I grow dioscorea alata. I just stick them in the soil and forget about them. They can take a while to come up so if you plant them now they'll be breaking ground when spring gets here. The only thing I do with mine is give them lots of leaf litter. I have read that regular fertilizing gives better yields.

Sharon that is one of the types I have. I also have a purple yam and one he called a Chinese white yam. I'm looking forward to next fall. I use to eat yams All the time when I lived in Orlando.

The winged yams grow in the woods all over Orlando. So when I lived in Orlando I would go out and dig them. Didn't think it would be a problem getting them in brevard but here I only find air potatoes. This will be the first time in 18 years I've grown them.

We have some winged yams growing in Brooksville, but intermixed with the air potato so you have to know what you're looking for and it can be time consuming and take some bushwacking. Do you get the air potato beetle there? The last couple of years they've been releasing them here and they are making a dent in the air potato, which makes it easier to find the yams. I have tons of air potato on my property and only a handful of yams ... luckily the air potato beetles aren't eating my yams ... not sure why, but I'm grateful.

Wow 18 years?! Well you are going to be one happy camper come next fall AND with three varieties to try!

We don't have the air potato beetle here yet. My parents are in brooksville and I have seen there work. I've have been wondering if they went after the yams. So that go to know.

My yams started to come up today. I'm so excited.

that's great! since we're in the same zone mine should be coming up too. i'll have to go check. i have Dioscorea opposita in pots and they put out new growth a couple of weeks ago.

The purple ones came up first and a winged yam is poking out this morning but no sign of the Chinese yam yet.i set up a bed with yams and sweet potatoes thought it would be funny to grow them together.

What kind of sweet potatoes did you plant? I planted Puerto Rican sweet potatoes around the yard last year, but didn't harvest any so I don't know how they taste. They seemed to do okay on their own ... at least from what I've seen from the foliage. They are more compact compared to most.

I have purple sweet potatoes. I wonder if that's the same thing? My Chinese friend says that you have to leave the D. alata in the ground for 2 years to get a good size root. He has them growing wild in the woods behind his gardens, so I tried planting a couple last year, and one came up, but it soon died and they haven't come up this year.

EDIT: Just found this video, and what I have isn't ube, it's the Stokes Purple sweet potato

https://www.friedas.com/ube-or-not-ube-that-is-the-questionand-friedas-is-answering/

I don't remember what type of sweet potato it is I got the slips from home depot.they were on sale. They were in sixs packs buy 1 bogo for 2.50. all of them died but 1 after transplant but that's ok as long as 1 makes it I will just work from cutting. I also have purple sweet potato that I'm making slips from right now.

DG no the purple sweet potatoes are a completly different plant then ghe purple yams I planted.

I'm so looking forward to the yams I used to eat them all the time when I was in Orlando.they grow wild over there so i didn't think I would need to bring them with me to brevard but in 20 years I haven't found a single 1 growing here.

DG jusy got a moment to read that link.yes the ube, ithink i spelled that right is the same type of yam i planted and it is different than sweet potato.there very good.

Glenn, did you get the Ube bulblets? That's the same one I was talking about getting from my Chinese friend. (Dioscorea alata). I can get a lot of those little bulbs and maybe even some starts when they start coming up. Now I remember that those are purple. I had forgotten. Yes, they are delicious! My friend says you have to leave them in the ground two years to get big bulbs. I've seen people dig them up in the wild that were huge and weighed several pounds. They aren't common raound here either, but he has started a bunch down in the woods behind the gardens, and they grow up into the trees. He doesn't dig them, just picks the bulblets off. I bet some of those roots are huge too.

Yes DG I did get bulblets and yes i did get Dioscorea alata. I know that as winged yam.the purple yams are Dioscorea but I don't know if it's a alata are if its got another name but is definitely a close relative.i have a friend who calls the bulblets yam berries and there great cooked whole with some butter.

I forgot to add,from what i understand it takes 2 years before they make bulblets.

Some Dioscorea alata are white and some are purple. Even the white ones have streaks of purple through them. Some people say you can eat the bulblets, some say no. I got in touch with Grower Jim yesterday and he has both the "Africa" and "Hawaii" varieties, but he won't have any until December, so I'm gong to get the "Africa" ones then. they have the angular edible potatoes that grow on the vine. The "Hawaii" bulbs look like the poisonous air potato,but are edible. I'll have to grow them inside the courtyard somehow so they won't get out of control.

I've eaten the bulblets there great.

Good to know! I think little mini-taters would be yummy, and there will be lots of them on the vines in my friend's woods this year. That's where he gets his to plant.

Up date,

That's awesome! My Dioscorea alata (purple yam or winged yam) has come up, but isn't growing much. I thought it was dead, but it's finally put out some leaves.