Your comments and tips

24 Jun 18, Richard Clough (New Zealand - temperate climate)

Annie...We simply bought a small kumara from a local supermarket, suspended it with toothpicks in a cut off coke bottle of water. When the shoots, or "slips" began to sprout (2-3wks) we then placed them in a small jam jar of water until roots began to develop, then planted out in fish bins of potting mix. We were late- late Dec & Jan, have just harvested. A lot were long & skinny, but perfect for the hot air cooker & crockpot. Some were like the shop sizes! We ended up with about 3-4 kg from a single 300g kumara (it's still growing sprouts on the laundry windowsill)! Hope this helps someone out there. Best wishes...

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28 May 17, toya (New Zealand - temperate climate)

If your lucky you can find some at local garden places for tipu which you can grow out of the kumara tubers by place half of it into water.. they should grow stems/vines which you can snap off & placing those into water to help roots grow... or just cut sections of the tuber off..... but when planting them... they need that late spring early summer heat. Then harvest around now or when frosty etc...... just my 5 cents here lol

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24 May 17, John (Australia - temperate climate)

Australian Seeds in Western Australia list a native sweet potato - Ipomoea costata but I don't know of any suppliers of seeds of the popular varieties. They are grown from cuttings as they establish quickly and will yield in their first season. Seedlings would probably take another year.

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23 May 17, love blue tongue (Australia - tropical climate)

how long will it take to grow

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24 May 17, Ken (Australia - temperate climate)

Sweet potatoes would normally be harvested when the leaves of the vine start to turn yellow or when frosts begin. You can carefully remove them as soon as they are big enough if you want to but try not to damage the rest of the plant.

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11 May 17, Jody Waaka (New Zealand - temperate climate)

Kia ora.Im thinking of starting a kumara garden soon.Where do you buy the seed from

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13 May 17, Leslie Viljoen (New Zealand - temperate climate)

I'm not an expert but if you cut a Kumara into pieces, it will grow vines from the "eyes". We have one growing like crazy - but since it's cold now I think it's going to die.

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15 May 17, Daniel (Australia - temperate climate)

With Kumeras, they will grow if you plant a whole kumara but they wont produce tubers. The shoots that do grow from that can be used as cuttings, and as these new cuttings grow, you will get the Kumera tubers growing from those new plants. Needs a long warm summer to grow bigger tubers! Hope that helps

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07 May 17, Carol (Australia - temperate climate)

It is may and we have harvested some sweet potatoes - what I want to know is can I plant any of these smaller potatoes (as one would with seed potatoes) and let them grow through Winter? we have no frosts, or do I have to begine the plant again in Nov from a sprouting? I am just thinking it would seem good to take the smaller potato and plant in a new bed thro winder for an earlier crop?

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07 May 17, Jonno (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

There is no reason why you couldn't save and plant the small tubers. They may not grow much in the cooler weather and you would need to ensure the soil is well drained so that they do not rot. Sweet potatoes are mostly grown from cuttings for ease and speed.

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