What Did You Learn This Garden Season?

Smiles Jr.

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We have never been BIG fans of sweet potatoes and yams. But in May I decided to plant 24 starts from our local nursery. They did great! So this year I'm learning how to harvest, season, and store sweet potatoes. I didn't have the slightest idea that they need to be placed in a hot and humid area for 2 weeks and then set aside for a minimum of 6 weeks in a cool dark area. Evidently they need time after harvest to allow a chemical change to take place to make them sweet. I have 127 large ones in the cool dark stage of seasoning now. Just in time for Thanksgiving. I'll donate 100 to the free store in November cuz 27 big ones are more than enough to get us through the winter.
 

flowerbug

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I learnt that sweet potatoes are Not like normal ones, you cant leave them in the ground expecting them to regrow the next year- they just rot.

i'm not sure if this is climate related or not as i do think they are a tropical plant so they may rot just because it got too cold for them or they froze or something. not sure. i'm definitely not a sweet potato growing expert... or even a potato growing expert... :) i'm loving it that you're just coming into the main part of summer there now - i get to feel warm vicariously...
 

Zeedman

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I learnt that sweet potatoes are Not like normal ones, you cant leave them in the ground expecting them to regrow the next year- they just rot.
You can leave them in the ground, if the climate is warm & the ground never freezes. When I lived in San Diego, a canyon was just outside our back yard fence. DW & I planted sweet potatoes on the rim of the canyon as edible landscaping (a variety grown for their edible leaves). We had to water them sometimes, but other than that, they were exceptionally hardy. San Diego does get an occasional frost, and when that happened all of the top growth died. But when the weather warmed, the plants resprouted. They were still there 5 years later, when we moved away.
 

Trish Stretton

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oops, not too sure what happened there...
We had a rather warm wet winter this year with maybe one hard frost.
I checked both tubs a couple of months ago to find there were still tubers in both tubs, but a couple of weeks ago had a feel around to find...rot.


Thats so weird, that first post had nothing in it and I couldnt find the delete button, hence this one
 
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