Your comments and tips

16 May 15, Carole Hanley (USA - Zone 10b climate)

I would like to grow these wonderful sweet potato here in Nevada. We ate them in New Zealand and they are beyond good.

Reply or Post a new comment

13 Apr 15, Charles Lee (Australia - tropical climate)

I bought my "seed" tuber as a vegetable in the supermarket. Some gardening experts say to wait until leaves yellow & plants die back before harvesting. I am in Townsville and that did not work. Plants grew 12 months a year. Tubers were bigger than footballs, woody and had insect attack and rot. Suggest you follow other advise that recommends harvest in 16 weeks. Tubers are smaller and tender.

Reply or Post a new comment

09 Apr 15, Bill (Australia - temperate climate)

The orange sweet potato/kumara can grow like a weed. I recently dug up a patch and for months tiny kumara plants were sprouting. Some from the smallest pieces of broken root. If you see one you like in the supermarket, I suggest you chop some up and plant it. To harvest, they poke out of the ground when ready. Feel around for a big one, then remove it by hand. Be careful not to break it in two.

Reply or Post a new comment

30 Jan 15, Shona (Australia - temperate climate)

Bunnings sells the kumara plant in QLD along with feijoa trees which were both thought to be a NZ thing only? Or you can get on eBay though there are certain restrictions with sending fruit or plant matter between states.

Reply or Post a new comment

05 Aug 14, Peter Wheldon (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I saw Jerry Coleby-Williams of Gardening Australia use a crop of marigold in a garden bed for a season to 'gas' or fumigate the nematodes organically. Apparently farmer's friends or cobblers pegs do the same thing. So you could pull the kumara up, cultivate the bed and plant a heap of marigold in to deal with the nematodes if that is what the grubs were.

Reply or Post a new comment

09 May 14, Joe De Ornelas (Australia - temperate climate)

Hello, I live in Perth and I've been in search of the ORANGE KUMARA, but to no luck. Does anybody know were I might be able to purchase this elusive plant?

Reply or Post a new comment

18 Feb 16, Carol (Australia - temperate climate)

The orange one is called Beaurgard. See if you can find a supplier in WA :)

Reply or Post a new comment

07 Apr 15, Susan Johnson (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Diggers Club (Vic) and Green Harvest (Q'ld) sell the orange sweet potato, which is quite distinct from NZ Kumera.

Reply or Post a new comment

26 Jan 15, Peter (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Kumara are purple and lemon on the inside and taste chestnutty not like the sweet potato in Australia. When you taste a kumara it taste nothing like what some supermarkets are selling as New Zealand kumara.

Reply or Post a new comment

07 Apr 15, Susan Johnson (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I am desperately trying to source N Z Kumera in Australia, Peter. Yes, agree - NZ kumera are nothing like the yellow or white sweet potatoes we grow in Australia. My research suggests that the NZ variety may be called 'Candy Kumera', and may have origins in the Pacific Islands. Do you know if this is correct? I assume it wouldn't be possible to import live plants to Australia these days, but am wondering if New Zealanders may have brought it here in the past, in which case there could be slmeone out there growing it.

Reply or Post a new comment