I haven't thrown my potato away that Holly gave me in October of 2006. It's still growing in the same container producing stems and leaves, sitting on my kitchen counter .
Here is a picture taken just minutes ago of that same '06 potato.
You can keep it in a shallow dish for years inside your house like I've done. Or plant it in ground when the weather warms up then dig it up to store and save for next year.
Where are my manners? Holly, thank you again for the margarita and blackie tubers. They provided me with multitudes of cuttings which I planted in so many different beds. They even made tubers of their own. I didn't realize this until I was cleaning up a bed after a heavy fall frost. Dug around and found the tubers but because I had both in the same bed, I don't know which tuber is which. I'll just have to grow them to see. I will be paying forward with these tubers when I know for sure which is Blackie and which is margarita.
This isn't a great picture but it's the best I can do.
wow that's amazing.. i would have thought they would rot after a while... thank you!
LOL, That is so funny. I can't believe that you could still have that old tuber still. WOW! That's a nice picture and I see that your Cannas are growing behind them. I like the Canna and OSP combination they really look nice growing together in a large pot on the patio.
LOL, that tuber looks downright bonsai-like.
Holly,
Hi I have been lurking here since i have tried for many years to save or over winter potato tubers as these.
Please share the month you take them up and what is your procedure and holding over and please explain EVERTHING you do!! i dormant all kinds of plants, Callas, Nerine, Cannas, Dahlias etc. But i am having NO luck with these!! They seem to rot every year. What do you do (please step by step) indicate temp. in storage...and humidity? Or dryness?
Thank You,
Julie
Holly, the pups and other goodies are in water! What a root system these have. Nice plants, thank you sooooooooo much. I need to take a little time to mark some of the things I got, so everyone got wrapped in a damp papertowel until morning. If I take these cuttings out the baggies, I'll have no clue. LOL
Thanks again, great to meet you in person.
Cathy
Julie, Complete neglect has worked very well for me. Last year I carefully packed my potatoes and tubers in some peat moss and carefully saved them. I didn't get anything from those. Even the ones that came out of the storage looking fine just rotted as soon as I tried to start them. The only ones from last year that I had any luck with were the ones that I had left lay on a shelf in my back laundry room in a brown paper bag. The year before the ones I had were on a back room shelf not even wrapped up. If fact they had fallen behind the shelf and I really had to dig around to find them. LOL This year they were still in the 5 gal plastic bucket that I used to carry them in the house after digging them out of my window and deck boxes. I had tossed them in the bucket with all the best intentions of cleaning and packing them but must have forgotten them and they got moved into an upstairs room that I use for crafts and plant starting. I would think that they "should" do best in a cooler location, but I have a wood / coal stove for heat and the laundry, mud and utility room with the coal stove is all in the same area not to mention the clothes dryer is vented into that area in the winter. It puts more heat and moisture back into the house. The upstairs room is directly above that area and it is pretty warm too.
I harvest the potatoes / tubers in the fall. I just wait until the temps drop enough to kill or damage the annuals and then I clean them out and pull the tubers. Basically right after 1st frost.
Cathy, It was great meeting you too. I hope you get a lot of new plants from those tubers and share them with all your friends.
I'm hoping I can get them to grow successfully and I'm always happy to share the goodies. Thanks again Holly.
Holly
Just wanted to let you know that my daughter used to go to school in Downingtown, PA which I think is in your zone. The green leaved sweet potatoes that the school had in their foundation plantings used to come back every year, no digging up was done by the groundspeople.
This message was edited Feb 24, 2008 8:39 AM
Jazz, Doccat, & Holly, I apologize if it seems like I'm jumping in.
I have made several mistakes in storing sweet potatoes myself.
Actually who hasn't??
I checked what the experts had to say. It don't say ornamentals, - - -but a sweet potato is a sweet potato and here is what is repeated on nearly all sites connected with Curing and Storing Sweet Potatoes.
**********************************************************************************
Sweet potatoes are not very sweet or moist when first dug. It takes six to eight weeks of proper curing and storage before they have the sweet, moist taste and texture desired when baked, says LSU AgCenter horticulturist Dr. Tom Koske.
Although freshly harvested roots won’t directly bake into a great product, they can be candied or used in sweetened pies or casseroles.
After the roots are dug, they should be cured to heal the cuts and trigger development of the sugar-creating enzymes, the LSU AgCenter horticulturist explains. Cure by storing in a warm, humid room for five to 10 days. A temperature of 80 F to 85 F and a relative humidity of 80 percent to 90 percent are ideal. These exact conditions will be hard to establish around the home, so select a room or building that comes close to these conditions.
After curing, store roots at 55 F to 60 F for six to eight weeks. This storage further develops the sugars and maltose sugar-creating enzyme. This enzyme will really kick in while baking at 350 F to 375 F to develop the sweet, syrupy sugars that Louisiana yams are famous for.
