Potatoes, from the Patch

[ducks4you]

SOOOO Jelly! Couldn't figure out WHY my S. Potato harvest is so small...then I realized I should plant a big patch of them next year.
I might dig up mine this weekend...

 

[Zeedman]

The Sweet Potato Harvest is In!

View attachment 44421
What?

Beautiful... I hope that's not all of it. Quite a nice batch of tomatoes behind it.

 

[digitS']

. I hope that's not all of it.

It is all of it, Zeedman. Oh. There was another skinny one, the size of a finger. It was tossed.

This is the 3rd time to have sweet potatoes in the garden. A purple supermarket one did sorta okay about 10 years ago. Very protected location. Pretty vines ...

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Sweet potatoes are a challenge for cool or short-season locations. I think I could grow some here, with a lot of TLC, and have a list of varieties to trial. For me, it is a question not only of maturity, but of where the tubers form. My soil is very heavy, and I have little patience for playing "where's Waldo" with a shovel - especially having experienced that once.

About 15 years ago, I grew a sweet potato grown for its shoots & leaves, from slips purchased in an Asian grocery. The vines grew well, and we harvested a lot of greens from them. When Autumn came, I decided to see whether the plants had developed tubers. The good news: they had... long, narrow, twisted white tubers that had a very dry consistency (similar to a white variety aptly named "Choker"). There were a lot of them too. The bad news: they were anywhere within 3' of the plants in all directions, and up to 8" deep. To find them, I had to follow the thick roots (which were identifiable) outward from the plant, digging carefully, until I located the tuber. This wasn't harvesting - it was excavation!!! After digging only a few (and ruining that part of the garden) I gave up & left the rest to freeze. I was actually relieved that none of them survived the winter.

 

[ducks4you]

It is all of it, Zeedman. Oh. There was another skinny one, the size of a finger. It was tossed.

This is the 3rd time to have sweet potatoes in the garden. A purple supermarket one did sorta okay about 10 years ago. Very protected location. Pretty vines ...

Steve

Have you seen this gardener's stuff?

 

[digitS']

You mean this guy with the palm trees at the edge of his Australian garden? He starts off "In our subtropical climate ..." @ducks4you !

Looking at gardening videos on YouTube and one hears of this channel.

He has been around awhile. And, doing lots of good things.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

there are certain tricks to doing sweet potatoes in the north, but also in general. picking the right varieties and also some vine management to keep them from rooting for long as the vines spread so that keeps the tubers larger and also located near where you planted them.

that said, all theory on my part since i have yet to grow them as anything other than a half of one in a container of water on the windersill.

 

[digitS']

That's probably a BIG part of my problem. However, it's not too much of a fail -- my first try was many years ago. It was with one of the northern varieties. I remember Dad, who grew up in OK and NM, being humored by my claim of success .

The last two tries were with these tasty sweet potatoes from the grocery store.

Waaay too casual for a gardener who believes in appropriate varieties for local environment. No excuse . Maybe, I'll be exploring what might be best but they have to be tasty sweet potatoes!

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Sandhill Preservation sells slips for a lot of sweet potatoes, including quite a few for short seasons; the varieties I've been considering are listed by them. I hope I don't pay a price for my procrastination though... Sandhill was hit my the Iowa Derecho last year, and may have lost some of their varieties. Only time will tell, I'll have to wait for their 2022 catalog.

Their current sweet potato page is still for 2021, but has good descriptions of the MANY varieties they grow. Image heavy, so it takes awhile to load:
Sandhill Preservation sweet potatoes

 

[Ridgerunner]

I found that it loads faster if you go to their web page and load it from there instead of following your link.

That is a tremendous number of sweet potatoes but they are very proud of their slips.

I copied this from their site. That storm was destructive for them.


We are very sorry for all of the unavailable varieties. On August 9,2020 we tilled between the rows in anticipation of an upcoming rain storm. As we plant on black plastic and our soil is very sandy it makes planning for tillage before a rain a necessity to make the best use of the moisture. Our soil is quirky and if not disturbed after a rain will actually hold the moisture down a few inches very well but if tilled after a rain will wick out the moisture quickly. On August 10 we had a Derecho or land hurricane that gave us 100 mph winds for close to an hour and the devastation was great. We were blessed with no lost buildings or livestock but many all across the state lost homes, buildings and had near total devastation. Our worst damage was the areas where I tilled the day before and the loose sand was picked up by the wind and ripped the plastic out of the ground and literally rolled the plants up like you would roll up a soft shell taco . We lost many sweet potatoes and tomatoes and peppers. Where we have a supply of sweet potatoes they were planted in another section that had not been tilled and they did very well. We will work overtime to try to get things all back to normal for 2022. We sure hope we do not totally lose any varieties.