn’t start growing until June/July, meaning they wouldn’t have been planted until later than those the previous year.

This year, armed with the heated propagator I was given for Christmas last year, I decided to try again. So, in January, the halved, shop-bought sweet potato was set in the propagator, suspended in water, wished well and left alone.

I really thought I’d failed. It did nothing for a few months (except turn the water manky). Then, around March time, it started sending up slips. I’m guessing it was to do with light levels (not sure if that’s right, as moth people I’ve heard of growing their own slips do it in an airing cupboard). So, the slips got rooted, potted, and finally planted in the polytunnel through black plastic in the sunniest spot.

Today, I dug them up (had a few about a month ago, but dug the lot today).

The Results: about a 300% improvement on those designed to grow in the UK. These were as fat as a thick thumb on average. I did notice the ground appeared to be quite compacted though.

Knowing my capacity to think “next year, I’ll do…” and then never quite getting round to it, I decided to prep the area they’ll be planted in next year (yet, a 300% improvement can only mean I’ll be trying again). So, gave it a deep digging, broke the soil down well, added a couple of large buckets of 4-year-old leaf mold I had bagged and stored and half a dozen buckets of 2-year-old compost. Lightly forked it over and watered. Hopefully the worms will finished the job over winter, but I’ll see how it’s doing in spring and add anything else I think it needs before I cover it with black plastic to start heating up.

Watch this space – next year I’m aiming for a bucket full! Yeah, I like a challenge!!!

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