Stored cured roots may last several months or more. The length of time sweet potatoes can be held in storage without sacrificing quality will depend on the environment they are stored in. The conditions above are “ideal,” but sweet potatoes are held under a variety of environmental conditions, and quality and longevity in storage will vary accordingly.
Exposure to low storage temperatures for several days will cause the sweet potatoes to develop a hard center and reduce their eating quality.
When the roots are stored at high temperatures for a long time, they begin to sprout, shrivel and become dry, stringy and pithy.
Sweet potato roots, held over for use as seed potatoes for the next spring, should be dusted with 2 to 4 ounces of 5 percent Imidan per bushel to help control the sweet potato weevil.
Koske also recommends contacting an extension agent in your parish LSU AgCenter office to learn more about horticulture. In addition, look for Gardening and Get It Growing links in the Feature section of the LSU AgCenter Web site: www.lsuagcenter.com.
Ps,
Rand, I love when you "jump in" you are always full of such good info. I think you were the first one that told me that the OSP could be eaten.
I think most of my gardening amounts to "Only the strongest survives". LOL
This message was edited Feb 24, 2008 9:24 AM
Rand, that's great information. I would prefer to find something a little less toxic than Imidan to control the weevils. I need to do some research on that.
randbponder,
Thank you ! Some people know just how and where to find it!!
And the rest of us thank You, very helpful info after years of trying!
Julie
I don't dust any that I store. So far we don't seem to be bothered by the SP weevils this far North. Year before last I did loose some tubers to voles before harvest. This past fall was a good harvest. No vole problems.
I don't know if it was due to the row of castor beans or not. Did have some damage due to cut worms though.
This spring I will be trying different sweet potatoes along with the Centennial. I have ordered some Vardaman ( a bush type ) also some Beauregard's. And yes If I can get some sprouting started on the OSPs, I will plant more of those as well. If not I guess I will have to hit up BIL. He has a small green house. and usually has all the OSPs that would do any garden justice.
I have raised the humidity on the tubers, so hopefully I won't have to buy more.
We are starting to get a warm day or two, now. Got up to 50 today, so I was finally able to see the gravel on our drive way. Haven't been able to see that since the last part of November. So I'm hoping the SPs know when to start sprouting. Wouldn't want to plant any sooner than 60 - -to - -65 days from now anyway. LOL. They would probably freeze and die, that early here.
I seriously did not know the tubers can get that big... amazing
Some of mine are fat yams and some are thin as pencils and run across the entire bed. But even the thin ones have eyes and put out new leaves. Amazing.
I grow mine in window and deck boxes and also in pots I usually get either a couple of larger potatoes maybe one or two or lots of small tubers. Last year I saved two of them to plant down in the garden so I could see what they would do in a free environment. But they never got planted till very late and really didn't produce anything noteworthy. This year I will try that again but I'll make sure that they go in early.
I have also been thinking about doing a stacked tire ring. You take a couple of tires and fill one with dirt then plant your potatoes around the edge. Put a couple of wooden chocks to make a space between that tire and the next one. Then you put a second tire on top and fill and plant that one. You keep going for several layers. Then when it is time to harvest you just pull the tower apart and all the potatoes are in there. Easy to find.
I thought I would put one at the corner my my garden. Three tires high with the Margaritas on the bottom then some blackies and the Tri-color on top and then add something pretty and spikie on the top. Maybe a canna or some of the pretty ornamental grass I have.
You are talking TWO different kind of sweet potatoes. One is eatible and one ornamental. I don't think there is any difference in storing but i don't know??
Is there any difference growing?? How do you all grow the eating ones or the decorative ones!!
Any Fertilizers, what about bugs??
Soil, conitions, depth, etc.??
julie
That is a wonderful Idea! You could even spray paint the tires a green color or use camo paint until the leaves filled out and covered the tires couldn't you. Holly, you never cease to amaze me with your creative ideas..
Jazzy, I'm a newbie at growing them having done it only one full year after getting my first tuber in the fall of 06. Here's what I've done: I start my potato vine in the house then put the rooted cuttings in the garden like any regular plant. From there, they start to make their on tubers under ground.
I would spray the tires a contrasting color
:)
You mean like a yellow or white color so the tire would show through the vines? Humm, light bulbs are flickering in my head.
exactly... go crazy.. hot pink
:)
Oh Wow! I'm exCited bout my ugly ol tires now!
LOL
here is another idea... if you are handy
http://www.christopherlowell.com/demo.php?id=60
Ok Cordel, I guess it sounds much like a dahlia!! Ok i will Google It! Thanks.
