Unusual vegetables

New seeds

My seed addiction is (mostly) under control these days, but occasionally I find something that I just have to have. An internet search landed me on the Jungle Seeds website, and the photo above shows the result.

I didn’t go too nuts, I just have a few new things to try next year:

Wonderberry (Solanum burbankii)
Cassabanana (Sicana odorifera)
Sesame seeds (Sesamum indicum)
A lilac sweet pepper
Soya bean ‘Edamame’ …

…and a sweet potato. According to the instructions, I can use my sweet potato to produce slips come spring – and the slips will grow into sweet potato plants. However, there’s no instructions on how to store the sweet potato through the winter. I’ve fired off an email to Jungle Seeds, but received no response so far. Does anyone know how to store a sweet potato, so that it remains viable?

Posted 15 October 2008, 00:04.   Posted in .

3 Comments for Unusual vegetables

  1. If it has been properly cured then it will last at room temperature for over a year. When it is slip time, you can place it in a pan of water but better yet get this book: Ken Allen’s Sweet Potato in the Home Garden:

    http://www.icangarden.com/document.cfm?task=viewdetail&itemid=3232

    Seriously, it’s amazing. It’s been written for north america, but coastal pacific Canada is a climate similar to the UK (which is where you hail if I’m correct).

    Oh and I’ve grown wonderberries and find them wonderful. They’ve seeded themselves again in my garden much to my delight.

    Ottawa Gardenerner · Oct 15, 09:52 AM

  2. I suppose you would store it like a potato or a carrot? Tubers have all that starch to get them through the winter, don’t they? Dry and in the dark is unlikely to be wrong, although it might not go far enough…

    ruth_dt · Oct 15, 10:12 PM

  3. According to Jungle Seeds:

    “You cannot store it Emma, you need to plant now and grow on to have larger cuttings for next year. You need to keep them growing all winter.”

    So now I don’t know whether to plant it up, or leave it somewhere warmish (they have to be kept above freezing to be viable) and plant it up in spring.

    Emma · Oct 18, 08:52 PM

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