My 2012 Sweet Potato Journal/post #26 starts 2013!

[baymule]

This is the first time I have planted sweet potatoes. My Dad planted them, but I never did and he is gone now and I can't ask him how! So I am drawing on my memories of his sayings to help me along. I had some sweet potatoes on the counter and they sprouted. I had 2 small beds of new potatoes and thought that sweet potatoes would go good in those beds when I dug the new potatoes, so I stuck toothpicks in them and put them in water. The sprouts grew longer and when I dug the new potatoes May 25, I set out the slips the next week. So my 2 beds have been growing about a month now. They are approximately 2'x4' and are looking good so far.

Sweet Potato Bed #1

Sweet Potato Bed #2

Bed #1 has really taken off so I cut slips from it to plant another bed.

I dug this bed up last week and mixed chicken compost in it real well and watered it in. I have watered it each day so it would be good and moist.
Sweet Potato Bed #3 planted today, 6-28-2012 This bed is 4'x5'

If these survive the heat and perk back up and get to growing, I will have a LOT of sweet potatoes! I thought it would be fun to track the progress of the sweet potatoes as they grow until harvest. I will update as the season goes along. I have seen a few other posts about sweet potatoes and gleaned a lot of information about them. I started with 2 grocery store bought sweet potatoes and took slips from them. We'll see how the harvest goes!

 

[ninnymary]

Great idea to keep a journal. I would love to hear how they are doing.

Mary

 

[retiredwith4acres]

Way to go! Guess you remembered a lot. Keep us up to date on how it goes.

 

[baymule]

The heat here has been brutal. The slips I planted 6-28 wilted and looked terrible. I watered them twice a day and they perked up a little. The bed gets shaded in the late afternoons by a crepe myrtle tree and that helps. They still look kinda sad.

 

[lesa]

Finger crossed! Looks like you will have to water everyday...Good luck! I've got a few planted, but they aren't loving our dry weather.

 

[ninnymary]

baymule, why haven't you mulched them to conserve water?

Mary

 

[annageckos]

I planted sweet potatoes this year. Some of the plants looked like they had died back completely and I forgot all about them. A week or so later they had new growth on them. Now those plants a few feet long and doing great. Don't give up on them, sweet potatoes seem like really hardy plants.

 

[catjac1975]

I find my sweets look almost dead for about a week after planting. Then they start to grow and look lush.

 

[baymule]

Bed #1 and #2 look like a sweet potato vine jungle now. Bed #3 that looked so wilted and pitiful took root, has put out new growth and is sending out vines. The reason I didn't mulch is because they grow so thick, they shade out the weeds and act as their own mulch. And maybe I was just lazy It is nice to have such lush growth in our scorching heat. Those sweet potato vines make me look like I know what I am doing!

 

[baymule]

Here are new pictures of the sweet potato beds. This picture is of bed #1 & 2. The brick walkway between the beds is completely covered up and I keep picking the runners off the sidewalk and driveway and putting them back in the beds. They love the heat! I just put up the rain gauge so I can measure the rainfall. The big clumps in the right front corner are garlic chives. They are real garlicky, but I can't eat them. if I do, I will belch vile fermented garlic blech for hours afterward. They earn their place in the garden by being mosquito repellent. I just pick a few leaves, crush them in my hand and rub them on exposed skin or clothing. The mosquitoes hate them as much as I do!

This is bed #3 that looked almost dead in the last picture. That is our dog Polly snacking on crabgrass that grows so well in the garden. I wish it would grow that well in our horse pasture! The dogs love to eat "salad" out of the garden

Look at the bloom! At first glance I thought a morning glory vine had invaded the garden!