Sweet Potato Digging Day!

[GoDawgs]

Today is sweet potato digging day! There were 27 lbs from nine hills. Almost as much as last year's 30 lbs but uniformly larger and not as many little ones. I think they're prettier too.



This is probably the prettiest bunch of the nine hills.



Right now they're in three peach baskets which have plastic bags over them to start curing for 10-14 days. That's supposed to be at 85-90 degrees with 90% humidity. Time to baby sit the sweets. I'll have to bring them inside at night as we're about to get some low 60's outside. The plastic bags keep in some of the moisture they release as they cure but I have to watch them to make sure they have enough air and don't start to rot. Right now they're all starch and inedible but during the cure they will convert that to sugar. Then they'll be stored in a closet.



At the end of the sweet potato row I had planted a few shallot bulbs this spring just for grins and giggles. They're not supposed to do well here but the feed and seed had some fall bulbs left over this spring so what the heck, I bought four. Another little experiment and Big Spender here laid out a whole 85 cents for them. Over the summer I forgot about them until now. They made clumps of shallots and the greens had all died back so I dug them after I pulled out the sweet potatoes.



We'll see what they taste like after they dry down a bit and I get that funky outer layer of paper off them. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

[Uncle_Feist]

I may start on my sweets pretty soon.

[Josetom]

Absolutely beautiful harvest, I'm very happy for you I hope to plant some sweet potatoes and shallot soon too!!

[JRinPA]

I dug some of mine last week, after another comm gardener was digging his 3 plants (my slips). We had a good comparison.

His looked good, came out like a tight bunch of bananas from his row that was mostly in the native dirt with a compost hill over it. About 18" between plants. Most 1-1.5" diameter and 6" long, I'd estimate.
Here is pics of the first plant, the other two were similar.

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My in-ground came out more spread out on longer roots, some larger, some smaller. Mine were more tightly spaced and had drip at times, and that soil is a lot looser with amendments.

I pulled one fabric pot as well to compare, it had 2 slips. They were mostly smaller with a whole lot of very small ones. Still a lot of flowers on those vines. But I don't think they were getting enough water. No pics of mine. They are in the car curing.

[Cole_Robbie]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know about curing sweet potatoes. I think my family just did it by accident, because we didn't eat them until thanksgiving.

[MissS]

@Cole_Robbie I learned something new here too, but then I have never grown sweet potatoes. I love the days that I learn something new!

[GoDawgs]

I had to bring them in off the porch last night as the temp was getting down to 68 overnight. The house is at 77 so this morning when the porch got up to 78 and rising, out they went again.

@JRinPA, I did the car curing several years ago and had a remote thermometer in there with them that I'd periodically check. It took a few visits out to the car to adjust how far the windows were open to stay in temp range but it worked well.

[JRinPA]

Worked great here last year. It was a couple *weeks* later I guess but it will cool down this week.

[worth1]

I don't think the grocery store sweet potatoes are cured very well and could use a good curing.
Probably a good idea to buy them a couple of weeks ahead of the holidays.
Even a regular potato will cure and get sweet after time.
Carrots and just about anything with starch.

[JRinPA]

They cured so well last year in the car I used most of the "seed" potatoes for sweet potato pudding back in June.

[JRinPA]

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Supposed to get to 35F tomorrow night so I dug my comm garden sweet potatoes this evening.

I had 5 fabric pots plus a row in the ground, all climbing the same trellis to keep the vines off the ground. Of course, I let that go wild by neglect after a while.

I didn't weigh but got a big pretty good pile from I think 7 plants in the ground. But, some vole damage....
I don't seem to have many big ugly split ones, like I had that first year in the ground and I didn't dig until November.

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In the pots I had two 7 gal fabric pots of lehigh yellow potato. Two in each. These produced almost nothing for that much space and water!

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And then the fabric pots that had two or three sweet potato slips in each. The ones with three seemed to only produce on only two slips, so I'd say two slips is the right number for those "15 gal" fabric pots. These made more traditionally shaped bunches of sweet potatoes, but smaller yield per area. The pot on the ends toward the fence had the biggest sweet potatoes. Not sure if they had more light, or more water, or just better slips. But, fabric pots were on the ground...two had holes through the bottom and a few sweet potatoes chewed up. Nothing terrible, but I should have went with the elevated bench, for sure.

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[JRinPA]

Not great success for the sweet potatoes, still vole problems...

But at least I got out there for another evening. And got my butternut off their trellis, too.

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I still have the 20 ft raised bed sweet potatoes at home and one more 11' row of potatoes. I guess I have to get that done tomorrow.

[worth1]

Darn those butternut squash look good.
And so does the sunset.

