Connie

If it’s Ipomoea you have, we used to sell them both as bedding plants in spring, and as water plants, so you should easily be able to take some fairly long tip cuttings and just stick them in a glass of water—then either plant them in soil when they root out well, or just keep them in the water all winter. They probably won’t look very good by spring, but when it’s close to planting back out time, you could once again pinch the tips off and root fresh cuttings to plant for next summer. (That’s what I do with my Perilla every year.) If they’re in soil, keep them wet and keep them in as much sun as possible over winter—same thing if they’re in water. I was also wondering about storing the tubers, so I found this site, and it looks like you can do it that way too. As I recall, when we used to grow them with the water plants inside, they were pretty susceptible to mites, so if you’re growing it over winter, keep an eye out for them, and slosh the whole top around in some soapy water if they show up.

Sure wish it would stay summer a little bit longer,
Skybird

"Sure wish it would stay summer a little bit longer". But you've got to love these Fall days of mild weather. A person can work in the yard and not get so hot and sweaty. I'm loving it!

Connie

Thanks for that link -- I never knew you could save the tubers over winter -- makes sense though.

Connie,

I love those vines too! I wish it would stay summer longer too -- even though the fall days are wonderful. They still remind me that winter is on it's way.

Nedra

LOL! Steve the plant thief! Well, the city's just going to let the plants die within a few weeks anyway, right? :-)

:-)

Back in October I dug up and planted into 6" pots the two Blackie’s I had in planters. While I was replanting them I also separated one of the tubers and put it in a small baggie and stuck it in the garage, and I also cut off the longest vines and stuck them in water. Here are the results!

About three weeks after bringing them in, the two in pots and the cuttings in water all started looking BAD and the leaves started falling off. I already knew what was wrong, and when I looked closely, they were covered with mites. I wasn’t in the mood for fiddling at that point, so rather than trying to wash everything off with soapy water, I fed them all some systemic insecticide—for the cuttings in water, I just put a little bit directly into the water. Very quickly they all started to recover and I have not had anymore trouble with mites—the treatment was 3 - 4 months ago now. What I used was a commercial grade granular insecticide that isn’t available in stores, but there is a granular insecticide available retail that would be similar, though weaker.

As the winter went on, clearly the two potted plants were doing far better than the ones in water, which did well until they were well rooted and then just kind of sat there—and eventually started to actually decline. About a month ago I finally got around to potting up the cuttings that had been started in water, and they are now starting to grow and thrive again.

The tuber I put in the baggie, I probably should have given more ventilation than I did. It was pretty small, and I was afraid it would dehydrate too much with our low humidity, so I had it pretty much completely closed into the baggie. When I checked it a few days ago, there is some mold—though it is NOT dehydrated!!! I don’t know if it will grow or not, but I’m curious, so I am going to plant it when it’s warm enough outside.

So, the conclusion is...........

~ The two plants in pots did the best—by far.
~ The cuttings started in water are doing well now, but would have been better off if they had been potted into soil more quickly after they were rooted.
~ However they’re kept over winter, if they’re kept as live plants rather than just as tubers, they need to be watched very closely for insects. I didn’t have any problem at all with white fly, and I believe mites are the biggest problem on Ipomoea, but I think they could be susceptible to either—and possibly more!
~ No real decision yet on the tubers, but I think they might be pretty difficult to overwinter in such a dry climate where balancing the air circulation well enough to prevent both desiccation and mold might be a problem.

Here’s a picture of the two that were put into soil in pots right away. (click to enlarge)

The plant in the middle is a pineapple mint that was left over at the Fall Swap that I thought would be kinda fun to grow inside over winter—and I’ll probably take it back to the Spring Swap for somebody who’d enjoy it since I’m not about to put it into the ground! (I treated it for the mites along with the sweet potato vines!)

And here’s a picture of the cuttings that were started in water and only a couple weeks ago put into soil in a pot.

The Blackie is the one in the foreground. The other things—which I also brought in to save over winter, are.....
~ A geranium, on the right, that was put in too late to do anything outside. It now has a small flower opening!
~ Perilla ‘Magilla’—the one that looks like coleus—which, like sweet potato vine, is just too expensive to buy new each year. I’m getting ready to take more cuttings from this plant so I’ll have more for different places by the time it’s time to plant them out. The Perilla was also started in water (and treated), and was potted into soil about a month ago, along with the Blackie. It, too, is doing much better now that it’s in soil.
~ And a little scrap of Purple Fountain Grass (behind the Blackie), which was planted into soil immediately, and hasn’t done much over winter since I was only able to get a very small piece with almost no roots chopped off of the parent plant, but I’ve started feeding it and with the longer days it’s finally starting to grow. Yes! It WILL turn purple again once it gets going well!

Was anyone else successful in keeping their sweet potato vine—or anything else—over winter?

Skybird

I did have good luck with some petunia cuttings I took last fall. They're all still alive, although a few are looking a little hammered. Most are thriving quite well, and I just took new cuttings off of several of them. They're even flowering with only several hours of sun a day from the window.