Sweet potatoes!
Sweet potatoes are in! They were a last minute addition this year, I was expecting them by the end of May, and then started to write ‘em off when I couldn’t get in touch with the grower who was supplying them. But he came through, and they arrived by UPS yesterday, one box with around 1000 slips. Bob P., the sweet potato farmer who sent them, is also here in Ontario, but further south in a microclimate zone near Lake Ontario that’s a lot warmer. Still, they should grow here as well. The variety is Beauregard and they’re started from slips, which are vine cuttings. This is the first crop I’ve started strictly from direct grower-to-grower info, it was great to chat about them on the phone, rather than do the usual new crop…research. And they sound unbelievably trouble-free. Bob’s instructions: stick ‘em in the ground with the growing point 2-3″ (5-7.5cm) above the surface, 12″ (30cm) in-row spacing, and as little as 12″ between row, all the way up to 3′ or whatever you like for tractor transplanting and cultivation. That’s it! No watering in, no watering except in extreme drought conditions. Just…weed. Hmmm… I’ll look into them more, but for now, that’s what I did, and there they are. The leaves will probably die off, it’s new rooting that should happen. One mild concern: sweet potato grows best in loose, sandy soil, where here the heavier clay loam is being well-compressed by lots and lots of at times pounding rain. Also, the slips are apparently supposed to be planted within 7 days of cutting, and it’s about a day after that. We’ll see. In 100 days, sweet potatoes? ;)
Somewhat related posts: • Sweet potato thrives • Sweet potato harvest • Last day of summer in the garden! • Cucurbits germinate! • Field day!
There is a “curing” process involved as well… That is the most poplular variety grown down here in Georgia. Sweet Potato casserole, yummmmy!
They look great. I ordered mine from Johnny’s. They’re so pathetic they won’t look at good as yours three weeks from now.
I’m about to plant my sweet potato slips too! Nice to see yours and hear that its OK if the leaves die off. As a miniature scale home gardener, my story is a bit different. I just snipped the tip off of a nice super market sweet that was showing sprouts and used tooth picks to suspend it in a cup of water. I have nice roots and shoots now. A few slips. Its a nice orange potato that makes great fries. I hope your crop does well!
We planted ours over a month ago and the 90 degree weather has them growing like weeds. I’m surprised they would grow up there so far north—hope it works out great!
I’m hooking on growing sweet potatoes too. This is my second year growing them and mine are WAY ahead of last year. Probably thanks in part to the hot weather a week ago and to the fact that I grew the slips myself and they were bigger and didn’t lose their leaves this time.
They taste fabulous, but I found the curing stage (2 weeks at 90 F and high humidity) was a necessary step to have above average sweet potatoes. Our walk-in closet in the bedroom came in handy for that, although it was difficult to get dressed in the morning for a while.
Chris
I’ve been growing sweetpotatoes for many years in Missouri. I have clay soil, but the trick with sweetpotatoes in clay is to plant them on ridged rows. They can’t stand being water-logged (the roots need air) and having them on ridges keeps just enough of the water drained. I also mulch heavily with straw to keep the weeds out. The mulch also helps a lot with moderating soil moisture. In the summer, clay will dry rock-hard and open up 1/2 inch cracks in the ground. I’ve got lots of photos on my web site. (Hmmm. I tried to enter my web site URL and my comment was marked as spam. Just trying to share some photos of my sweetpotatoes.)
Doug
Doug: Thanks, that’s useful info for the clayey soil I have here. As you can see, I didn’t ridge this time around. I just went with the grower’s advice: stick ‘em in the ground and water only if there’s an extended dry period. Easy! :) We had a few heavy rains in the days after the planting, and that always pounds the soil down, leaving a smooth, hard crust. I scuffled a few days ago to break it up. I checked a couple of the worst looking slips, with just 2-3″ of stem left, and they’d started to put out roots, and the bigger ones have started to grow new leaves. Hopefully, it’ll all work out! I’ll be sure to keep the surface loose, and will mulch if I have it to spare, still lots of toms, peppers, and eggplant ahead in the grass-mulch-as-it’s-made queue! Thanks again!
If you enter an URL and it’s marked as spam, I’ll see it in the moderation queue and publish it. I’ll check settings, it should only be marking posts with two or more links.