Reed's Sweet Potatoes grown as annuals from true seed

Adaptation Projects
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I don’t think so. I’ve closely watched the bees going in and out of the foliage, sometimes it’s the only clue that flowers are even in there. Only drawback if there is one is that capsules, especially if there is a cluster of them dry down better if they are more exposed to sun and air. A rainy cloudy period can rot seeds before they mature, if it is cool. If it is rainy, cloudy and hot they can sprout in the capsules, even if they have never dried down.

I have to go through and cut off a lot of leaves to prevent that and to find the seeds. It’s very tedious and still lots get lost, I guess that’s why they started volunteering so frequently. You can cut a lot of leaves and extra stems off a plant with no noticeable reduction in root size and quality. I’ve had them eaten to the ground by rabbits, twice in one season and still harvested respectable sweet potatoes.

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So it sounds like more prominent flowers may be useful for finding the seeds later on, and also more useful for the seeds to not sprout prematurely (definitely desirable things!), but the bees will find the flowers just fine, even if they’re hidden.

Around what time of year do you start harvesting seed capsules? I’m wondering because my climate is bone dry most of the summer, but there’s one extremely wet week every August (in which we get about a third of all our yearly rain!). If keeping mature seeds dry is important to prevent premature sprouting, seeds that are fully mature in mid-August might sprout on the plant, but seeds that are mature right before the rain or well after it after would be fine.

It seems to me that if you have to do a lot of leaf-cutting to find seed pods, that might be a neat way to harvest sweet potato leaves to eat. It’s really interesting to hear that you can chop off a ton of foliage and not affect root size or quality much – that sounds like a great opportunity for someone who loves eating sweet potato leaves. Or who owns livestock that love eating them. :wink:

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I’ve harvested a seed or two as early as mid June, but they don’t really start taking off until late July, early August. From there they just don’t stop until frost takes them. I’m pretty sure that immature seeds on discarded vines after harvest sometimes finish ok even after a frost, there are always volunteers in spots where I discard vines. A few years ago, it stayed low 90s into November and dry, I’ve never seen so many seeds, before or since.

I think about that often when tossing all those leaves and growth tips on the ground. If I just get to like them a little more.

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(Laugh.) Yes, I know what you mean. For some reason, even though kang kong leaves taste similar to sweet potato leaves, I think kang kong leaves are great, and I don’t get very enthusiastic about sweet potato leaves. I’ve speculated that there’s probably a higher density of some nutrient in kang kong that my body really needs, or something.

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I’m sure you realize, of course, that if you ever have way more sweet potato seeds than you can ever possibly use at some point in the future, there are people on this forum who’d be really excited to buy the extras from you. :wink:

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@MarkReed, what spider mite management practices have you found to be most effective?

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I’ve never had problems with them except on my houseplant sweet potatoes and they like the ones with purple leaves much more than the green. This past winter just keeping the plants in the warmer, sunnier window downstairs seems to have helped. I guess just being in better conditions and overall healthier helped. It must be that healthier plants resist them.

Still, I had to keep them picked off as best I could or wipe them off with Qtips dipped in vodka. I don’t like to, but I also resorted to using Neam oil a couple of times. Now that there have been some warm days to take them outside for some full sun and let them get rained on a couple of times the mites are mostly gone.

Spider mites are weird little critters. I’ve known of them but have never seen them except on my houseplant sweet potatoes.

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Likewise for me. I have a few varieties that I keep going all winter indoors and spider mites always show up eventually. I control them by periodically giving them a good watering in the bathtub w/ shower hose. I’ve also used hydrogen peroxide (1-3%) spray with a very small amount of Dr. Bronner’s peppermint Castile soap. A very generous and thorough spraying will knock them down, but I’ve never managed to eradicate them entirely. Thanks for your response. I may have to add your methods to my management.

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Hey, @MarkReed, any chance you’ll be selling slips of your sweet potatoes this year? :blush:

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I just finished reading this thread and watching @MarkReed videos. I’m a new member, but boy oh boy would it be cool to have some sweet potatoes from seed. And potatoes, and garlic. I’m so glad people are working on reintroducing this trait so we can actually breed them again! If any seeds become available, I’d do my damndest to grow them up to seed again and share.

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@magocalvo, true sweet potato seed sources are pretty limited. I’ve gotten seeds from a gentleman whose YouTube channel is called Geeky Gardens. I’ve also bought seeds from @MikeJennings of Diablo Valley Farm. He doesn’t have any for sale ATM, but this is where you’d find them:

OR

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1466966958/true-sweet-potato-seeds?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details

You can sign up to be notified when they are re-stocked.

Another source is Zach Elfers of Future Forest Plants. He also has an out-of-stock listing here:

I haven’t been able to get seeds from Zach yet, even though he’s in my backyard.

Telsing Andrews of the now-defunct Aster Lane Edibles worked on developing new sweet potato varieties adapted to her short-season growing conditions in Canada. Her varieties are now stewarded by HeartBeet Farm in Ontario. They used to mail slips within Canada, but now they only sell them at their markets. If anyone has access to these, I’d love to get my hands on all/any of those cultivars. There’s also another newish variety that I’m interested in called “Luminance,” which Johnny’s offered last year, but now they’re also only available in Canada, as far as I know. It is a purple-skinned, white-fleshed variety that’s claimed to be superior to Murasaki and adapted to short seasons.

There’s a Blogspot blog called thebatatagardener that has some posts about TSPS.

There’s a video on the Adapted Nursery YouTube channel about TSPS.

There’s another YouTube channel called Oxbow Farm which has some TSPS content.

Other than that, the best and most comprehensive content you’ll find is from @MarkReed. He has a YouTube channel and threads on several forums: OSSI, Homegrown Goodness, Permies, and here, of course. :blush:

As far as true potato seeds go, your best sources will be either the GTS seed share or Bill at @Cultivariable:

I hope the above is helpful if you’re going down the TSPS/TPS rabbit holes.

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I don’t believe Garlicana sells TGS anymore, but you can buy their True Garlic Seed Progeny and hopefully they’d be more likely to set seed:

https://www.garlicana.com/garlic-varieties/true-seed-progeny/

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Thank you so much @JonathanDeRevonah ! This is more info than I could ever have hoped for! I really appreciate your time relaying all these resources!

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