Re: Sweet Potato Digging Day!
Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 1:48 pm
So for sweet potatoes here since first year of 2019:
20 ft raised bed - good two years out of two.
backyard garden - utterly destroyed by voles
box built at comm garden with vole proof wire - ravaged by nesting voles inside the box
in rototilled ground at comm garden - vole damage, splits, irregular shapes at late harvest
in raised row with lots of compost at comm garden and vines run up CRW wire - vole damage, irregular shapes
in fabric bags of potting soil + compost+ broken down wood chips and vines run up wire- nice formation but small, too dry, vole raiders
another plotholder at comm garden - in regular soil tilled in spring, planted in June as fill in and harvested in Sept - nice uniform bunch like bananas, but small. No voles, but an early harvest and little ground clutter there.
They really like the lofty raised bed soil the best, that heats up a bit, with access to ground water, but little vole activity. Maybe the right word is "Duh".
I guess I could still try to experiment with sweets in Rain gutter buckets. In conjunction with rain barrels, I can keep them watered pretty well. I don't really have a place to keep my rain gutter grow buckets anymore, though. I was thinking of retaining one of the two sections for bottle onion sets - that worked great.
20 ft raised bed - good two years out of two.
backyard garden - utterly destroyed by voles
box built at comm garden with vole proof wire - ravaged by nesting voles inside the box
in rototilled ground at comm garden - vole damage, splits, irregular shapes at late harvest
in raised row with lots of compost at comm garden and vines run up CRW wire - vole damage, irregular shapes
in fabric bags of potting soil + compost+ broken down wood chips and vines run up wire- nice formation but small, too dry, vole raiders
another plotholder at comm garden - in regular soil tilled in spring, planted in June as fill in and harvested in Sept - nice uniform bunch like bananas, but small. No voles, but an early harvest and little ground clutter there.
They really like the lofty raised bed soil the best, that heats up a bit, with access to ground water, but little vole activity. Maybe the right word is "Duh".
I guess I could still try to experiment with sweets in Rain gutter buckets. In conjunction with rain barrels, I can keep them watered pretty well. I don't really have a place to keep my rain gutter grow buckets anymore, though. I was thinking of retaining one of the two sections for bottle onion sets - that worked great.