Julie
I like this one
http://www.rondswan.com/How%20to%20make%20a%20tyre%20swan.pdf
Jazzy, the edible and the ornamental are both Ipomoea batatas. The only difference I can see is in the leaf color. My granny grew the edible for the plain green leaf color. If she'd known about the ornamental tri-color, Blackie or Margarita, we'd probably had a jungle in the house. You grow & store the grocery store variety the same as the ornamental. Hope this helps.
edit to say: My granny said that if they had not banked sweet potatoes back in the 30's, that would have starved to death.
This message was edited Feb 25, 2008 11:09 AM
Bustin' a gut at the Wrestling the Tyre. I'd love to see it pictures, or better yet in person. Bet the audio would be a hoot.
Onewish1.
The type SP shown was not an OSP. if we use the term edible and ornamental. it would be the edible. They were centennials. As for size I raised some pretty good sized tubers, actually roots. I come nowhere near the record size or weight. The largest one I have harvested was 6 lb.8oz. I will post it here again. As for ornamentals, they can have large roots too. One of the roots I dug up from the spot my blackies was just slightly larger than a softball.
I am not sure if it crossed with the Marguerite's or what as it is the one I am in question about. It is a cream colored tuber. Holly's blackies are reddish in color.
I am trying to get it to sprout, but no luck yet.
Anyway this was my large SP from 2006.
I didn't even think about painting the tires since mine will be at the corner of the Veggie garden an area that is not well seen and mostly for my own enjoyment. That is a very good idea.
Jazzy, It depends on what you want to do with yours. I plant mine very much like I would any other annual flower and treat them the same way. I use the water rooting process to get my starters and then pot them up in to small cell packs when I think the roots have developed enough to pot them. When they get to big for the cell packs I up pot them into a 4 or 6 inch pot. Come May I have nice pots much like you can buy at a Nursery for about $4 - $6. I plant mine in pots and boxes along with the Morning Glories, Cannas, Caladiums, Petunias and Inpatients. They seem to do very well in almost any spot in my garden. The only difference is that in the fall I dig up whatever potatoes or tubers that have developed and save them for the next year.
I'm a little careless with my watering sometimes and I can always tell if it's been too long or I missed something because they are the very first plants to wilt. I did better this year by adding the water crystals in my potting soil. It really made a big difference for me. We have Japanese Beatles in our area and they were the only pest I found on mine and they were no more bothered by them than most of my plants.
Mostly the difference between the OSP and the plain SP is that one type is developed for taste and potato production and the other is developed for the color and production of the leaves. But otherwise they are pretty much the same plant.
I know there are a few people out there that plant the potatoes themselves but I haven't tried that.
Thanks Randb and Holly,
i do appreciate all the information. I will try again this fall to over winter some now that i know a better technique!!
Julie
Holly; My big white tuber is sprouting. So we will have something. Right now the sprouts are only about 1/4" with the leaves only just starting to unfurl. I can't really get a good picture of it at this point . I will be watching it a little closer for a while , Want to get good pictures. As I had stated I bought the mother plant as a Blackie, it looked like a blackie. But it had white tubers. I will try to get a better shot, in a day or two.
Just thought I would include what I have. Not much to see yet.
I stuck mine in water on Feb 20th...nothing yet. How long does it take to get a sprout???
I think Mine was in water somewhat longer, sorry I didn't mark the date. But I checked the bottom of the potato as well today and it also has roots growing from the tuber. If the tuber is still in good shape and not starting to rot, I would just be a little more patient, unless you need to put it in a warmer spot. I was beginning to think the potato was smarter than I, but it finally came around.
I finally put mine on a home made heat base. that keeps the temp around 80, and covered the tray with a dome. I am thinking it needed the higher humidity, and being warmer. But I am thing this is Holly's forum. She will probably have kept a better record than I.
Wow, I've never even thought of doing this-where have I been? I spend lots every year on these guys, so if there is a way to propagate them myself, I'm sure going to give it a try! One question, though, why don't the plants necessarily propagate true ot the parent when started from the tubers? I would think it would be a lot like taking a cutting or division . . . anyway, I'm very excited to read this thread-
Thanks!
Deb
Sarv48, Some of mine show signs of roots or leaf buds right away, within just a few days. Others take much longer, they are all treated pretty much the same way in water sitting right next to each other getting the same light source. Just the other day I had a tray with several very small tubers that I had pretty much decided they were never going to do anything they have been sitting here for several weeks and a few looked like they were getting moldy. When I went to toss them out I realized that one of them was just starting to sprout. So I checked them out and tossed a few and rinsed the others off and put them back in some clean water. I don't discard any of the tubers until they actually start to rot.
Deb, I don't know. I would expect them too. But last year I tried to grow a Tri-color pink, white and green from a potato that was given to me. It did grow and was rather pretty but definitely not the Tri color I expected. One of the articles I read said that the Blackies and Margarita do grow true but that the Tri color doesn't. Which is exactly what I have found with my plants. I just don't know enough about the development of the plants to know why. I understand that they are working on developing some other colors.
