My fresh sweet potatoes!

Sluggo Plus is the only thing I've found that will repel the pill bugs. I don't know who decided that pill bugs do not eat veggies.

I don't have any pics of my previous harvest of sw. potatoes, but, if you think it has been long enough,(see link for sand hill preservation, above) I'd go on one end of bed and just dig under first vine(with your hands to avoid injury to potatoes)and see how big the taters are. You want to dig all before frost(I don't know when yours is due)
I usually leave mine to the last minute before frost to let them get a little bigger.
Jo

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:
We bait for the Vols, but they've discovered my garden so it's a pain. 

Nevertheless, we had a big one for lunch with sauteed zucchini, sausage, italian seasoning, orange bell peppers and halved cherry tomatoes.  It was amazing.

Wow, I never considered actually eating the voles!

thank you litlejo.

Has, The sweet potato vines are huge! How many slips did you plant per square foot, and how many squares, are in the photos? I want to try them next year bout I don't know how many I can handle in my small beds. Thanks

Marc Iverson wrote:

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:
We bait for the Vols, but they've discovered my garden so it's a pain. 

Nevertheless, we had a big one for lunch with sauteed zucchini, sausage, italian seasoning, orange bell peppers and halved cherry tomatoes.  It was amazing.

Wow, I never considered actually eating the voles!

  

Oh my gosh!!! That's so funny! They're good with Parmesan Cheese on top  

The tails make a nice handle, too.

Here is my sweet potato patch.  4 x 8.  a 5 foot trellis on one side of the bed and 3 foot trellis on the other side to let the vines climb.  I plan on harvesting next weekend.

yolos wrote:Here is my sweet potato patch.  4 x 8.  a 5 foot trellis on one side of the bed and 3 foot trellis on the other side to let the vines climb.  I plan on harvesting next weekend.

I thought about trellising mine this year, as they usually just take over. But then I thought about the sweet potatoes that you get at each rooting node where it touches the ground, and it seemed that trellising them might reduce the yield.

Let us know, please, if you feel that this cut the yield any significant amount.

I just ate one of mine that has 'cured out'.  Baked it in the oven - one of the Beauregards.
YUM!
I could eat four more.
Definitely doing at least two squares of sweet taters next year.
I will have to cook some of the Georgia Jets in the oven next to compare them to the Beaus.
I nuked a small one of each the day I dug them out....the microwave just doesn't do them justice.

Someone posted about digging them - I cut all the vines way back and pulled them out of my way (so I could see what I was doing!).  Then I started in with my hands digging around and they just came right out of the MM - no problem.
I found that I had to dig around really well with my hands in the beds or I'd miss some spuds!

The small, tiny ones - cook them and MASH them - throw some butter and cinnamon in there...delish!
I have quite a few like that too- but y'all see from my picture I have LOTS of big spuds!

I will try to remember to post with my "taste test" results of the GA Jets vs the Beauregards - haha!

Pollinator wrote:

yolos wrote:Here is my sweet potato patch.  4 x 8.  a 5 foot trellis on one side of the bed and 3 foot trellis on the other side to let the vines climb.  I plan on harvesting next weekend.

I thought about trellising mine this year, as they usually just take over. But then I thought about the sweet potatoes that you get at each rooting node where it touches the ground, and it seemed that trellising them might reduce the yield.

Let us know, please, if you feel that this cut the yield any significant amount.

Here is my harvest from the 4 x 8 bed.  Planted 18 inches apart.  Modified mels mix (soil, peat moss, vermiculite, compost - this was part of my row garden I have transformed into square foot gardening but this patch did not get 100% MM). 

Beauregard slips (purchased) planted on 6/21/13 and harvested on 10/21/13.  Harvest was approx 80 lbs.  About 20 lbs humongous potatoes, 20 lbs just the right size potatoes, 20 lbs a little smaller than normal, and 20 lbs very small (large carrot size).

I let the vines wander around the patch for a while and then let them grow up the trellis once the bed was full of vines.  I think the smaller ones came from the vines that rooted.  I have heard that the sweet potatoes will not get as large on the tubers that grow from the rooted vines.  The vines will not root outside of the bed because it is hard as a rock red georgia clay that has not been tilled since I started square foot gardening in 2011.

Yolos, They are beautiful.

I have one late plant that I'm letting grow until the first frost. I am not expecting much from it, but we'll see. If I were to just leave them in the ground would they grow next spring?

Our ground doesn't freeze and it's planted in about 6-8 inches of woodchips so it's really well insulated. Do you think it would be worth the experiment to just leave them in the ground and see what happens?

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:I have one late plant that I'm letting grow until the first frost.  I am not expecting much from it, but we'll see.  If I were to just leave them in the ground would they grow next spring?  

Our ground doesn't freeze and it's planted in about 6-8 inches of woodchips so it's really well insulated.  Do you think it would be worth the experiment to just leave them in the ground and see what happens?

