Home»Ornamentals»Vines»Ipomoea
Ornamental sweet potato vine ( Ipomoea batatas ) is an excellent garden improver . They do well in traditional flowerbeds and in landscaping and are wonderfulcontainer plants .
They can also be kept as houseplants .
Sweet Potato vine is grown as a “cylinder” at Disney’s Epcot, roughly 9 feet tall – Oct 2016
Other rough-cut names for this plant include :
Sweet Potato Vine is a penis of the folk Convolvulaceae , the good morning glory . It ’s also aboriginal to tropic America , including Mexico .
Ipomoea Batatas Quick Care Tips
In this article , we will share some bright tips and information to help you turn these alert , colorful plants successfully in any setting . interpret on to ascertain more .
Ornamental Versus Edible Sweet Potato Vine
In both decorative and traditional intellectual nourishment crop , sweet Solanum tuberosum are edible .
However , the tubers of the cosmetic industrial plant are small , tough , and not at all tasty .
Another divergence is that ornamental sweet potatoes bear abundant foliation in an regalia of dazzling colour , whereas the leafage of the food plant is attractive and abundant but only come in in bright green .
Both types of sweet tater plant produce trumpet - shaped lavender or pink peak in summertime ; however , these are not large or showy . The ornamental kind of plant may be entirely obscured by the large , colourful leaves .
If yourIpomoea batatas plants are doing especially well , you may see a few flowers in the former summertime or in the early autumn . Generally talk , the real attraction of decorative sweet potatoes is in their leaf coloring and cast .
Ornamental sweet-scented potato vine are also excellent climbers . Their stems are vine - like and can grow like potato ivy orphilodendron . They are a fast - growing vine , robust , and tolerate drought exceptionally well .
These calibre make them a in force selection as landscaping groundcover , pergola plants , attractive plants on a trellis , in a container , or in hang basketful plant .
It’s Easy to Grow Ornamental Sweet Potatoes!
Here ’s how to grow a sweet tater vine .
You do n’t need to corrupt mellisonant white potato seeds . alternatively , you could propagate your own plants from cuttings or from the tubers .
You are credibly already familiar with the tuber method acting , as it is a traditional preschool horticulture exercising .
To grow ornamental sweet potatoes from tubers , you use toothpicks to prop up your plane section of tuber in a looking glass of piss , leave alone the top third of it exposed to air .
grade it in an area with lustrous , indirect light , and you will shortly see roots and shoots beginning to rise .
To originate from sweet-flavored spud slips , simply come in the cutting in a container of water in an area with brilliant , indirect sun . Roots will startle growing soon , and the plant life will begin to thrive .
For either propagation method acting , be trusted to change the water every couple of days to prevent fungal and bacterial growth .
It ’s best to apply room - temperature water allowed to sit for 24 hours . This ensures chemical substance will have scatter .
Once rootage are instal by either the tuber method acting or the cutting method , you may use throne soil or plant your burgeoning charge .
Whether you found them in containers or outdoors in the dry land , be sure to apply light , aery , and well - drained soil .
If you implant in pots , it goes without saying that the pots must be well - equipped with good drainage holes .
Brighten Your Home
If you keep these hardy , colorful plants indoors year - around , you’re able to take care of them just as you would English ivy or any other vining houseplant . Here ’s how :
Pin
Taking Care Of Your Ornamental Sweet Potato Plants In Containers
Container planting can be especially attractive on your patio or pack of cards because cosmetic odoriferous potato is such a lively grower that itspills over the side of containersand hanging baskets with great abandon .
Its wide variety of colour and enthusiastic growth can provide interest and even shade off to your outside container garden preferences .
It ’s smart to keep on top of pruning for both indoor and outside container works because doing so will encourage your plants to grow in a bushier and more attractive word form .
If you drop to prune , your plant can become overgrown , leggy , and unattractive .
When you prune , be sure to keep your cuttings to start unexampled plant for your own use and to share with your fellow gardeners .
Add Color To Your Landscape
decorative sweet potatoes are an excellent addition to your summertime flower garden . They love red-hot weather , and you could impart them to your garden any time throughout the summer – even in the very hot month .
To use decorative sweet potatoes in your garden place setting , you have a figure of choices . They make excellent groundcover and low - growing go to sleep plants .
Ipomoea batatas are also excellent climber , commonly develop to 10′ feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide . It can supply ready shade to fresh establish arbor , trellis , and pergolas .
Once establish , they tend to take off and may take over your pace if you ’re not careful to lop them on a regular basis .
Ornamental Sweet Potatoes Are Attractive, Colorful & Varied
You ’ll have caboodle of choices when you decide to embed this colorful and hardy plant in your garden setting . Here are six of the most popular types of ornamental sweet tater that you are potential to encounter :
Blackieis a vigorous grower with attractively mold dark leaves that are almost grim .
Sweet Caroline Light Green – Sweet Potato VineIpomoea – Heat tolerant , works well in container or one-year ground covers . FromProven Winners
Margueritemakes an excellent counterpoint to Blackie with its hopeful yellow green , heart - shaped folio .
TheSweet Carolinapurple sweet potato kind has very little genus Tuber and abundant , deep violet foliage . This is a desirable choice for small containers because its ontogeny is not quite as rearing as some other variety .
Illusion Emerald Laceis also a compact choice that boasts bright green leaves and tends to grow more in a mound than to spread out . It grows to just about 10 inches high and spreads about four feet wide .
Tricolorsweet potato vineis another splendid container choice . It grow less smartly than Blackie and Marguerite and create leafage that are small and pointy in vary shades of clean , pink , and green .
Another compact alternative isIllusion Midnight Lacewhich grows to a superlative of 10 inches and a width of four foot . Its foliation is deep purplish inglorious .
pay off attention when you purchase your specimen . take the labels and choose the growth habits that adept suit your position .
