Bumper sweet potato crop up north

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting question, cat. I always read that you must stop those rooted spots from developing, but of course, all my reading has been about growing in the north....

Yes, you can get some pretty good sweets where the vines root, sometimes a few feet from the main plant. Mine will sometimes send a thick root out from the main area a few feet too and set a sweet at the end of that root. Both those can make it hard to dig them. You trace that root out carefully to avoid cutting the potato and maybe find a nice potato or find nothing. Those clumps where the vines root can be about anywhere too so I often wind up cutting some of those. They heal though and you can store them as long as they are cured.

There are a whole lot of different varieties of sweet potatoes with different skin colors and different flesh colors. The ones you see at the grocery stores are almost always Beauregards so that's what most people think of when they hear sweet potatoes. When I grew up we grew a white skinned sweet potato with white flesh that cooked up with a light green color. That's what I thought a sweet potato was supposed to be until I got out into the world.

Different varieties cook up differently too. Some are more waxy, some drier. I grew a Murasaki a few years back. That's a purple skinned sweet with white flesh developed by LSU I got from Steele. It's a long season variety so not really suitable for up north. It was way too dry when I tried just baking it, but in casseroles or cooked up in water it was really good. I gave some to a lady that works at the same charity my wife and I do and warned her about that. She cut them into slices, drizzled with oil, seasoned them (can't remember how, probably salt and pepper but maybe something else), and baked them. Sweet potato chips. She said they were really good, could she have some more please.

I'll tell one of my favorite sweet potato stories. When we moved here was the first time since I was married that I could even grow them, In suburbia my garden was tiny. My wife refused to believe that sweet potatoes could be anything other than the red skinned red fleshed Beauregards. That's what she grew up with. So I grew some white skinned, creamy white fleshed O'Henry's. When she told some women at church that I had grown some white sweet potatoes they didn't believe her. Every year a few area churches get together on a farm for a fall picnic where everyone brings a dish. I brought a sweet potato casserole made from those O'Henry's. I just set the bowl on the table and left it. No one noticed who brought it. When we were leaving and I picked that empty bowl up, some of those ladies wanted to know what that was. They couldn't figure it out. Some thought it was a squash casserole because of the color but it didn't taste just right for squash. I took great pleasure in explaining (very nicely of course) that it was sweet potatoes. White sweet potatoes.

My wife doesn't like the really big sweets. They take forever to bake in the oven, quite a while even in the microwave. With her arthritis she has great trouble cutting up the big ones. I plant mine 9" apart in rows maybe 3-1/2 feet apart and still get some really big ones. The big ones I give away.

 

[Smart Red]

Thank you for the info, Ridgerunner. You are making me hungry for sweet potatoes. For sure I'll be trying them this spring. Remember, you Northerners, that fellow at U of I in Champagne-Urbana has a list of the best sweets for growing in the North.

 

[digitS']

Well now, that link says "good in savory dishes."

traditional Japanese Purple (like this)

My last attempt at growing sweet potatoes was a purple. I was given the roots by a friend who picked them up in California, maybe just at a grocery store.

I did eat the crop and won't try to make any description of flavors. Maybe drying enhances the sweetness of the chips. You don't suppose that there could be a group like TEG's bean aficionados who might start a Little Easy Network?

Steve

 

[digitS']

fellow at U of I in Champagne-Urbana has a list of the best sweets for growing in the North.

Here is a Jennifer at U of I, Champaign-Urbana "
"They need a full-sun garden location with moderate rainfall," Fishburn said. "They grow best in a fertile, sandy loam, well-drained soil, with a pH of 5.6 to 6.5. At higher pH levels, diseases are more common."

Well, I can't give them the humidity if they need that nor the soil with a lower pH ...

"... visit the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission website at http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/."

Hmmm, obviously not the U of I sweet potato specialist with the list ...

Steve

 

[catjac1975]

Thanks, everyone! Last year's harvest was a bust so I think yield is more dependent on the weather than anything else, at least in a marginal growing area like PA. Always happy when things turn out well!

These purples are purple throughout and even turn a darker purple when cooked (unlike some purple vegetables). They will make a stunningly different sweet potato pie and are a rich source of dietary antioxidants.

"Stokes Purple" is a Japanese Purple Heirloom Variety (there are several) that a farmer simply patented without any claim of breeding - or even selection - he says he was gifted a few tubers by a gardener who thought he should try them. I will not say more about that, except that I feel strongly that the practice of patenting heirloom varieties is unconscionable.

I started both a traditional Japanese Purple (like this) and Stoke's Purple this Spring and grew them side by side in different rows. Although the starting material did have some differences, at the end of the season they seem indistinguishable to me (the different groups of purples in my photo are from different rows of the garden).

Do they taste like the orange sweets?

 

[catjac1975]

Here is this year's sweet potato crop, dug this weekend. The blues are Japanese/Stokes Purple, the whites are O'Henry (which look a lot like conventional potatoes) and the reds are Beauregard. Really thrilled with the purple ones (it is my first year growing them).

I just looked at the purple sweet link-expensive, but they all are. The 120 days would probably not work for me. Maybe I'll try some extra early and start them indoors in pots. I think your season is a little longer than mine.

 

[PhilaGardener]

Do they taste like the orange sweets?

This is my first year for the purples, so I have to cure them first!

 

[Smart Red]

Steve, according to the PBS video, there is a professor at UI that is the all knowing guru of sweet potatoes. Don't remember his name, though.

 

[PhilaGardener]

Here is a short list of varieties recommended by UI Extension service; maybe that reflects the opinions from the video. I'll have to look into the bush varieties as they would take up a lot less space!

(and here is another link for our Southern CA members)

 

[so lucky]

@PhilaGardener , are the ones you are holding representative of the size of the ones in the crate? Those are nice sized. Good job!
I like the big ones, as I use them for French fries 99% of the time.