Harvested the sweeties today - pretty decent haul from 2 plants - lol... Each section is 1 sq ft to give you some perspective as to size. They are currently curing;o)
SWEETIES UNDER STRAW/LEAVES #1
Wow! That's amazing Kelly! Discovered that I put mine in the middle of June. Has it been long enough or should I wait to harvest?
Good harvest Kelly. I had to work yesterday so will dig mine up today. Crista, mine were planted in mid-June too, dig around, see if you have any decent sized ones ready to come out.
Question please locakelly ~ how deep are your squares? You made a good haul!
Today I'll pull the rest of my sweet potatoes. I've given away sweets to four neighbors, co-workers, and in-laws. I still have more than enough for ourselves.
The slips were set in April. They didn't vine as much as last year because I didn't fertilize them once they became established.
I found out where the voles went! Many of the sweets had been chewed down to nubs. At least they left the beans alone. I just hope they leave the asparagus alone during the winter.
Here's an excellent article from Organic Gardener Magazine about growing sweet potatoes.
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-16-1989,00.html
That's a good article Honey, I found the harvesting paragraph especially interesting:
Harvesting
You can harvest as soon as leaves start to yellow, but the longer a crop is left in the ground, the higher the yield and vitamin content. Once frost blackens the vines, however, tubers can quickly rot.
The leaves on my plant have not yellowed yet so maybe I should let it go a bit longer. Hummmmm. Dilemma's dilemma's.
Mary, As I understand it, sweet potatoes are a perennial vine in your location. You might not get yellowed leaves as an indicator of readiness. I tried growing sweets in South Florida without success, but that was before the WWW had been invented, and there was no one around to ask questions about growing them.
I am guessing that if you pulled some plants five to six months after setting the slips you should find sweets large enough to eat.
Heneybee is right on timing... Mine were in 5 months - purely experimental again... Last year 4 months not that many big ones. This year 5 you see the result. I think there are about 27 taters there, some small but most decent size. As with last year, there were a lot of new ones starting, so had I left them longer there would have been more. I have heard you can "rob" the vines of the good size sweeties and let the rest continue to grow, but I think that is easier said than done because of the way they grow. If you disturb the main root too much, the vine will die.
You can leave them until frost though I don't have the luxury of space to do that, unless I build a bed just for sweeties;o) Hmmmmmm... Now that's an idea...
pod - the beds the sweeties were in were deep, but here's the kicker... The potatoes grow from the main stem diagonally - does that make sense? They grow out then down. New ones form below the existing ones. The pototoes were all near the surface of the soil. I think the trick with sweeties is to give them the space to do their thing. Wherever the vines touch the ground they will root and more potatoes will form form that new root. Pretty cool!
Kelly, great info on the observed growing habit. Thx for posting! Linda
Yeah, what gymgirl said. Where do you learn all this stuff?? Been growing sweeties before?
LOL - nope - just last year. That was the inaugural trial year;o)
MaryMcP,
The beauty of Dave's garden is the growers' willingness to share their experience and expertise. I believe Kelly posted what she observed from her growing experience, which becomes valuable knowledge for us all!
Linda
So true Linda!
I, too, thank you for the info, Kelly.
I've pulled all my sweets now because sometimes we get a "first frost" in the middle of October. I also brought all the onions and shallots inside for the same reason. Later today, I'm going to pick all the green peppers. They started growing again after the 90F days went away. I don't think they will turn red in the next couple of days.
Now that I've done all this, it probably won't freeze until November!
HoneybeeNC,
PUSH THE ENVELOPE!
Even if your temps dipped, wouldn't you have time to harvest stuff before it froze solid on the plants?
My peppers are going gangbusters again too;o) Last year we had 2 cold days and the pepper plants never skipped a beat - made it through the winter, but I pulled them as I decided I wanted to try some new varieties!
Kelly,
You mean like this?
How 'bout these?
Yep - nice peppers'o)
Sorry, Kelly et al,
I got carried away. I did NOT mean to hijack the Sweetie thread!!!!
Apologies....
Beautiful peppers!
They are predicting frost for the Carolina mountains this weekend. I'm so glad I pulled all the sweets. We are about 100 miles away, but cold air can be sneaky!
Gymgirl, your peppers look great!
Thank you guys!
Here's the sum total of my harvest from three different barrels. A bit meager methinks. Next year I'll plant in straw instead of dirt and see if they grow better. I'm thinking the dirt gets too compacted for them to grow well.
One small sweet potato was grabbed by Mr. Nibbler......does he look guilty??
We finally received our first frost last night. Glad I didn't have to worry about pulling the sweet potatoes, but it's goodbye to the tomatoes and sweet peppers until next summer. It's supposed to warm up a bit by next weekend, so I'll try to get the garlic planted.
Honeybee, can you make chowchow or something like that with the frozen tomatoes and peppers?
Crista, I think I'll try some in a stir fry. I don't think I've ever tried chowchow.