Sweet Potatoes

sanderson wrote:Any guesses as to what drilled the holes in my SP?

Yolos, If you root and pot them to get them through the winter, will you also trim the vines shorter?

I have no guess what drilled the holes in your SP.  I also had some holes in my SP that look similar to your holes but only a few in about half of the SP.  It doesn't look like the holes go deep so I am hoping they will not affect the quality of the taters.

I will probably never get around to it, but yes, if I do pot the slips, I will trim the vines short.  Actually, I think what I am supposed to do is cut the vines into shorter pieces and then root each short piece. ?????????????

We need the SP expert, Little Jo.

Yesterday, 10-28-16, I harvested one of my SP totes. I still have one more to harvest. No scale to weigh them but guessing +/-  8 lbs.


       Getting ready.



           After the haircut.


      Well, thats encouraging.


I was amazed. The MM was slightly moist and loamy and smelled "Delicious"  

 

                AHhhhh.. There's GOLD in them thar totes. 

 
  Almost a 5 gallon bucked full.

I'm jealous!

sanderson wrote:I'm jealous!

Thank you Sanderson. I take that as a compliment. We are big SP eaters. We just keep them in a ventilated container in a spare room with the heat vent blocked off in the winter. The room stays about 55 to 60 deg. We have SP til spring.
 
I viewed the pics of the holes in your SP and I believe they were caused by Potato borers. i still have one more tote of SP. I'll post more pics.......    Thanks for all you do on this forum. It IS appreciated..   

Well, I did it. Housekeeping was coming Thursday so I set the towel and SP in the oven. Forgot about them and turned the oven on. When it dinged that the temp had been reached, there they were!! I guess the skins are dried now.

sanderson wrote:Well, I did it.  Housekeeping was coming Thursday so I set the towel and SP in the oven.  Forgot about them and turned the oven on.  When it dinged that the temp had been reached, there they were!!  I guess the skins are dried now.

Oh no.  

I dug my other 18 gallon tote of SP today. These were bigger and better than the other tote.  I read in this forum about curing SP. I've never cured mine before. Maybe I'll try curing these.



Using my size 9 1/2 cowboy boot as a reference.

I didn't have to use a shovel. The MM was so soft and loamy, I could run my hand all the way to the bottom. When we harvest SP, we just put them in a milk crate and leave them on the porch and bring them in before it freezes.

NOT SP RELATED:  Carrots, cabbage and parsnips.


January King Cabbage. Supposed to survive 18 deg weather "Uncovered". I'm covering it.


Carrots, Turnips, beets


Carrots,cabbage, beets and turnips


Getting for ready for our 1st frost tonight. Protecting my 16 heads of Iceberg Lettuce.

Mr. Booker, Outstanding!

MrB ... You have a fabulous veggie garden. Thanks for the photos.

sanderson wrote:Mr. Booker,  Outstanding!

Thanks Y'all. My wife says I need to start proof reading ..

Gorgeous!

Well, not a bad success this year considering the bottom MM was septic, there were insect bore holes and I forgot I was storing them in the oven when I turned it on 2 weeks ago.    I had to toss about half of them due to mushiness. I peeled, cored and cut them up tonight and roasted in the oven with coconut oil.  Right now they are in the freezer until tomorrow when I will bag them with the Seal-a-Meal.  Even with all of the above and the funny streaks in the meat, they are so sweet!!    I will definitely try them again next year, the 3rd attempt.  Learning from my failures.  

Sanderson, is that grub damage?  Are they holes going deep in or more like divot gnaw holes?

My sweets are a bust so far.  Was out poking, poking, poking and doesn't seem like I have any tubers developed.  I struggled with getting the watering system right.  I might just leave them all winter and see how it goes.  They're in the side path bed that's more shaded and sheltered so frost damage in the event we get a frost will be minimal.

NSR, The holes were shallow, max 1/4". I removed them with the core-tip of the potato peeler. You have nothing to lose by leaving them over the winter, right?

