Dear all
Have you ever tried growing sweet 🥔 potatoes? This a photo of my sweet potato developing roots.It is ready for planting out now and I hope to harvest some later … hopefully 😊
All you do is get a sweet potatoe and put 4 toothpicks in the way I have done it and suspend it in 💦 water. Change the water daily and in about 10 to 12 days you will see roots developing on the bulb . Then dig a hole and bury it. Hopefully new shoots come out from this and as they are runners they will grow and produce the sweet potatoes. Shall let you know later in a few months time as to what happens . Happy 😃 sweet potato growing. Praxy
News, Views and More from Batch'64, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo, SriLanka 
Good work Praxy. You are hoping for a warm summer aren’t you ? We. living in NZ love our sweet potatoes. The Maori call it Kumara and it grows well here in summer.I think you will get a better yield from your single yam if you wait till the “slip” is showing.(No pun intended) Every little sprout (slip)off the yam can be teased off and each one of these must be allowed to develop a root system in the same way as you are doing now.Then each of these can be planted separately and you will have 6-10 plants from your single yam.Happy summer gardening to you, as we roll into a very cold winter.Eddie.
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Dear Eddie,
Thank you for your additional tip. We are just in the first month of Summer and hopefully should be able to get some yield before Autumn draws in. Praxy
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Wow sounds and looks great Praxy. I love to eat sweet potatoes, sorry ,Too lazy to grow the plant?
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Dear Rani,
I too love sweet potatoes and especially when I heard that sweet potatoes are less in calories than normal potatoes which OI found difficult to believe. Praxy
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Thanks Praxy. Will email you any results I might get.
With best wishes,
CJ
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Yes please do CJ. I love to hear of the success, as I love gardening tips,Praxy
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Yes indeed – Sweet potatoes are very healthy and very tasty. We love them.
I do not think sweet potatoes will do well in a pot. Living in a Town House we do not have the use of a yard. Then again I do not have to clean the yard , mow the grass or trim the bushes. I just admire the flowering plants and the beautifully landscaped yard.
We have lots of plants and veggies in pots. Shall try to send pictures when they are in full bloom.
Thanks Praxy for the tip.
Nisantha
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Yes Nisantha we would love to see veggies in pots and may be take a few tips from you, as I l love gardening. {Praxy
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Hi Nisantha and Piching .
I grew tomato.peppers and eggplant in pots back in 2002 summer, as I was doing a trip to the Arctic and wanted to take some home grown fresh produce for my friends up there .
I had nice tomato, peppers and egg plant- but, the darn deer came up to the front door step where I had lined up the pots in the sun, and ate them all !
I could have killed the sob’s – I was sooo mad .
I ended up buying stuff from the supermarket to take to the Arctic .
That was really the end of my vgt growing at home .
Just 2 yrs ago, I installed an electric fence , to keep out the deer – that is working good, but, rabbits creep under the lowest wire ( 24 ” above the ground ) .
But, I think, the coyotes, wolves and fisher have now eaten up the rabbits – as I have not seen any ‘rabbit damage’ for two weeks, till someone else comes along to replace the old ones !
Good luck with the patio potted vegetable garden .
eagleD
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Hi Praxy
Sweet potato has more nutrional value than the ordinary potato. I shall try your method and Eddie’s advice Shall Let you know the outcome. I like gardening but have never grown. any vegetables other than tomatoes.
Marina
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Sure Seelan no worries as the Ozzies say. I will be the sweet potato growers to the nation. Ha ha ha. Praxy
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Thanks Praxy,
My land is about 880 sq.m but mostly occupied by the house & the entire back yard is concrete & tiles.- No place to grow the sweet potato. Can you export some of your potatoes to Sydney?
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Dear Marina,
You should try growing these. I can remember many years ago we at Ranjit’s brother’s house in Brisbane and they asked us to stay a bit longer till they returned from a holiday in Vanavatu. There I saw a sweet potato that was sprouting, among their other veggies. I took this and planted in the garden and a few months after we returned to UK he told me that they could not get rid of the sweet potatoes and that he had to uproot them and distribute it to the neighbours. So I am sure if you plant them at the bottom of your garden that has a lot of space then you will be able to gather a good harvest. Praxy
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Dear Marina,
Another vegetable easy to grow is potatoes in a bag. I bought a big bag ( they are called potato bags I think ) from £ stretcher for a £” and filled it with compost. Then I took some of the potatoes at home that were sprouting. I cut each potato into two and buried them. They grew very well and after the leaves had gone yellow I emptied the bag and there were lots of lovely big potatoes. I did this last year Worth trying. Praxy
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My dear Bionic Nona !
I award you the Master Gardener Certificate – so, now you are MD ; MG !!
This is great what you are doing out there .
I grew an Avacado Pear tree from seed, just like the way you had the Sweet pot yam- with the tooth picks suspended in a glass jar .
Let the Seed touch the water and it will sprout a bud shoot after a while .’
I dont know how long it took to shoot out the bud,- as I did this about 30 yrs ago !
Then, we had to move from that home in Ottawa to Mississauga and I threw out the Avacado Seedling .
Look up google on How to Grow an Avacado from Seed and try your luck on this .
Spring is here for me in Ontario, Canada, and it got VERY hot and humid for a week ( + 25 deg C and more and now the temps plunged down again to the single digits C.
The weather here is crazy like a yo- yo- and the plants and the gardeners are confused !
Anyway- on the brighter side of life, I had another most lovely , soul filling encounter with an Endangered Species of Hog Nosed Snake – right in my yard – ( Non Poisonous ) .
I sent you the photos and to Sam/ Wimal and Ariya- and I have not heard back from them- perhaps they got sooo scared and deleted the pics !!
Keep up with the Potato Farm !!
eagleD
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Dear Bonsai Nona
Thank you for your tip on growing 🥑 avocado. I am experimenting with all sorts of things . Having heard so much about the beneficial effects of Turmetic I ordered some Turmeric from Amazon. They arrived today and I have buried them in pots hoping the summer weather will help them to grow. Since we can’t get small red onions I got some last time I went to London to Marina’s place to attend Kamala’s funereal. The left overs sprouted when we were in SL attending the funet, When we came back I planted them too in a pot. They seem to be doing well but I don’t know whether I will get fresh onions from them . Will edit and see.
Yes your 🐍 snakes were pretty scary and I just don’t know how you can handle them with no fear at all. Oh you are brave. Praxy
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