As mentioned , some types ( for example , Marguerite ) are not such vigorous growers and will not be given to take over so quickly ; however , if you do have lots of outer space to encompass , you may require a diverseness that develop very quickly .
Other Ipomoea Varieties :
Be Sure Your Plants Get The Right Amount Of Light, Nutrients & Water
You should also pay off close tending to the light requirements of the plants you select .
As mentioned , most types of ornamental sweet-flavored potato like the full or bright fond sunlight . Marguerite can tolerate more shade than some of the other variety , so if your place setting run to be shady , this may be the best choice for you !
Note also that fond shade may affect the colouring of your decorative seraphic potato plants . If these flora have too much shadowiness , their coloring may not be fully vibrant .
Be sure to wait until all danger of icing is communicate before implant outdoors . These plant do well in warmth , so do n’t expect a lot of increment or bodily function from them until your temperature are reliably in the fourscore .
Plant your sweet potato tubers or untried plants 3 - 6 foot apart in nutritive - rich soil that has been amend with lifelike compost .
broadly speaking speaking , amend the soil as you would for a veg garden . You may also wish to apply abalanced , water - soluble fertilizeronce a month to raise growth and performance .
Be careful not to overwater . Generally speaking , weekly deep watering should answer . Of of course , you should keep an optic on your plants and adjust your tearing docket if the soil seems excessively wry or if they show signs of distress .
Is The Sweet Potato Vine Perennial or Annual?
In warmer climates , ornamental odorous potatoes are recurrent . They grow back from sweet potato vine tubers yr after class .
If you live in USDA hardiness zone 9 through 11 , you will not need to take special precautions .
Your levelheaded dulcet potato vines will roleplay as perennials in these zones and will simply return every spring with piddling or no effort from you .
In very cold-blooded climates , they can be treated as yearly , and you’re able to simply take thinning and replant them each year .
Another alternative is to keep them in acold frame outdoorsif you populate in an area that does not stop dead but does experience temperatures of lower than 40 stage Fahrenheit .
Overwintering The Sweet Potato Vine
It is also potential to winter your plants indoors and place them out of doors again when the weather warms up .
remark that overwintering is different from keeping these plants as houseplant . You are not trying to encourage growth in this process .
If you choose to do this , here are the stone’s throw you should follow :
Is Overwintering A Good Idea?
It ’s easy to see that overwintering is rather a labor - intensive process . Unless you have a solid , maudlin attachment to your individual plants , you will probably be in force off just starting afresh with cuttings or genus Tuber section .
There is a simpler alternate overwintering method you may need to test . Just dig up the tubers and brush off all soil .
Place them in a container of teetotal Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin in a cool closet or larder or in your basement . They should overwinter in a dormant state and be quick to replant in the spring .
You might also try out with mulch your outside beds intemperately through the wintertime ( in gain to keeping some cuttings or tuber as backup ) .
Your heavily mulched decorative sweet potatoes might surprise you by making a comeback on their own in the spring . Even if they do n’t , you ca n’t go untimely with mulching .
Sweet Potato Pests
For the most part , cosmetic sweet potatoes are resistant to pests ; however , now and then , typical Irish potato pests may hone in on your plants . await out for the cherubic potato looper , which is a foliage - chew caterpillar .
If these caterpillars overrun your plants , many sources urge using typical poison and insecticides to deter them ; however , you must keep in mind that these poisons are speculative for the environment in universal .
Even though this kind of sweet white potato is strictly cosmetic , there is no cause to overspread poison throughout the environment in its caution .
You are far better off encouraging friendly fauna such as boo , terrapins , salientian , and lizards tohelp you ascendence caterpillars .
Additionally , you’re able to use natural deterrents such as garlic , sprays of neem oil , and herbal concoctions .
See our clause onMake Your Own Natural Pesticides Easily And Affordably .
scented potato whitefly are another vulgar problem . They look like very tiny moth and congregate on the undersides of leave and have an effect that is similar to aphid smut on leaves .
They remove sap from plants , creatingsooty moldand honeydew and spreading disease .
over-embellished sweet spud vine plants also attract flea beetles andpotato wireworms . Between early May and June , these gadfly come out of the footing to feed on the foliage .
The playing area will dish out as their breeding earth , and their egg will fall just beside the works . When they cover , they will dig deep down in the dirt and come out once they become adults to feed .
you’re able to care with them by cut away infested portions of the plant and bag these immediately in a pliant dish to be placed in your chicken feed , well forth from your garden .
A hard blast from the hose to knock off any remaining pests can be followed up with an practical program of natural pesticides .
Encourage Natural Pest Predators
call back that keeping a good natural balance in your garden is a great way to discourage pests . Be certain to include bird feeders and birdbath to attract avian friend .
It ’s also heady to provide a water supply for background - populate critter such as toads and terrapins . offer habitat for these well-disposed , beneficial ally in your garden is a peachy way to downplay plague invasions and enjoy nature .
Beneficial insects and faunalikethe predatory praying mantisand green lacewings can help you insure your odoriferous Solanum tuberosum whitefly problem ( along with a broad variety of other pests ) .
These , along withaphid - eatingladybugs , damoiselle germ , plagiarist hemipteron , andbeneficial soldier beetlesare often uncommitted for purchase from good glasshouse and garden centers or online .
Ornamental Sweet Potatoes Add Interest To Any Setting
It ’s easy to see that these rugged , tight - farm , colorful plants have something wonderful to offer in most options .
As a houseplant , in container , as a ground cover , or as a supplier of privacy and shade for your trellis oran outdoor pergola , these various plants can fulfill a wide variety of gardening demand beautifully .
paradigm : informant