Audrey
A spud left in the ground will grow in the Spring, but, the idea of planting just the slips, is that the potatoes may have disease, but, it will not be transferred to the slip.
Jo

I notice that one person will plant 12 per 2' x 2' box and another every 1 every 18". I have some 10 1/2" deep, max 2' across, boxes which should work, 5' trellises. My little brain is even thinking of a new 2 x 2' box just for the sweet potatoes. I have 2 taters that I cut in half, sticking them in 4 solo cups with toothpicks. roots are growing on 3 of them but no slips. Rich MM or less rich like unamended MM like for regular potatoes. Thanks for any advice. Ohm, last frost date is mid Feb but I was thinking more like April 1st-15th for planting.

I see that everyone is excited about this topic. I also have a 1' x 4' I.D. box, 10 1/2" high. Will this work and how many slips?

sanderson wrote:I see that everyone is excited about this topic.   I also have a 1' x 4' I.D. box, 10 1/2" high.  Will this work and how many slips?

Okay, I will give it a shot.  Every cultivar is different.  I grow Beauregard.  This is a very high yielding cultivar.  You can see the giant sweet potatoes in my picture above.  There is no way you could grow 12 plants in a 2 x 2 box.  If I were planting Beauregards in a 2 x 2 box, I would probably plant one per square.  You could probably stick another plant right in the middle of the box and therefore get 5 plants in a 2 x 2 .  One article I read said that Beauregards average 2.4 lbs per plant with 3.3 roots per plant.  My beds are 10 inches deep but are exposed to the soil under the beds. 

Sweet potatoes (depending on the cultivar) need 90 - 150 frost free days.  Beauregards mature in about 90 days and are one of the earliest cultivars I have seen listed.  Plant when soil temps are greater than 65*F.  At least 2 weeks after frost free date.

Over fertilization causes vigorous leaf growth and skinny roots.  Soils with high levels of organic matter is less desirable as it can promote root disease or the roots can become discolored.  In the absence of a soil test, a soil containing moderate amounts of nitrogen and relatively high proportions of phosphorus and potassium such as 5-10-10 or 10-10-10 can be use.  So it all depends on how rich your compost is.  I would not use rich MM if it is over rich in nitrogen.  I just used my normal MM and supplemented with a little Plantone fertilizer later in the summer.

Yolos, Thank you for your "shot in the dark." I think these store-bought are of a smaller variety, so I will visualize 4 taters per plant when I plant the slips (which are finally growing).. My frost dates are Nov 15-Feb 15, so there are plenty of FF days.

I got an email from a co-op that I belong to about ordering bulk sweet potato slips. I told them I could use a few and now I am on the list. I don't know a thing about growing any kind of potatoes. I looked up on several threads about sweet potatoes and from what I can tell you plant 4 or 5 in a 4x4 box and let them grow. I seem to have read that you plant potatoes in a bucket and you add more MM as the plant grows. So I am a little confused. If any have had experience with sweet potatoes please enlighten me.

I suspect your confusion comes from that potatoes and sweet potatoes are not related to each other.  Potatoes are related to tomatoes.  Sweet potatoes are related to morning glories.  You can eat sweet potato tendrils and leaves but potato leaves are poisonous.  I gathered that with sweet potatoes any time the stem hits the ground it will develop roots and those roots can make tubers.  Potatoes  grow their tubers from the stem that is below ground, not from roots.  So when you heap up more MM around the plant you are forcing it to have more stem under ground to grow tubers off of.

I learned from experience that you cannot increase your sweet potato yield the same way you can with potatoes in a bucket and adding MM as it grows.  Also, if you do that with potatoes you need to use an indeterminate variety.

But anyway, Turan is right about them not being related.

sanderson wrote:bump

please refresh my thinking, because I can't find the info on "bump". What does it mean? where does the thread go??

Has, I merged 2 sweet potato topics with the OP's permission. I forgot to delete my bump, but I have now.

"Bump" means an older topic is brought back into the "Latest Topics" list. In this case, the purpose was so I could merge the 2 sweet potato topics.

sanderson wrote:Has,  I merged 2 sweet potato topics with the OP's permission.  I forgot to delete my bump, but I have now.

"Bump" means an older topic is brought back into the "Latest Topics" list.  In this case, the purpose was so I could merge the 2 sweet potato topics.

I was wondering the same thing.

sanderson wrote:Has,  I merged 2 sweet potato topics with the OP's permission.  I forgot to delete my bump, but I have now.

"Bump" means an older topic is brought back into the "Latest Topics" list.  In this case, the purpose was so I could merge the 2 sweet potato topics.

thank you for the explanation. so the two threads just appear under the same title or do you direct us to where the thread is now located? the word "bump" sounds like the thread is get out of the forum for a unknown reason.

"bump" is a forum term (any forum) to bring a topic back into discussion.  In this case to add the new thread to an old thread of the same topic.