When I was in Hawaii recently, I had some purple colored sweet potatoes. Can anyone tell me what variety they are and where I might be able to get some starts?

Thanks,
RM

Your best bet may be from Hawaiian sources...

Like you, I love those purple sweet "Okinawan" potatoes from my dad's garden in Hawaii. Some useful info I read while at the Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture having some Cherry Blossom cuttings inspected to bring home. It's ILLEGAL to take the beloved purple sweet potato out of Hawaii!!! Don't ruin the environment! (information from the Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture)

Aloha,
Hollyhocks

Well the skin wasn't all that white, but I'd say just the flesh was purple.

It's an ingredient in a dish that I learned to cook while in HI. Seems any sweet potato will do, but the purple color makes all the difference in the world!

The production potential with this variety is relatively low compared to other selections such as the popular Beauregard. I harvest 2 or 3 tubers per plant and the plants are 3 feet apart in the row.

I also grew the variety "Purple" and harvested some exceptionally good tubers. These have to be planted closer together to prevent them getting too large. I'm spacing them at 15 to 24 inches apart in the row.

Fusion

Ube!! I have to agree it is one of the most popular flavors in the Philippines, as well as one of the top-selling and popular flavors of ice cream there and at my house. LOL. It just tastes so good. Go to your local asian grocery and look at the ice cream, you're sure to find it! Just wanted to share.

Thanks Ya' Guys!

Ruby

I was going to try growing some but have never been able to get some starts. For the most part we have decent summers w/ temps as high as 80. Plus in our area we have about 20hrs of daylight in the summer.

R~

Fusion

Fusion

I'm in Phoenix. I'm looking for the purple Okinawan sweet potatoes. I was able to find the white skin, purple flesh in Lee Lee supermarket (an asian supermarket). It looks just like the purple Okinawan sweet potatoes, but is it really the correct species???? These are the ones that come from Southern Cali. Thanks, all!

you have to dig it up once a year they usually produce a lot, its better if you plant them on the ground for a better results so it will produce more and bigger, once you dig it up just cut the top piece and put back on the ground for next year to grow, cover it up or mulch if it freezes in your zone. enjoy

Try http://www.mericlonelabs.com/

Just spoke to Debby there and she not only has slips for the Okinawan sweet potatoes, she also has other varieties of purples worth exploring, too!

If you want to grow Okinawan sweet potatoes, here is how I did it. Note that I live in a tropical climate (Hawaii) so growing Okinawan sweet potatoes here may be easier than other places with more varied climates.

First, I prepared the ground where I would grow the Okinawan sweet potatoes. For this, I cleared out planting beds along slopes on the side and back of my home in Kaneohe. I didn't test the soil for PH levels and such but I did mix in some mulch (obtained for free from a nearby botanical garden) and watered the ground before planting.

Next, I obtained "slips" of sweet Okinawan sweet potato vines. One source I used was from Okinawan sweet potatoes I bought at the supermarket. I bought three Okinawan sweet potatoes (at $2.99 a lb, the three I bought amounted to a pound). I then placed the two of the potatoes in a plastic bowl filled with water to about 2/3rds of the way to covering the Okinawan sweet potatoes. I placed the bowl by a window that is exposed to sunlight. After a couple of weeks, shoots formed. These shoots then grew into vines. When the vines grew to about 12 inches, I clipped them at the base. These were slips.

Another way I obtained Okinawan sweet potato slips was from a local community garden. Here on Oahu (Hawaii) where I live, my wife and I visited the Oahu Urban Garden in Pearl City. This is a community garden and by inquiring with people who garden there, we were able to get a dozen 12-inch Okinawan sweet potato slips growing in a plot in the garden. Note, do not just go and cut slips from this garden or some other community garden. Ask for permission before doing so.

Once you have slips of Okinawan sweet potatoes, put them in a bucket of water so that the bottom six inches of the slips are submersed. After a couple days, roots will appear in each slip. When you see those roots, it is time for the next step—planting.

I planted the Okinawan sweet potato slips in the plots I had prepared. I dug a hole 4 to 5 inches deep, inserted the slip into the hole, and filled the hole with a combination of dirt and mulch. I formed mounds around each slip, using mulch. Then I watered liberally. Repeat for each slip.

For the first couple weeks, I watered the newly planted slips every day, either in the morning or in the late afternoon. After that, I watered as needed, based on the rainfall patterns here. From my experience, once the Okinawan sweet potato slip gets established, very little maintenance is required. After a month or so, you can clip slips from your garden for new plantings. It's pretty easy.

At this point, I haven't had my first harvest of Okinawan sweet potatoes. From what I have read, it takes six months to get potatoes after planting. So for me, that'll be Christmas time since I planted in late May.

