I have some Purple Passion and an unknown purple variety I grew last year with dismal results.
Curreny getting slips started from the many I was able to save.
I should try them and see how they taste.
Here is a picture of my dysmal harvest.
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While I was still left with some unanswered questions, there were points that the author made based on his decades of growing experience that might help you out. My first experience growing sweet potatoes yielded much the same results as you show.
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I’ll know quickly enough if I have read this before. Thank you for the link!
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That was a good read! I dont know how I missed it before on Sandhill.
I know immediately that I put out my sweets too early last year (already thought it but confirmed now). I had actually bought black plastic but never put it down. That means I have some for this year!
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Hello my friends. I am looking to buy one or two purple flesh varieties.
Can someone tell me how they taste? Are they different to orange flesh types?
They are good for sweet dishes, like cupcakes and smoothies?
Thanks 
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I know that when people refer to purple yam smoothies here, they are referring to ube (Dioscorea alata), which are different from purple-fleshed sweet potatoes. I haven’t had purple fleshed sweet potatoes to comment on if they would or would not be good for that as well though. Just thought I’d clarify since here in the states we use yam and sweet potato interchangably, but they can be different species.
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Thanks Ryan. Yes, this is why I’m curious if purple sweet potato is good for dessert.
I know ube is good for it. And apparently there are many similarities between the two species with taste.
Unfortunately, I can’t grow ube here… My climate is too cold 
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The Hidden Lake botanical garden in Michigan has some Treasure Island Sweet Potato slips “contact JJ at Hidden Lake Greenhouse in Michigan via jcklimp@yahoo.com” see here You'll Dig Them: Treasure Island Sweet Potatoes - Concept Plants
This Ireland based nursery does ship outside Ireland, and even outside Europe, the first 5 results here are what you are looking for The Chef’s Farm – FitzGerald Nurseries
Territorial Seed has two of them https://territorialseed.com/pages/search-results-page?q=treasure%20island%20sweet%20potatoes
Springhill carries two of them, yet they are sold out right now https://springhillnursery.com/pages/search-results-page?q=treasure%20island%20sweet%20potato
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I can’t speak to the smoothie part, but purple sweet potatoes are great for eating out of hand. I have a steamed purple sweet potato for breakfast every morning.
Generally speaking, the purple fleshed varieties tend to be less sweet than orange and have a bit drier flesh. They have a deeper flavor that some might describe as slightly earthy. There are a wide range of purple varieties though, so there are exceptions to the general rule. A well cured Okinawan sweet potato, for example, is sweet like candy.
The drier flesh probably lends itself well to baking. You’ll see a lot of recipes online for baked goods using purple fleshed sweet potatoes. I still like a simple steamed potato though.
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For lunch I had a bowl with a bed of arugula, some black beans, a purple sweet potato cut into chunks and some avocado. A drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice on the sweet potato and arugula and then some salsa on everything and fresh ground pepper… quick, easy and delicious. The less sweet, drier and earthier flesh of the purple sweet potatoes works great for a meal like this.
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Wow! That looks A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!
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Looks interesting, yet since I have not had ‘purple sweet potatoes’ yet I am wondering what it would be like in a salad? Did you steam the sweet potatoes?
I wonder how ‘purple sweet potatoes’ would go with ‘sweet potato casserole’ rather than the orange kind of ‘sweet potatoes’
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If I’m just making something quick for lunch, etc. I often microwave a sweet potato. I wash it, wrap it in wet paper towels and put it on a plate, then microwave on high for 3 minutes. Then I turn it over (can be tricky with some of the shapes) and microwave it for another 2-3 minutes depending on size. Sometimes it needs a little more time to get fully soft.
To me, purple sweet potatoes are really fairly different than the regular orange kind. You can often use them in the same ways, including the salad I posted, but they taste different and have a different texture. For some things, one type is definitely better than another. I once gave some to a friend who decided to make a sweet potato pie and the purple came out brownish on top from baking, which lost some of the appeal and overall really wasn’t sweet enough. It was a very pretty color inside, but even so I expect that is the last time she’ll try it.
I’m not one to add marshmallows, brown sugar, etc. to sweet potatoes and I like all the types in a pretty much straight forward fashion. Another simple way I like to prepare them is cut them into large fries, toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper and chilli powder and bake them. I often make a trio of the orange, the purple and the Japanese white fleshed in this way and enjoy them for the variety of flavors/textures. I usually mix some hot sauce into ketchup for my dipping sauce, but they are also really good with a drizzle of aged balsamic.
Purple sweets are supposed to be very healthy as well, due to the antioxidants, but if you haven’t tried them you may want to track some down before you use up a lot bed space.
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I am sure that I could find a great use for the purple sweet potatoes that I already bought slips for, even if I didn’t like using them for the same things as the orange ones. I intend on trying different purple varieties too.
One of the reasons that I thought of sweet potatoe casserole is because it’s the sweetest thing that I know of, that uses sweet potatoes, even more sweet than sweet potato pie, which would make up for the lack of sweetness in the purple sweet potatoes. I love sweet potato casserole, even though it’s sweeter than I’d prefer. Although it appears that purple sweet potatoes may be too different from the orange ones to work with sweet potato casserole.
I rather grow them myself, than to track down the purple sweet potatoes themselves, that way I could try more varieties with way less work, and the main reason that I got purple ones, is because of how good they are for us.
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That’s so weird that ya’ll are saying the purple ones aren’t sweeter than the orange because until recently, my experience was the opposite.
However, I’ve always had the Asian white exterior but purple inside ones. Never had the all purple ones.
Only until i started having the street food sweet potatoes in Asia did i start having really sweet orange sweet potatoes. That was the only thing my daughter wanted to eat while we were there so some nights, i had my husband running around multiple towns at 1-3am to find her some street sweet potatoes 
she eventually had other foods but for the first few days overseas… soy milk and sweet potatoes 
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Thank you so much! That is exactly what I wanted to know. I am excited to try growing it for the first time this year
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Those have beautiful colors on the leaves. Never knew there were so many types of potatoes.
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Here it is now. A couple of shoots are now about a foot so I’ll probably start cutting some off to root and eventually they’ll be long enough on their own to divide again. I think my record was 40 slips from one potato.
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Very nice . Love those colors
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this is my second yr Trying … my chickens broke into my greenhouse and tore up my plants . if your growing next yr id love to buy slips from you . right now im just learning to grow them so …
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