Check in with Your Sweet Potato Harvest

[garden5]

I didn't get to grow any this year, so I'll have to get my fix my admiring yours .

Was this harvest better or worse for some reason?

Any tips for success?

Looking forward to the reports .

[farmerlon]

I had a bountiful Sweet Potato harvest this year!
It had almost forgotten to plant them this year... grabbed some "last minute" Beauregard slips at Lowes. Grew lots of big and beautiful potatoes... some about as large as your head!

I have clay soil ... I plant the slips in a hill (amended with some compost and sand) that's about 18 inches tall. That way, the potatoes have plenty of room to "stretch their legs".

[garden5]

I had a bountiful Sweet Potato harvest this year!
It had almost forgotten to plant them this year... grabbed some "last minute" Beauregard slips at Lowes. Grew lots of big and beautiful potatoes... some about as large as your head!

I have clay soil ... I plant the slips in a hill (amended with some compost and sand) that's about 18 inches tall. That way, the potatoes have plenty of room to "stretch their legs".

Glad to hear about the harvest. Beauregard is one of the "classic sweet potato" varieties.

Your reports are interesting to me since they appear to continue a trend of thought I've been seeing. Namely, that sweet potatoes produce larger/fuller potatoes in clay soil than in sand. I remember a member here talking about how the sweet potatoes they had in the loose soil produced stringy potatoes while the ones in marginal soil produced nicer ones.

Oddly enough, most articles on growing them recommend to grow them in loose sandy soil.

[engineeredgarden]

Well, my first 2 containers yielded 13.6 lbs., and the reamaining 2 will be harvested next weekend. Wireworms are causing a little bit of damage, but not enough to matter. I grow them in 100% homemade compost, and they do very well.

EG

[kimbledawn]

I am so excited! Last year we only got four tiny sweet potatoes because the container wasn't draining and I was impatient This year I grew slips from the tiny ones last year and just threw them in a five gallon bucket and forgot about them. I got impatient yesterday, knew there was nothing in the bucket and got 2.5 lbs of potatoes I know thats small change for you guys but I think I got it now. Next season My garden will be potato heaven!!!!

[garden5]

Well, my first 2 containers yielded 13.6 lbs., and the reamaining 2 will be harvested next weekend. Wireworms are causing a little bit of damage, but not enough to matter. I grow them in 100% homemade compost, and they do very well.

EG

Wow, that's a pretty good harvest. How big are your containers.

Kimbledawn, glad to here you're getting the hang of things. Sometime it takes a few tries to learn how to do well with a particular variety, but you will get it sooner or later as long as you keep learning and trying new things.

[applestar]

Still haven't dug mine yet. We're getting some rain now finally, but also warmer weather. I won't attempt to harvest until there's threat of frost, and even then may try to keep them going with floating covers. I do have a few patches covered with row tunnels to see if this would up the temperature and either earlier or larger harvest.

[farmerlon]

Your reports are interesting to me since they appear to continue a trend of thought I've been seeing. Namely, that sweet potatoes produce larger/fuller potatoes in clay soil than in sand. I remember a member here talking about how the sweet potatoes they had in the loose soil produced stringy potatoes while the ones in marginal soil produced nicer ones.

Oddly enough, most articles on growing them recommend to grow them in loose sandy soil.

I would have to agree that the soil should be loose, but I don't think it needs to be overly sandy. I think that clay makes a good soil "base", because it retains moisture and nutrients better than sand.
But, keep in mind that I did amend the clay with lots of organic matter (and some sand) to keep it loose for the sweet potatoes.

My first attempts at growing sweet potatoes, were in harder clay soil, before I had improved (added organic matter to) the garden area. Those attempts were not very successful.

[farmerlon]

Still haven't dug mine yet. We're getting some rain now finally, but also warmer weather. I won't attempt to harvest until there's threat of frost, and even then may try to keep them going with floating covers. I do have a few patches covered with row tunnels to see if this would up the temperature and either earlier or larger harvest.