[GoDawgs]

Nice haul, @JRinPA! I sure am glad we don't have voles here in the garden. Chewed through the bottom of the pot, they did!

Beautiful butternuts! I love butternut squash but no matter how I try to protect them the SVB's always kill them. I quit trying.

[JRinPA]

These butternut don't seem to be affected much by SVB. Pumpkins get destroyed, zuchini, and the delicata/sweet dumpling. Perhaps these others act as trap crops.

This year was "no squash at the house" so next year it will be at the house again, and I am definitely trellising them again to make the squash bugs visible and vulnerable. (editedtoadd:) I have very little damage. When I would patrol, there would be 2-5 squash bugs at each stem, but only at the stem where they were somewhat hidden, and they were easy to kill. It is so much better than on the ground, and no spoilage from wet bottoms either.

Now the forecast is only down to mid 40s tonight and tomorrow and then warmer again, so I did not get the last sweet potatoes dug. They should come out though ASAP because this is when the vole attrition rates ramps up, in the cold.

[JRinPA]

I'm gonna cure the sweet potatoes in the cellar this year, in a 4 tier mini greenhouse with some heat mats and pan of water. Then when they are cured they come upstairs for storage and the butternut go on that same greenhouse shelving sans cover. I should dig the rest tomorrow and get them all done.

Most of these butternut are almost too big for easy microwaving. I already bleached wiped them and put them in the back of the subaru, so no room for the sweet potatoes there.

[JRinPA]

Well that plan didn't last, I pulled the butternut after 1 day (they're cured enough off the vine) and put sweet potatoes in the car like last year. Except, way more.
One day this week I dug half the 20 ft bed, then finished it two days later. So they are all curing in the car. All my sweet potatoes are now harvested. One row of potatoes to go.

The 20 ft bed really did well. There was very minor vole damage but the sweets form very well in there. Regular shaped AND big.

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I had planted the slips through the slots where the spring snap peas came out. The two center rows (of four). Each slot got a slip on either end, where applicable.

Started out good at the top

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and continued looking okay. Though you can see the vole tunnels under the black mulch. It keeps the weeds down SO WELL. But, voles...

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I quit to go deer hunting, killed one and had to focus on that for a day then got back to the rest of the sweet potatoes.

They got bigger, it seemed, on the carrot side. They'd grow a nice root right up to the carrots. Also easier to dig with a helper (brother came to steal some venison and complained about not having gloves for his dainty hands)

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I have to say, sweet potatoes seem to grow best for me in this 20 ft bed. Carrots don't grow well in it - they end up with ugly splits and multiple leaders. But sweet potatoes have room to expand in that loamy raised bed soil and don't split due to too much rain. The grow bags proved to be far too dry to make big ones.

[pepperhead212]

Beautiful butternuts! I love butternut squash but no matter how I try to protect them the SVB's always kill them. I quit trying.

I'm surprised - butternuts are all I can grow here, due to SVBs. And I never have a problem with them.

I just learned about "curing" those sweet potatoes. I've never grown them, but am considering growing them next season. Given that "hot summer" we had here in early September, that would have been a good time, but I don't know if I would have them planted on time.

[JRinPA]

I need to get them in as soon as the ground gets really warm, 70 or so. They take a long time to get started in too-cool soil. I figure June to Oct. My "test" Sept. harvest was notably smaller/premature.

Get a nice looking sweet potato or two from the market in end of March. Let it humidify for about 2 weeks. I put on a heat mat, under dome, with water in the bottom of the tray. Then when you are ready to start growing slips, bury them more than halfway with potting soil. Bang they start throwing slips quick when prepped that way. Then you harvest the slips, put in water for them to grow roots, then propagate the roots in cups or a tray. It is a process, but a cool one.

I put the main crop in the 20ft bed...early or mid June. The peas were really spotty so I probably filled in open spots before pulling them all by the end of June.

[GoDawgs]

I save some of the small sweets from the last harvest as they are Jewel, which is a nematode resistant sweet and they've never been bothered by 'todes. By slip starting time they're waaaay sprouted! 3 or 4 are planted horizontally in a window box and they make nice slips. Looking at my records, this year I started them in the box on 3/23 and the first one poked up 3/31. They were planted out on 5/8 (last year 4/29) with a soil temp of 70. First flower was 7/5 and on 8/19 it says the "vines are looking tired". Harvest was 9/11 (last year 9/21).

You have a nice uniform crop!

Now. Y'all have me considering doing just ONE more hill of plain old butternut squash next spring. It probably would have worked this year as we've had low insect pressure. Who knows what next year will be like. Probably a ton of bugs. One more time, into the breach!