Sweet Potato Taste Test

[seaeagle]

7 Sweet Potato Varieties


Orange


Covington - Outstanding taste and production, probably the best orange


Vardaman - tastes good, roots are on the skinny side.



Hernandez - tastes good, long season, slow slip production



Beauregard - Early, Nice taste and texture, some roots are malformed


Copper Jewel - Some big early roots, taste is good


Baker - Great taste, does not grow well in my soil, plenty of tubers that grew deep and didn't size up



Topaz - Excellent sweet potato. great taste and texture



My rating



1 Covington
2 Topaz
3 Beauregard
4 Copper Jewel
5 Hernandez
6 Baker
7 Vardaman


Dropping Hernandez, Baker and Vardaman


Adding Bayou Belle and Bradshaw


The big surprise were the white ones. I had no idea the white sweets were so complex and interesting. I use to think people were nuts when they said they preferred the white ones but not anymore.


White sweet potato review later

[seaeagle]

Some more information on Topaz sweet potato.Excellent variety you have probably never herad of. A search only reveals this link.

https://www.researchgate.net/publica...;_Sweet_Potato

Using key phrases from this document was able to find Topaz in other variety trials.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/pape...85d9b/figure/0

https://www.semanticscholar.org/pape...85d9b/figure/2

As you can see, Topaz won almost every trial for yield and was judged best baking sweet potato. The only reason it was not more popular is probably because it was released about the same time Beauregard was.

[Hensaplenty]

I grow Vardaman because it is a bush variety. Can you recommend any other bush varieties? Thanks much

[seaeagle]

I have not grown any other Bush Variety, but I have grown Copper Jewel which is semi-bush. It is ivy leaf and not to bad. Something like Covington will take over.

From Sand Hill Website

This is our criteria that we use to classify the varieties’ growth habits. This is from data gathered at our farm taking measurements from the location where the plant is growing to the distance the vines cover on one side of the plant.



Very vigorous - vines go to 12 feet or more.

Vigorous - vines usually go from 8 to 12 feet.

Vining - vines go from 6 to 8 feet.

Semi-bush - vines go from 4 to 6 feet.


Bush - vines are less than 4 feet.




https://www.sandhillpreservation.com...ng-information



Bradshaw is ivy leaf semi bush and supposed to be very good and is from your state and being offered at a great price. 12 slips, 15 dollars and that includes shipping. Good Luck


https://heavenlyseed.net/product/bra...weet-potatoes/

[PaulF]

I really need to attempt sweet potatoes again. Last attempt was many years ago... thanks for the nudge.

[Hensaplenty]

Thanks, Seaeagle!! I have ordered from Heavenly Seed before, but not recently.

[biscuitridge]

Thanks ,I just ordered Bradshaw from heavenly seeds!

[seaeagle]

You all are very welcome. Just clicked on the Heavenly seed link and see a slight price increase and now phone orders only. I guess lots still read Tomatoville. Biscuit, that is a long trip for plants. but sweet potato plants are tough.

Good Luck to everyone!

[biscuitridge]

Originally Posted by seaeagle

You all are very welcome. Just clicked on the Heavenly seed link and see a slight price increase and now phone orders only. I guess lots still read Tomatoville. Biscuit, that is a long trip for plants.

Good Luck to everyone!

I just placed my order on internet and got a confirmation so all is good,they charged Shipping but it says free shipping so I emailed them and waiting for a response.

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by biscuitridge

I just placed my order on internet and got a confirmation so all is good,they charged Shipping but it says free shipping so I emailed them and waiting for a response.

Hope you get the issue resolved. If you don't receive a response you could call the number listed on the sweet potato order page.

[seaeagle]

White Sweet Potato Review

White sweet potatoes in my soil and climate do not taste like Irish potatoes

O'Henry - I got 3 potatoes from someone who bought them dowm in Southern Virginia. I think they were treated with something because they took forever to start growing slips. Planted in July about a month behind everything else. They grew fast and were nice straight and perfect plump roots. This is a mutant of Beauregard but has much nicer tubers as Beauregard has some malformed tubers. High production as you can see in the Virginia trials in the link. It beat everything in yield even the orange ones cranking out a thousand bushels per acre in multiple locations. Taste is good and great texture.

https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server...a3cdae/content

Delaware Purple - This one was the only really dry one. Bot the taste was excellent and will grow again. Fills you up fast

White Queen - Uniform tubers although a little odd shaped. Big and early and looks to be productive although I only had two plants. All of these with the exception of O'Henry were part of a variety package I got on Ebay at a very good price. Taste is very good and all except Delaware Purple have moist creamy texture

Sumor- This was the forth one I tasted. I had already decided not to grow this one next year. All I read was dry, bland, the taste was similar to an Irish potato. Not in my garden as it was sweet and creamy and moist and the best tasting yet Seems a little later than the prior 3 but productive. Again only 2 plants.

White Triumph - Only 2 plants but doesn't seem productive and a little late. But this was the best tasting of all

Growing all of these again and adding Nancy Hall

[ddsack]

Can you describe the general difference between taste of a white and an orange sweet potato? Would it be obvious in a taste test with your eyes closed? I had never even heard of white ones, so this is really interesting to read about.

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by ddsack

Can you describe the general difference between taste of a white and an orange sweet potato? Would it be obvious in a taste test with your eyes closed? I had never even heard of white ones, so this is really interesting to read about.

The orange sweet potato is generally sweeter than the white sweet potato. Describing the taste is not easy and why very few websites attempt to do so.This is from the Sand Hill website who by the way know more about growing different varieties than anyone on the planet.

SWEET POTATO DESCRIPTIONS

We try to limit descriptions about flavor as flavor varies depending upon the individual and also upon the soil type and the climate where the variety is grown. My sweet potato tastes and Linda’s are not the same. I like dry and firm sweet potatoes with a slightly sweet taste. Linda likes smooth, moist and very sweet flavor. Your best bet is to keep trying different varieties until you find the one that fits your taste buds.

Here is a video about the science of sweet potato flavors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoOhYMCObO8

For the sweet potato varieties I have tasted, yes it would be an obvious difference, especially when comparing to a variety like Covington which is as sweet as candy.

This is an excellent thread on different tastes of sweet potatoes and how one person's favorite is another person's worst . I love all those sweet taters, just some better than others.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/13...g-sweet-potato

Well that was a long answer but I cannot help it. I got the sweet potato fever

[ddsack]

Thank you, all good information. You are lucky to live in a zone where sweet potatoes grow happily!

[MrsJustice]

I wish I had more room to grow Sweet Potatoes.

I need more land, Amen!!