Are you tracking the "days to maturity" for the Sweet Potato variety that you planted?
I can't say that I know this with absolute certainty, but past experience leads me to believe that the sweet potatoes will start to get "woody" (tough and fibrous) if left in the ground too long.

[engineeredgarden]

garden5 - 20 gallon containers....

EG

[applestar]

Thanks for the reminder Farmerlon. I grew slips from potatoes grown last year from store bought variety labeled organic eating sweet potatoes called Garnet and Hannah. At the time, my research yielded 105~110 days for both of them. I think I also have some new slips grown from red skinned yellow fleshed dry baking-type sweet potatoes from the Korean supermarket.

My notes are somewhat haphazard this year, but I believe I planted the slips in the back yard beds where it's a bit on the shady side (shade all AM) around late May (5/25?) and front yard beds around early June (6/5?). So I guess they should be ready... Well, we had some serious rain in the last two days, so I'll wait until things dry out a bit.

For next year, I want to see if I can find Okinawa Purple (140 days ) or equally interesting variety to grow.

[garden5]

Farmerlon, I think you're right. You want to find a happy-medium for the soil-composition; loamy, but not too loose.

EG, Thanks for getting back. I never thought about it, but I guess you very well could grow sweet potatoes in containers if they were big enough.

AS, glad to hear of your success!

Everyone, when do you plant your slips? I've read that you don't want to plant them until the ground has sufficiently warmed up, but I wonder about this. Do you wait until your ground has warmed, or do you just plant them at the end of the last frost?

[farmerlon]

I planted the Beauregard slips on May 24th .
I'm sure it would have been fine to plant those a few weeks earlier. But, I don't mind the potatoes being mature a little closer to Fall, so I can store them a little farther into the winter.

Next year, maybe I will try planting an early crop, and a late crop... perhaps get some slips planted around the first week of May, and then plant some more about mid-June.

[applestar]

Yep, Beauregard is listed a s 90~100 days. You would have plenty of time to play with planting timing. Have you grown them before? How do you like them?

I tend to like the dry/fluffy roasting kinds -- Hannah is one. my kids like the extra candy sweetness of Garnet though it's a moist variety.

[farmerlon]

I like the Beauregards... very tasty, moist and soft after cooking, but not "mushy".
The taste is so much better than storebought... but, just about anything organically grown in the garden tastes better than storebought!

This was my first year to really "get it right" on growing the Sweet Potatoes. Next year, I will try Beauregards again, and will also try to grow another variety (or two) for comparison.

[scyther]

Anybody familiar with the sandhill preservation site? They have an excellent guide to SP culture, the best I have read. The guy there is likely the most expert grower in the country as well has having easily the most complete collection of heirlooms, all listed with useful descriptions.

I am growing what I think is Korean purple - purple skin with dry white flesh, quite sweet. Short season and prolific. I also have Frazier white, Oklahoma red, Amish red, and a couple others. Havn't tried many of the others yet.

Beauregard's main claim to fame is being very prolific, and well-adapted to a wide range of climates. I believe it is considered so-so for eating quality.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Has anyone grown Georgia Jet sweet potato? It's one that is recommended for our climate.


50 plants for $23.00.+ SH. What do you think?

Eric

[garden5]

I just took a quick look at the Sandhill Preservation site. It looks like they've been having some supply and demand issues this year due to the weather. If anyone wants to get slips from these folks, it'd be a good idea to get your order in early.

None-the-less, they appear to be a quality place to order from. The sweet potato page looks to have some good information on growing them, so I'll have to make a note to go back later.

DDF, I'll admit, the price does seem kind of high (just my guess, haven't seen any other supplier's prices), I think it's well worth it as they say they have organic certification and don't spray their plants. There is a limit of, I think 250 per person, which should be plenty for most. Anyway, you can always start your own slips once you grow your first crops.