10/12/2009
Okinawa Sweet Potatoes
A native of the Japanese island Okinawa, the Okinawa Sweet Potato with its light brown skin and unusual purple flesh is richly nutritious and surprisingly sweet. Scientifically classified as a yam, this root vegetable is a staple among the people of Okinawa and Hawaii, and has surpassed the popularity of the ordinary yam due to the presence of of the antioxidant, polyphenol. Because of its delicate sweet taste, it is often simply boiled, cut into chunks and served, but those with a more creative flair treat it in less traditional ways. PIcture a wilted spinach salad piled in the center of a salad plate with rosettes of the warm, slightly sweet Okinawas piped around the salad, or a mound of caramelized onions and apples and a couple of lamb chops. Mashed, mixed with grated ginger and topped with sesame seeds, Okinawa Sweet Potatoes are often served toward the end of the meal. For a taste of the Orient, serve purple sweet potato tempura as an appetizer or a side dish."

DarJones

thx, rm

Oregon State University Extension:

"Store at 55 to 60 F and 85 to 90% relative humidity. Sweetpotatoes are usually stored in non-refrigerated commercial or farm warehouses. The primary purpose of storing is to permit orderly marketing during several months after harvest. Sweetpotatoes should first be cured by holding at 85 F and 90 to 95% relative humidity for 4 to 7 days. Curing helps prevent the entrance of decay organisms by healing cuts and other injuries received in harvesting and handling. Such injuries should be kept to a minimum by careful handling. If the curing temperature and relative humidity are lower than recommended, healing is slower and less effective in preventing subsequent decay in storage or marketing.

Usually, sweetpotatoes will not keep satisfactorily if they have been exposed to excessively wet soil conditions just before harvest; chilled before or after harvest by exposure to temperatures of 50 F or below for about a week, or subjected, upon harvest, to a delay of 2 or more days before being provided with optimum conditions for healing.

Prompt curing after harvest is stressed, but it is especially important for sweetpotatoes that are harvested during or after a period of cold weather. Enough ventilation should be provided during curing to prevent accumulation of carbon dioxide, depletion of oxygen, or condensation of moisture.

Holding: After curing, the temperature should be reduced to 55 to 60 F, usually by ventilating the storage with outside air. The relative humidity should remain at 85 to 90% during storage. Most cured cultivars will keep satisfactorily for 4 to 7 months under these conditions. Storage at relative humidity above 90% is not recommended because of the possible development of surface discoloration and surface mold on the roots. Weight loss can be expected to be 2 to 6% during curing and about 2% during subsequent storage. Transformation of starch to sugar in sweetpotatoes takes place during curing and continues in storage for approximately 5 months.

The sweetpotato is of tropical origin and is chilled if held at temperatures below about 55 F. Uncured roots are more susceptible to chilling that cured ones. Cultivars differ slightly in their ability to withstand chilling injury, but all cultivars are sufficiently susceptible to make it desirable to avoid chilling conditions. Short periods at temperatures as low as 50 F need not cause alarm; but after a few days at 50 F, or shorter periods at lower temperatures, sweetpotatoes may develop discoloration of the flesh, internal breakdown, off-flavors and hard core when cooked, and increased susceptibility to decay.

Temperatures above 60 F stimulate development of sprouts (especially at high humidity), pithiness, and internal cork (a symptom of a virus disease) when it is present.

Refrigeration is now used in some large sweetpotato storages to extend the marketing season into warm weather, when ventilation will not maintain low enough temperatures.

Sweetpotatoes are usually stored in bulk bins or slatted crates. Palletization of crates and use of pallet boxes facilitate handling. Some of the newer storages equipped for palletized handling have separate curing and storage rooms. Sweetpotatoes can be cured in palletized field boxes in a room designed to provide recommended conditions for curing, and after curing, the sweetpotatoes can be carefully moved with a fork-lift to a room in which storage conditions are maintained continuously.

Curing and storage rooms must be kept clean. If storage containers are re-used, they should be steam heated to 122 F for 6 hours before use to reduce black rot and scurf contamination.

Sweetpotatoes are usually washed and graded, and sometimes waxed, before being shipped to market. They should be treated with a fungicide to reduce decay during marketing. An effective fungicide is 2,6-dicloro-4-nitroaniline (Botran).

Consumer packaging of sweetpotatoes in film bags or over-wrapped trays is done mainly to aid marketing and should not be done prior to storage. The shelf life of washed and fungicide-treated roots in consumer packs is only 2 to 3 weeks. Weight loss of roots during marketing is much less in perforated film bags than in mesh bags. Perforation of 3 to 5-lb polyethylene bags with about thirty-two 1/4-inch holes is essential to lower the internal relative humidity and avoid excessive sprouting, root growth, and dampness.

Controlled-atmosphere storage of sweetpotatoes is not a commercial practice, and the feasibility of long-term storage in controlled atmosphere remains unclear. Research showed that roots stored in 2 to 3% carbon dioxide and 7% oxygen were better than check roots held in air, as indicated by lower total losses due to decay and weight loss. However, sweetpotatoes stored at above 50% carbon dioxide or below 7% oxygen often developed an alcoholic flavor or other off-flavor."