• Sweet Potatoes - ready to harvest?

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:25 am**

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[mention]Growing Coastal[/mention]
Last year was the first year for me trying to grow sweet potatoes I used a 25 or 30 gallon trash can and put three slips in each one I yielded about eight or nine pounds per container
This year I'm trying 15 gallon containers with one slip for container I'm also starting one every month so to space out the harvest
The good thing about containers is when it's time to harvest you just dump them out on a tarp or a piece of plastic

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:34 pm**

stone wrote: ↑Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:48 am
worth1 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 7:54 pm
Growing Coastal wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 9:27 am The leaves are supposed to be edible. Does anyone here ever eat them and if so how do they taste?
I found them similar to eating evening primrose... kinda fuzzy textured... Slicing them first makes them better.

AHA! Stone. Interesting! You have actually eaten the leaves of evening primrose? I have read that they are edible and thought they'd make for easy emergency food but have never tried them. Have wondered about that fuzziness, too.
Do you know if it is any evening primrose that's edible or one particular variety?

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:37 pm**

eyegrotom wrote: ↑Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:25 am IMG_20201103_091744057_HDR.jpg@Growing Coastal
Last year was the first year for me trying to grow sweet potatoes I used a 25 or 30 gallon trash can and put three slips in each one I yielded about eight or nine pounds per container
This year I'm trying 15 gallon containers with one slip for container I'm also starting one every month so to space out the harvest
The good thing about containers is when it's time to harvest you just dump them out on a tarp or a piece of plastic

Great! Thanks. I got just over 1 lb from a 2.5 gal. Should do ok with a larger pot here. I did try growing one in ground one hot year but it didn't do as well as the one in a pot this year. It's a beautiful looking plant, too, so bonus!

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 5:39 pm**

[mention]eyegrotom[/mention] So in a pot, where do the vines go? Keep them trimmed to ground level? Or do you let them go crazy? Maybe I could try them on the rain gutter, but those pots are only 3.4 gallon. Otherwise I forget to water pots, without the bottom wick.

Maybe sweet potatoes would work well in the drum/containers I built and used this year for potatoes. The potatoes did nothing, too hot, too dry, then too wet. I could maybe get a watering setup going with them.

The biggest thing for me is I want to start my own slips. Even if it has to be a grocery store potato. Slips are not available here for very long and the ransom can be high ($5 a bunch).

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 6:21 pm**

I grew slips from my own sweet potatoes that sprouted.

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 7:10 pm**

[mention]JRinPA[/mention] a
This year I just kept the vines trimmed to the ground level. The one's that I recently planted are up against a chain link fence I hope they climb up the fence.

I was wondering about slips also. So I just got a couple of different kinds from the store, cut them in half stick in a jar of water after a couple of weeks the sprout start growing than you break or cut them off and stick them in water to let them grow some roots than plant out. It takes 6-8 weeks all together. Look on U tube for some Video help
It's actually pretty easy to do. Good luck. Mike

Posted: **Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:00 pm**

I have great success with sweet peppers in the rain gutter buckets. I have two gutters in parallel @ 10 ft each, with 10 buckets on each. I stake and weave them up same as I do a double row. Next year it will be only 9 pots in each to allow room for a 5gal fill/reservoir on each.

I have to wonder if I can get away with the peppers as is for the summer but with sweet potatoes growing underneath as well. I just pulled those pepper plants last week so the timing would be the same for sweet potato harvest. Peppers woven up as usual, but let the sweet potato vines sprawl to the ground, rather than have to weed whack the weeds against the gutter framers. The peppers are fueled by a ring of 10-10-10 laid just under the surface around the edge of the bucket, with one plant centered in each. It would be no problem putting a slip in each as well, as I usually have lettuce and such surrounding the peppers until August.

I think I would like to put in sweet potatoes where ever they would complement the existing crops. Anyone ever grow sweet potatoes in their asparagus bed? Asparagus beds, as I understand them, should not be dug into as the asparagus runs roots fairly shallow. So it would seem sweet potatoes would not be a match, there, since the sweet potatoes would need to be dug out. This year I planted pole beans in each corner and it seemed to work well to get use from the beds after June. Also, I will not mix them with parsnips next year, since parsnips should wait until the new year to be disturbed. June sown red beets seemed to go well with the sweet potatoes this year.

Anyway, just tired rambling here I guess. I like to try to get as much out of each bed as possible.

Posted: **Thu Nov 05, 2020 2:16 pm**

I have a 10 foot by 3 foot asparagus bed and with the roots i dont think i would plant anything which would require me to disturb the roots, such a sweet potatoes etc. however, i like the idea of some beans in the corners as you say you get some more use but then the asparagus still needs to grow and fern out in order to replenish the roots for next year - but beans are good for fixing nitrogen in the soil right ? I think i'd like to give it a go.

Biggest problem i have is the ferns grow huge, look beautiful but can sometimes flop over as the cane staking i use cant hold the weight. However this year with building a fence i have some left over arris rails which might be useful to build a support in each corner of the bed for wires to hold the ferns upright.

