Hardly any vegetable is currently as trendy as the sweet potato. With an annual per capita consumption of around half a kilo, the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is far from dominating the conventional potato (Solanum tuberosum), but the potential is there. In order to utilise this potential, at least in home gardens, we are launching the Sugaroots® sweet potato series for the 2022 spring season. These varieties were bred and selected by our partner company Lubera® in Switzerland.
Sweet potatoes that live up to their name – we call them Sugaroots®
The Lubera® breeding series Suagroots® answer essential demands of the garden market and hobby gardeners: more taste and experience with reliable yields and easy cultivation in our climate. While most current sweet potato varieties are closer in flavour to potatoes and have a floury, grainy texture, we put a lot of emphasis on a much higher sugar content and a fine, melting texture. Sweet potatoes, as we understand and grow them, are not a filling side dish, but a vegetable used for flavouring.
Sugaroot® Sweet Potatoes – the benefits at a glance
- Significantly sweeter tubers than common sweet potato varieties
- Bred and selected in Switzerland
- Easy cultivation in Central Europe because they are adapted to the weather
- Very healthy plants, no susceptibility to late blight (Phytophthora) or Alternaria
- Wide colour spectrum of the tubers (on the inside and outside)
Sugaroot® sweet potato young plants from Lubera Edibles
Our sweet potato young plants are available from mid-March to early April. Thus, it is essential that we receive your order of sweet potato young plants as early as possible. Ideally, this should be as early as 12 months before the scheduled delivery date.
The aim of our sweet potato young plants is to produce, in the shortest possible time, a correspondingly 'large' sales product that end consumers can plant in their gardens in mid-May. And thanks to the 'large' plants, there is a corresponding vegetation advantage, so that a good harvest is as good as guaranteed.
The production scheme is explained in more detail below.
Our Sugaroot® sweet potato young plant range
Staring in spring 2022, we will offer the complete range of our Sugaroot® sweet potato young plants for the first time. Since this is the year of introduction, the available quantities are still limited at first. So if you want to secure your sweet potato young plants, now is the time to be quick.
Sugaroot® Yellow
The sweet potato Suagroot® Yellow has a very sweet taste; it is much sweeter than the standard varieties. Its texture is not as melting, but this makes it interesting for processing into chips.
Picture: sweet potato Sugaroot® Yellow
Short description:
- Growing season: requires approximately 110 frost-free days from planting to harvest
- Growth: vigorous growing, forms long shoots during the summer; beautiful, fresh green and heart-shaped foliage
- Yield: produces good yields every year
- Tubers: thick, elongated tuber shape with a light purple skin; the tuber interior has a light yellow colour, which hardly changes even when cooked
- Taste: has a pleasantly sweet taste, significantly sweeter than conventional sweet potatoes; when cooked, the tubers have a soft but not too melting texture
Sugaroot® White
The Sugaroot® White sweet potato variety is the sweetest variety in our sweet potato young plant range. When cooked, it has an exceedingly creamy and melting texture. It is the ideal variety for exceptionally sweet mashed potatoes.
Picture: sweet potato Sugaroot® White - the sweetest of all Sugaroot® sweet potatoes
Short description:
- Growing season: requires approximately 110 frost-free days from planting to harvest
- Growth: vigorous, forms long shoots during the summer with dark green and broad, heart-shaped foliage
- Yield: a very high yielding variety
- Tubers: thick, elongated tubers with a striking, bright purple-red skin; the tubers are whitish to cream-coloured on the inside
- Taste: very sweet, potato-like fruity flavour, our sweetest variety; when cooked, the tubers have an exceedingly soft and very melting texture
Sugaroot® Chestnut
Sugaroot® Chestnut is a sweet potato variety with yellow-orange, marbled tubers and a sweet taste with subtle but distinct notes of chestnut and a feeling in the mouth that is less melting but more grainy. Just like eating chestnuts. Sugaroot® Chestnut is also very suitable for processing into chips or a similar dish.
Picture: sweet potato Sugaroot® Chestnut - notice the slight marbling of the tubers
Short description:
- Growing season: requires approximately 110 frost-free days from planting to harvest
- Growth: fast-growing, forms long shoots with pointed, heart-shaped leaves during the summer, the young leaves have striking, purple-coloured leaf veins
- Yield: produces reliably good yields
- Tubers: thick, round tubers, the colour of the skin is orange-bronze; inside the tubers are conspicuously yellowish orange-marbled
- Taste: has a pleasantly sweet taste - the sweetness becomes more intense when eaten - with slight notes of chestnut, also the texture and feeling in the mouth when eaten is reminiscent of a chestnut, since the texture is less melting, but a bit more grainy
Sugaroot® Purple
The Sugaroot® Purple sweet potato variety is the most striking variety in terms of tuber colour, with its dark purple skin and intensely purple tuber interior. The elongated, tubular tubers are typical. This variety has a very high anthocyanin content, but in direct comparison is not quite as sweet as the light-fleshed Sugaroot® varieties.
Picture: sweet potato Sugaroot® Purple - the Sugaroot® variety with red-fleshed tubers
Short description:
- Growing season: requires about 130 frost-free days from planting to harvest
- Growth: fast-growing, forms long shoots with dark-coloured shoot tips and broad, heart-shaped foliage during the summer
- Yield: very high yielding
- Tubers: tubular tubers (the typical tuber shape in the purple-fleshed varieties) with intense purple skin; inside the tubers are also intensely purple-coloured, the dark colouration is due to a very high content of anthocyanins
- Taste: sweet, potato flavour, not as sweet as the light-fleshed varieties but still a true Sugaroot® variety
Production scheme for Sugaroot® sweet potato young plants
The production goal should be to use our sweet potato young plants to produce a 'large' saleable commodity, compared to other vegetable young plants, in as short a period as possible. This 'large' sales commodity offers the following advantages:
Picture: fresh potted sweet potato young plants in a C1,3 pot
Advantage for the producer:
- Short production time (only six weeks until sale)
- Not comparable with conventional vegetable plants in the final sale
- Higher sales revenue (for the producer and retailer), since not comparable
Advantage for the end consumer:
- Clear vegetative advantage when planting
- Higher yield at harvest (due to the vegetation advantage) in years with a normal weather pattern
- Good/steady yield in years with a cooler weather pattern (due to the vegetation advantage)
Production scheme
Picture: sweet potato young plants close-up
Below we have put together a short production scheme for you on how to produce a, in proportion, large sweet potato plant in a short time and without much effort:
- Ordering the sweet potato young plants 12 months before the desired delivery date
- Delivery of the sweet potato young plants at the latest in week 14
- Potting the sweet potato young plants in a 'larger' pot (10 cm to 13 cm)
- Growing phase should be in a bright and moderately tempered foil or glass house (heating temperature: 8 - 10°C)
- Sale of the produced sweet potato plants after about six weeks of growth
