wifezilla
Deeply Rooted
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Yeah, it's called curing. Great idea using the brooder lamp! LOL I have one of those!
Are the sweet potatoes ready yet?
- Thread starter wsmoak
- Start date
pebbles
Chillin' In The Garden
Thanks Wife!
hoodat
Garden Addicted
I don't know what the heck I've got. I bought the parent sweet potato in an Asian market and grew slips from it. It was huge and a purplish red in color with a very dry flesh. I think it's Okinawa purple but I'm not sure.Sweet potatos are a staple of diet in Okinawa, like the rest of Japan depends on rice, so they have a lot of varieties.
calypso985
Chillin' In The Garden
Great information here. I'm a novice gardener who knows just enough to be dangerous 
I had a sweet potato (Red Garnet) sprout in my kitchen, just hanging in a basket. When I realized how much foliage it had on it, I cut it into 3 big chunks and put it into a shallow dish of water just to see what would happen. After several weeks, it was beginning to take over my kitchen, vining all over the place. I think it was early June. I had to do something with it, so I took a chance and planted it in an empty raised garden box full of really nice sandy loam. The next morning, I thought it was going to croak because it was all wilted like and laying down on the grown instead of perky & upright. I gave it a big more water, and basically just crossed my fingers. Must have been a mild case of transplant shock because the next morning, it was fine!
It's now HUGE, with vines trailing every which way -- about 5 feet in diameter -- and it is BLOOMING! (The flowers are really pretty.) About a month ago, I went around and lifted the longer vines away from the soil, supposedly to encourage tuber formation beneath the main plant.
I live in NW Oregon (Hardiness Zone 8a). Our spring was unusually prolonged, cool and wet, but we FINALLY got some hot weather starting about a week ago. However, even the cooler weather has seen the vine grow lush and big. Is the hot weather necessary for the plant to produce tubers of any size? We probably have 2 months before we get first frost here. What are the chances that I'll actually get usable tubers?
I had a sweet potato (Red Garnet) sprout in my kitchen, just hanging in a basket. When I realized how much foliage it had on it, I cut it into 3 big chunks and put it into a shallow dish of water just to see what would happen. After several weeks, it was beginning to take over my kitchen, vining all over the place. I think it was early June. I had to do something with it, so I took a chance and planted it in an empty raised garden box full of really nice sandy loam. The next morning, I thought it was going to croak because it was all wilted like and laying down on the grown instead of perky & upright. I gave it a big more water, and basically just crossed my fingers. Must have been a mild case of transplant shock because the next morning, it was fine!
It's now HUGE, with vines trailing every which way -- about 5 feet in diameter -- and it is BLOOMING! (The flowers are really pretty.) About a month ago, I went around and lifted the longer vines away from the soil, supposedly to encourage tuber formation beneath the main plant.
I live in NW Oregon (Hardiness Zone 8a). Our spring was unusually prolonged, cool and wet, but we FINALLY got some hot weather starting about a week ago. However, even the cooler weather has seen the vine grow lush and big. Is the hot weather necessary for the plant to produce tubers of any size? We probably have 2 months before we get first frost here. What are the chances that I'll actually get usable tubers?
retiredwith4acres
Garden Ornament
Calyso, that is how you get transplants for your garden. Put a potato in water and when they sprout the leaves you can break each individual stem off and plant in the garden to make new potatoes. My mother puts several potatoes into water in late winter ( can use a hot bed), then she breaks off all the different stem/new plants and we have a whole row across the garden to be harvested before frost. You can buy the plants but they are a little expensive. We just use the left over potatoes from the year before.
calypso985
Chillin' In The Garden
Just thought I'd share this pic I took yesterday of my 'Garnet' Sweet Potato vine. I'd never seen the flower of the sweet potato before, and I thought it was particularly pretty! To the original poster who asked if the sweet taters were ready yet, have a look at how green my plant still is! Not a sign of yellowing or withering anywhere, so I think it's gonna be a while 
cityfarmer
Attractive To Bees
I love all this discussion. This is my first year growing sweet potatoes and I was wondering when to dig them and now I know.
