Black Sweet Potato Vine Indoors

Although most gardeners are familiar with annual sweet potato vines ipomoea batatas for their edible smoky sweet orange tubers the ornamental sweet potato vine puts its energy into fountains of deeply lobed or heart shaped spring to fall leaves.

Black sweet potato vine indoors.

Overwatering and poor drainage can cause fungal problems such as fusarium wilt root rot or tuber rot. I held the plant 2 months in shade before planting in full sun. Otherwise there are several easy ways of overwintering a sweet potato vine. Beautiful plant this particular ohio one actually a very dark purple black quite black with very dark greenish tinge at edges.

Bulb like tubers grow just beneath the surface of the soil. The newer baby leaves are a dark green at first but not for long. The color has remained identical either place and plant health as well. While it does produce edible sweet potato tubers albeit not very palatable and bitter the ornamental variety bears more colorful foliage making it a popular houseplant.

The black version of the solarpower is a purple sweet potato vine and is deep purplish black in hue. Even better the leaves are edible and tasty. The ornamental varieties are simply cultivars of the species plant. Plant a sweet potato in water and almost before your eyes it transforms into a sprawling vine with lime green or purple tinged leaves.

Sweet potato vines can be overwintered indoors from tubers or cuttings. Follow these steps to planting and growing your own sweet potato vine indoors. Overwintering sweet potato tubers. Sweet potato vine winter care.

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. 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. The sweet potato plant or sweet potato vine has been cultivated for around 2 000 years for its sweet tasting tubers. Possible insect problems include sweet potato looper whitefly aphids thrips slugs flea beetles and weevils.

A rich lime green variant is available as is a rusty bronze. Ornamental sweet potato vines are in the same family as edible sweet potatoes and are in fact the same species. The ornamental sweet potato plant ipomoea butatas is somewhat different from its southern grown vegetable sibling. If you have space you can simply bring the plants indoors and grow them as houseplants until spring.

Use an organic sweet potato.