Posted: **Fri Nov 06, 2020 7:54 pm**

I built twin asparagus beds about 2 ft by 10 ft long, with an 18" walk in between. 4-6" raised beds. So the 4 bean poles were spaced at the corners of 10'x6, and for the most part didn't shade the bed or compete for space. I don't believe they affected the asaragus much. Beds were new in 2019 with late spring transplants from a 10 year gone to seed dig out, 12 roots. They weren't real strong this year yet, and it looks like a few didn't make it over last winter, but I filled in some more with stronger transplants last month. Next year I don't plan to put beans in the corners, or at least not as early. Maybe a July planting. It is amazing though what 3 beans around a single pole can produce with free space.

The asparagus tops did flop over for the most part, since they got nice and big. I didn't attempt to support them.

These sweet potatoes, even the rough looking ones, are pretty good. After the first season, I figured they were worth growing again with better placement/prep. This year they did better, or at least harvested better. Next year, I'm going to have to find more places to slip them in. I have a feeling sweet potatoes, loving the heat, will do much better in "towers" than the potatoes did this year.

Posted: **Sun Nov 08, 2020 3:43 pm**

Growing Coastal wrote: ↑Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:34 pm
stone wrote: ↑Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:48 am
worth1 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 7:54 pm
Growing Coastal wrote: ↑Mon Nov 02, 2020 9:27 am The leaves are supposed to be edible. Does anyone here ever eat them and if so how do they taste?
I found them similar to eating evening primrose... kinda fuzzy textured... Slicing them first makes them better.

AHA! Stone. Interesting! You have actually eaten the leaves of evening primrose? I have read that they are edible and thought they'd make for easy emergency food but have never tried them. Have wondered about that fuzziness, too.
Do you know if it is any evening primrose that's edible or one particular variety?
Evening primrose, oenothera biennis is all I ever heard...
https://stonethegardener.tumblr.com/tag ... g-primrose

Posted: **Tue Nov 10, 2020 6:29 am**

What Greene dean posted about evening primrose:
http://www.eattheweeds.com/oenothera-bi ... standby-2/

Posted: **Tue Nov 10, 2020 6:45 am**

I like raw sweet potatoes.
Shredded in coleslaw is fantastic.

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:27 am**

I think I've decided to grow all of the sweet potatoes on a trellis in a raised bed next year. That one hill I did on a whim with an extra slip did so well, why not do it on a larger scale? I can either plant them on one side of the bed and plant something else down the other side or put the trellis in the middle and put something else down both sides. Hmmm, I'll have to think about that. Spacewise, it depends on what's to be planted with the sweets.

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:50 pm**

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] that sounds like a good idea and it will keep the runners from rooting.

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:15 pm**

Not a bad idea, I don't think. Would they climb themselves or need help the whole way?

Posted: **Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:50 pm**

I had to help mine a little bit.
The deer kept it pruned back too.
Counted 5 in my yard the other day.

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:50 am**

At my house, sweet potatoes climb the bean tepees without any help, which brings the blooms up to eye level... I'd prefer that the runners root... those rooted runners produce perfectly edible sweet potatoes too.

Posted: **Fri Nov 13, 2020 1:01 pm**

JRinPA wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:15 pm Not a bad idea, I don't think. Would they climb themselves or need help the whole way?

For that one hill last year I had to keep weaving the vines through the trellis. Otherwise they'd grow out and when long enough, start to droop down. That's ok. For a while I was playing, trying to create a pattern on the trellis until there were enough leaves and side shoots that it was just one green mass.

Posted: **Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:00 am**

You may well get better potato set off the runners down South than up here at higher latitudes. Only two years growing so far, but I can say from what I've seen here, the slips don't take off growing until late July or so, and then the exposed leaves turn black at first frost, usually early October. The uprooting of the runners made sense to me for growing up here in the shorter season. And the gentleman from Sand Hill Preservation is out of Iowa. This year it was probably the best okra heat I have grown in, so it probably it was good sweet potato heat as well. Maybe my spring crops shaded over the sweet potatoes this year and kept them in check somewhat. For a long while the slips just stayed in neutral. I had to search for them to make sure they were still there and alive. Two months? End of May to end of July. That's why I'd love to get my own slips going, because they are only available here for a short window, pricey and it seems too early. Maybe they rooted during that time and I just didn't appreciate the growth since I couldn't see it. But some slips did wither up and disappear.

Last year they had a big spot to themselves and didn't do much until I put in the fall broccoli tunnel next to them. End of August? Then they promptly vined both through it and over it. They were like, "we don't need that space"..."oh we changed our minds *crush*". Not very neighborly...

Posted: **Sun Nov 15, 2020 3:53 pm**

I place my dug up sweet potatoes on tables next to south facing windows to cure... any that don't get consumed over the winter grow sprouts in the spring, just in time to set them out.
down here, any missed tubers come up in the spring as well.
For sunday dinner, a pair of deer rib cages came out of the freezer, and after smoking on the grill, and cooking under pressure in the pressure cooker, made room for fresh dug sweet taters, shredded sweet tater leaves, fresh pulled carrots, some diced cushaw squash, fresh elephant garlic, a whole ghost pepper, and a handful of rice... yummy.
you know it's good eatin, when you feel bad that you don't have room in the tummy for fourths and fifths...

Sweet Potatoes - ready to harvest?

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