They also don't start shipping until May 25 (someone please correct me if I got that wrong), so that may be a downer for folks who wanted to get their plant in before that time. However, they have a great selection and some nice assortments, so it may hurt to get them a little later since you can always start your own slips whenever you want once you harvest the first crop.

Thanks for the resource .

[garden5]

OK, I just did a little more digging and it turns out that the Sandhill Preservation limit was 200 slips per person....still plenty for the average gardener. Also you could only order assortments for 2010. Things may change by next year, though.

The prices I originally though were high are actually average. After looking at several other sites, they all seem to be the same, give or take a few dollars.

[garden5]

Sweet Potato Slip Sources:

[url=https://www.sweetpotatoplant.com/]Steele Plant Company[/url]

[url=https://www.sandhillpreservation.com/pages/sweetpotato_catalog.html]Sand Hill Preservation Center[/url]

[url=https://www.tatorman.com/]George's Plant Farm[/url]

[url=https://www.mericlonelabs.com/]Mericlone Labs[/url]

If anyone has more to add, please do so . These just seemed like some of the more prominent ones.

[Hispoptart]

We tried sweet potatoes last year and didn't get a single one of course by they time the slips arrived they were almost dead, so I am sure that had something to do with it. Was hoping to see some pics of every ones harvests.

[gixxerific]

Here is my measly very embarrassing harvest from my smaller patch. There were 4 maybe 5 plants in there. I only got one BIG one and that is almost too big. The rest are a joke. Not sure what happened. Not sure if any of them are even edible.

I did notice a few came out and were white, they looked like regular potatoes at first. Not sure why they were rotting and composted.

[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/DSC04185.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/DSC04184.jpg[/img]

Go ahead and laugh, I'll be in the corner crying.

[engineeredgarden]

gixx - that's not anything to laugh at - any harvest is a good one! BTW...I harvested my other 2 containers yesterday, and got 11.3 lbs. from them. That equals about 25 lbs. of sweet potatoes from 4 containers. I'll post the video tomorrow...

EG

[scyther]

BTW, it's pretty easy to start slips in quantity, if you have tubers of the desired varieties.

As explained at the SP site, its best to use small slips with few roots, taken off the parent tuber and set straight out at the correct time. That is generally later than people think, around here it is last week of June or even first week of July.

[garden5]

Gix, I'm not laughing at all....that's a great harvest. All those little ones, just toss 'em all in a pot and cook and serve with butter and brown sugar.

Those big ones are nice, but that giant one is awesome. You could cook that thing in the oven in a roaster pan!

Syther, I hear you about the slip-starting. They say you get get up to 50 slips form one sweet-potato! However, I think that's exaggerating a bit.

Looking forward to more harvest pics .

[farmerlon]

Sweet Potato Slip Sources:

[url=https://www.sweetpotatoplant.com/]Steele Plant Company[/url]

Nice list, thanks for the info.
I will try to give the folks at Steele Plant some business, since they're located in my State.

[garden5]

Sweet Potato Slip Sources:

[url=https://www.sweetpotatoplant.com/]Steele Plant Company[/url]

Nice list, thanks for the info.
I will try to give the folks at Steele Plant some business, since they're located in my State.

Glad you liked it .


An interesting source that I listed was Mericlone Labs. They are the last one listed.

Their slips are twice the price of others, $.99 a slip, but they say they offer the best quality you can get.

They do what's called "meristemming" and heat-treating. I'm not absolutely certain, but I believe they grow the potatoes, select the best ones, grow slips from them, then take a tiny, tiny piece from the meristem (no idea where that is) and place it into a sterile test-tube where they grow it into a new slip. Now, these slips are supposedly 100% disease-free and will grow better potatoes.

Next, they take these slips, grow them out in a green-house, and then sell them.

It sounds like an interesting concept. You can read more about it [url=https://www.mericlonelabs.com/themeristemmingprocess]here[/url] Also, some of the links on the left will show more detailed info about the steps in the process.

What do you think?