1. Yes, you can grow both sweet potatoes and the ornamental sweet potato vine vertically. The vines make an attractive decoration while the tubers are growing in the soil. However, the vines don’t twine or cling, so you need to support them, such as tie the stems to the trellis loosely with strips of pantyhose.
2. Your growing season is about 154 days. (See our Frost Dates page for more: http://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates/MI/Marquette). There are some varieties of sweet potatoes that can work within your time frame, especially if you use season extenders and start indoors. The soil needs to be at least 65F before you plant outdoors. Planting slips outdoors would likely be in late May or June (May 11 being your last expected spring frost date).
3. A sweet potato is not a potato but the elongated root of a vine in the morning glory family. Its smooth skin can be white, yellow, brown, red, or purple. White-flesh sweet potatoes aren’t as sweet as the bright-orange types and have a drier texture. In North America, the orange types are often called yams—and there lies the confusion.
A true yam, sometimes called a tropical yam, is a tuber from one of several tropical vines. A yam can be similar in size to a sweet potato or grow more than 8 feet long in the wild. It has rough skin that can be cream, brown, or pinkish. The flesh is white, yellow, pink, or purple and is sweeter and moister than that of a sweet potato.
1. Yes, you can grow both sweet potatoes and the ornamental sweet potato vine vertically. The vines make an attractive decoration while the tubers are growing in the soil. However, the vines don’t twine or cling, so you need to support them, such as tie the stems to the trellis loosely with strips of pantyhose.
2. Your growing season is about 154 days. (See our Frost Dates page for more: http://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates/MI/Marquette). There are some varieties of sweet potatoes that can work within your time frame, especially if you use season extenders and start indoors. The soil needs to be at least 65F before you plant outdoors. Planting slips outdoors would likely be in late May or June (May 11 being your last expected spring frost date).
3. A sweet potato is not a potato but the elongated root of a vine in the morning glory family. Its smooth skin can be white, yellow, brown, red, or purple. White-flesh sweet potatoes aren’t as sweet as the bright-orange types and have a drier texture. In North America, the orange types are often called yams—and there lies the confusion.
A true yam, sometimes called a tropical yam, is a tuber from one of several tropical vines. A yam can be similar in size to a sweet potato or grow more than 8 feet long in the wild. It has rough skin that can be cream, brown, or pinkish. The flesh is white, yellow, pink, or purple and is sweeter and moister than that of a sweet potato.