Hi Judy. Any Sweet Potato is easily grown from an old tuber (or potato), as I'm sure you know. You can even buy the "seed" potatos in the grocery store, though they're bigger than what most farmers like to use for seed (cut em in half). It's a bit late for that now, as you know, but you can still grow your own seed potatos for next year if you put a couple of them in the ground. You need to do it NOW though. Well drained loamy soil and moderate fertilizer.

Your best bet for a nice harvest this fall is to wander out in the country and look for anyone transplanting. Stop and ask for a few vines. Most have more than enough "seed" vines at the potato bed for you to take some for a home garden.

fivewhiskey - Thanks for the info. Judy

I'm here in Fort Mill, SC, and I've seen Beauregard in several Lowe's and Walmart between Raleigh and Columbia. I could have just missed them earlier, but it seems like I've just started seeing them in the last 2-3 weeks.

Stemy, Thanks for the info. I will check into Walmart and Lowes. I'm particularly interested in the Beauregard variety. It's the best tasting sweet potato I've ever tasted!

Judy I would check any sort of farm store or feed store in a sweet potato growing area. Now is the time to plant them (they only like hot weather) so they should be available now.

Beauregard is very tasty and worth the hunt.

I will also be looking for it but this year I am growing Okinawa Purple which has pale tan skin with bright bright bright purple meat (think purple crayons). Its not as sweet and spicy like Beauregard but I just have to make a pie with the purple ones at least once.

NC State does a bunch of research on sweet potatoes and they come up with extremely tasty varieties. I gave up trying to keep track of which ones taste the best since each year they seem to get better and better.

John, Thanks for the info. I'm off tomorrow to the W-S Farmers Market in hopes of finding the tubers/plants there. That's where I bought the potatoes last year. I couldn't believe how tasty those potatoes were.

Stokes County is popular for a purple sweet potato. Stokes Purple, I believe that's the name. I've never tried it, but hopefully will in the future. I'm going to keep my eyes out for the Okinawa Purple. I read that it's very tasty as well. I'd like to compare it to the Beauregard.

I believe Beauregard is the gold standard. Plenty of vendors will tell you that this plant or that plant taste better than or the same as Beauregard but I have never known that to be true. I have had some Beau's that tasted just like regular sweet 'taters but when they're good, they put all others to shame. They taste like you've already made pie or casserole with them! like they've been injected with cinnamon and brown sugar fresh from the soil.

Stokes Purple's are a wine red very tasty sweet potato. I believe they do not sell plants of it to the public. I think that one family farm owns the rights to it and they do all the processing and production of products that include it (and they make a million things with Stokes County Purple Sweet Potato!). But they are reddish purple - not that there's anything wrong with that. Okinawa Purple and a few others are bright kid's-toy purple and the color only gets richer when you cook with it. The flavor is sweet like a normal sweet potato - very good roasted and slathered in butter. The tubers offered in the stores are most often from Hawai'i where it is a favorite vegetable. To import them from the islands they are treated with radiation and will rarely sprout vines. I bought my tiny cutting while up in Philadelphia in March from a small Asian Plant shop. She said she imported seeds from Australia since she could never get viable plants here. My plant is doing just fine out in the garden. I should have slips (babies) and at least a pie to bring to the fall swap.

John, Can't wait to taste your Okinawa pie at the next swap. Sounds yummy. I may just want to get a few slips from you at the swap as well.

I got my Beauregard plants this morning at the W-S Farmer's Market from the same farmer that I bought the potatoes from last year. Your right, those potatoes taste like they've been injected with brown sugar and cinnamon in the soil. Generally, I just bake them for my family and add just a little butter to them. You really don't have to add a whole lot of anything to make these potatoes taste good.

My Dad is planting the plants (50 of them) in his BIG garden, so I might bring some of the potatoes to the swap. Should have plenty. Better yet, maybe something cooked with them.