# Sweet Potato Vines Poisonouse!!



## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Who knew? Had a mountain of vines from digging over 40# ot 'taters today and thougt I'd throw 'em to the cow...then thought I should check and see if they would be ok to feed. Good thing I did as they are poisonous containing an LSD-like hallucinogen and also can store excessive amts of nitrates. My Cow is crazy enough:smack

Note ....this was from a google search


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## goatlady (May 31, 2002)

That's most interesting cause I have been feeding my goats my sweet tater vines for the last 2 weeks with no noticable changes in the goats. If fact, the young vines are excellent in stir fry for dinner for myself. Link to your hallucinogin information please.


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Know deer nibbled our young plants but never bother the older ones. I'm tossing mine on the compost pile anyhow.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

goatlady said:


> That's most interesting cause I have been feeding my goats my sweet tater vines for the last 2


I have done the exact same thing in past years, and fed them to rabbits too. No wonder they like them so much?


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## goatlady (May 31, 2002)

[PDF] 
Assessment of the Potential of Sweetpotato as Livestock Feed in ...www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/agphome/.../wk1_c13_claessens.pd...You +1'd this publicly. Undo
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use principally consists of vines being fed to dairy cattle and goats as energy supplements. As part of the development of the sweetpotato commodity initiative, ...

[PDF] 
There is Beef in Sweetpotatowww.cip-upward.org/main/AMC/.../DOC_DocumentsViewer.asp?...Similar
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Cattle raising farmers use an average of 500 kg of sweetpotato residues, equivalent to eight cartloads of sweetpotato vines or 199 kg sweetpotato chips, to raise ...

[PDF] 
Sweet potatoes as animal feed in developing countries: present ...www.fao.org/ag/aga/agap/frg/AHPP95/95-183.pdfYou +1'd this publicly. Undo
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by GJ Scott - Cited by 26 - Related articles
percentage of sweet potato production are dif&#64257;cult to interpret. In many countries, waste in the form of damaged roots and vines are processed or fed to livestock. ...

Roots, tubers, plantains and bananas in animal feedingwww.fao.org/DOCREP/003/T0554E/T0554E13.htmCached
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Roots for pigs and vines for cattle are the most commonly cited forms of ...


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

goatlady said:


> [PDF]
> Assessment of the Potential of Sweetpotato as Livestock Feed in ...www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/agphome/.../wk1_c13_claessens.pd...You +1'd this publicly. Undo
> File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
> use principally consists of vines being fed to dairy cattle and goats as energy supplements. As part of the development of the sweetpotato commodity initiative, ...
> ...


I was denied access to the links.

So, are they just poisonous to animals? Because I ate some this summer and thought they were pretty darn good.....and no, I didn't go crazy or have a trip or whatever it's called these days.


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## goatlady (May 31, 2002)

All of those articles discuss using sweet potato vines as cattle and goat feed/fodder. It's extremely nutritious and high energy food for ruminents. Interesting, I cannot get in either but then I can't "do" PDF files anyway. I just Googled sweet potato vine for goats and got lots of "hits". FAO = Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations


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## Mid Tn Mama (May 11, 2002)

I don't know anything about feeding to livestock, but I know that Phillipinos eat them as salad and as cooked greens. I've never had a lot of them, but mixed in with rest of salad or greens and never had any ill effects.


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## ceresone (Oct 7, 2005)

Deer around here eat them into the ground.


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## Guest (Oct 8, 2011)

How many more of these dern things I got to eat before that LSD kicks in. Whoah! What was that?! Did you see the size of that thing??? Uhhhh, never mind, I guess I'm there...


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Maybe it is "Irish potatoes" that have the poisonous vines!


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

This thread caught my eye because of my interest in feeding rabbits naturally instead of on commercial feed. I've always understood that sweet potato vines were good, but rich, feed for rabbits. I wish I could open that link... comes up "forbidden" for me.

Here's a link about sweet potato vines for rabbits from the World Rabbit Science conference, 2008.

http://world-rabbit-science.com/WRSA-Proceedings/Congress-2008-Verona/Papers/N-NguyenVan2.pdf


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## bluelacedredhea (Mar 15, 2005)

There are a lot of factors determining the poisoning of livestock that aren't discussed by a point form list such as the one posted here. What I have come to understand is that most animals will not eat plants that are toxic to them unless they are starving. Age of the animal, age of the plant and quantity consumed also factor into the toxicity.

This article might be of interest to some
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/dairy/facts/87-016.htm


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Irish potatoes are in the nightshade family and there leaves and vines are poisonous, for what I have heard and what I have eaten sweet potato vines are not poisonous and very good eating. Maybe the info on the web confused the two.


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## Queen Bee (Apr 7, 2004)

I need to post that on signs and place them around our sweet potato patch... So the deer will know they can't eat them!!LOL 

They will eat every inch of every vine they can reach--they start on the out side and eat their way thru the patch... I don't know if they go into the woods and 'trip' but they sure eat them...


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## jfsabl (Aug 7, 2015)

Pretty sure it's the seeds that are supposed to be toxic / psychoactive. Like morning glory (which is somehow related). I'm growing some "good for eating as greens" varieties, and while I have not eaten tons of leaves or young shoots (they're not growing well enough for that yet) so far, no problems. I sometimes blanch them in salted, slightly acidulated water to reduce the latex-y sap and the mucilaginous (slimy) qualities of some of the varieties.


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

Almost had my sweet taters wiped out by a ground hog last year. I kind of wish the vines had been poisonous to him.


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