Not many sweet potatoes this year  but will make a delicious dinner this week 

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My wife found sweet potato's at a local grocery store for .29 cents per pound and bought 12.21 lbs for only $3.58.  Theres no way I can grow them that cheap. I think next season, I'll use my four 18 gallon totes to grow red and white taters. I think the SP she bought was a variety called "Georgia Jet".  If you've never grown Georgia Jet sweet taters, I highly recommend them.  Their much more uniform in size and shaped  like a football.  If you let them grow to full size, they'll get bigger than a football.



"That sweet, orange-colored root vegetable that you love so dearly is actually a sweet potato. Yes, all so-called “yams” are in fact sweet potatoes".

Good buy on the SP. One has to decide what is of personal value, whether it is by cost or by favorite foods.

Yes, I have a hard time planting carrots and tying up my  limited squares when the grocery regularly has 5# bags for a $1.  Sweet potatoes go in waves, but I keep trying different varieties you can't get in stores. Typically around here all we see are the Beauregard in the stores.  You can get a little bag of purple ones at Trader Joes for $3.99.  

I ironically grow potatoes, mainly because they grow well in the winter and earlly spring here.  Keep experimenting there to trying to find something that will grow well and give us lots of the baby like potatoes we use for making roasters.  I don't bother with russets as they're so inexpensive. 

Although, like everything, the control to not have it coated with pesticides, herbicides sprouting inhibitors, food grade parafin, ... is becoming ever more important.

Plus there's the taste factor.   Butternut squash, oh my, they're like Tomatoes, IMHO.  Eat one home grown, ripe from the vine and the store bought taste like flavorless pulp.  Carrots are much the same, I've grown them, and they're much richer, but not quite rich enough to get over the hassle of growing.  Okay, maybe because I have such a pathetic sprout rate, I just can't get my scarification to get going right and all my wet paper towel tricks seem to fail.

The only potato I can grow here in the summer season) are store bought reds. When they sprout on the counter, I know they will grow!

OK... keeping in mind that I planted my SP AFTER Sanderson did....  Here are the results.  I just went out & started digging.  Your laugh for the day.  SANDERSON...you called yours "fingerlings"?  I think I at least matched you in size if not quantity.  (but check out that terrific soil in there!)

So to the pro's out there:  If I want to use these for NEXT year's SP, how do I cure them, how do I store them, when do I bring them out to start the slips, and when do I plant the slips so I get REAL sweet potatoes?  (Or can I even use these?)

Happy Thanksgiving to all....have to run.  Going to Sis' for lots of food (including SP!)

Here's what I got. I cured them in the plastic box shown (it has a lid to hold the humidity in,) over the purple LED light string. When the light string was on it was  85*F in the box. I had one sweet potato that had mystery holes bored in it, but it did not cure (and so isn't shown.) I haven't tasted one yet.


I planted in a secondhand "Earthtainer" SIP. I feel like they look bigger in the photo than they actually are, they are really small compared to what I see in the stores.  I planted late, from sad slips (sad enough the place gave them to me for free instead of charging me.) I'm not impressed with the yield - I think my main problem was not enough sun. I think the melons shaded them out. I'll wait to try growing sweet potatoes again until I'm somewhere with more sun to go around.

Mellen,  I think your fingerlings are 2x bigger than mine in 2015.    If you go back and look at the photos showing my 2016 crop, look at the distorted potatoes that grew from the 2015 fingerlings.  So, I would say, buy 2 nice ones in January and grow slips from the 4 halves.

Close up of just the fingerling-based ones.

BPSF, I only got "fingerlings" in 2015 when the totes spent several weeks without good sun. 2016 was much better as they spent the whole summer in sunshine. The vines just grew out and around. My 2017 crop will rival Yolos' SP! Ha, ha.

oooOOOOOoooooo.... Do I hear a challenge?

And aren't the leaves & vines good to eat?

Sanderson wrote:So, I would say, buy 2 nice ones in January and grow slips from the 4 halves.

Thanks Sanderson.  I will roast these for 5 seconds (LOL) and eat them!  I'll hit the grocery or farm store soon & pick a couple of them up.  Farmer's Almanac says to start the slips 90 days before the last frost date, & plant them after it.  I'd better get started.

Marie,  Yes, a personal challenge is on!

Mellen,  Five seconds!     I hope Audrey chimes in, but I think Christmas is plenty of time to get the slips to a nice planting size.  I think our last frost date is around March 7.  Check for your area.