Sweet Potato Vine Care

Although the plant works well as a ground cover it is especially effective.

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 does well in containers where it is a common spiller plant. The foliage lends a tropical feel to the garden and comes in a range of colors and varying forms. The ornamental varieties are simply cultivars of the species plant.

The one season in which it s generally not advisable to plant sweet potato vines is the winter. Most of the time the sweet potato plant is planted in the spring. Overwintering sweet potato tubers. Sweet potato vine winter care.

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. It does best in full sun and warm weather temperatures should remain above 55ºf before planting outside. Sweet potato vine ipomoea batatas named for its edible cousin is an ornamental warm season annual grown for its attractive leaves and vining habit. 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.

They can also be kept as house plants. Otherwise there are several easy ways of overwintering a sweet potato vine. The care of sweet potato plants is similar to most other vining houseplants in the home spending summers outdoors. Ornamental sweet potato vines are in the same family as edible sweet potatoes and are in fact the same species.

Though prolific growers you may fertilize monthly if desired using a general all purpose water soluble fertilizer. Bulb like tubers grow just beneath the surface of the soil. A vigorous annual or a tender perennial it takes off in summer heat. 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.

Care of sweet potato plants. However depending on your growing zone it can be planted at other times of year. While tolerant of drought these plants prefer to be kept moist not soggy. The sweet potato plant or sweet potato vine has been cultivated for around 2 000 years for its sweet tasting tubers.

As a tropical plant it prefers warmer temperatures. 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. If you have space you can simply bring the plants indoors and grow them as houseplants until spring. Typically used as spillers in containers they also make fantastic groundcovers typically spreading 4 to 6 feet.