Ornamental Sweet Potatoes

My pleasure Russ, The roots are very small still, you might want to put them in pots first. I do get potatoes from my OSP that are in patio pots. I even get some from my deck boxes and they aren't very deep.

There are enough, that I can try a window box. The trick would be for me to keep them watered.
I don't remember, for sure, did you say that you fertilize yours?
I have usually always just planted in the ground, where I had mulched good for some previous plants. So I'm not quite sure about in a planter.
Guess I better do some checking.

I'm not good about fertilizing really should do more of that and quite often careless about watering. So Ric has helped me in those areas. He makes me a nice lightweight potting mix with slow release fertilizer and those water crystals. My pots and boxes are much nicer since he started doing that.

Aha! Point well taken. I have a small cardboard can of soil moist.
I will be sure to add some. I will also add some fertilizer. Maybe our patio will look like a jungle, he he.

Holly, are both the water crystals and the slow release fertilizer dry that he mixes? I have read where so many people had the crystals push the plants right out of the pots because they got too many in them.

So, a friend told me to put them in water first and then just add a small handful, depending on the size of the pot, to the soil when you plant the plants. It seems to have helped a lot. So, I have been sprinkling the SR fertilizer in with it.

I found the OSPs today at a nursery, only 2 kinds Margarite and Blackie, for $2.69 each, but buy 2 and get one free. That would make them $1.79 each. Best yet. And, very nice plants. I suppose I should have bought some for mother plants. But I have enough to do.

Jeanette

No the crystals are dry when we put them in. It takes very little and you will find directions on the container. Mine says 1 tsp for 8" pot. Ric mixes my soil up using a 5 gal bucket as a measure and puts 2 Tbsp. for each 5 gal bucket of Pro Mix. They aren't cheap but will last quite a long time. I bought a good size bag two years ago from a DG Co-op much better price than what I bought at the local store. Right now I do have crystals pushing out of the dirt. Not pushing plants out just the crystals coming up as we have had so very much rain. Once it stops I will mix them back down in. I have never had plants pushed out they may have just used too many. I haven't seen the crystals come up often either. I use the same mix on almost all my container plants and have for several years now. It has probably saved me a few plants worth the investment.
At the end of the season I let the containers dry out and then put all the soil into large trash cans to keep over winter and reused it in the spring for starting plants. When the cans are empty Ric mixes me up new batches of soil I fill the pots and boxes. What is left over goes into one of the cans and sits next to my potting bench. If there is any left in the cans at the end of the season I use it on house plants when I re-pot in the fall. Then dump the old containers into the can and start over again. The whole process seems to work pretty well. I don't feel like I am wasting a lot of money on potting soil and I always have some on hand.

Sounds great to me. Depending on what I was wanting to pot up, could make a difference. But for the most part I had been dumping mine in the veggie garden. Helps on a very small scale toward amending the garden soil. But I like the idea of reusing the potting soil. It isn't cheap by any means. So now I need another container. lol
Jeanette; sure wish they would have a sale like that here. I plan on going in tomorrow, I'll have to check around again.
Oh and I just figured out how to get around my double vision problem. I just prop my glasses up higher on my nose and the bifocals are up in my straight line vision. Where I don't have that problem. I'm going to talk to my eye Dr. and see what he says about just making me a pair of reading glasses, while I wait to see if the swelling will go down.
I know it sure helps reading the screen on the old computer.

I have a separate much smaller container with what I call cactus dirt. A mix of sand, grit and soil. If I want dirt for the water plants I go down to the garden and grab a bucket of the native red clay. Some of my leftovers can end up in the garden or some odd bed but not much.
I would think double vision would be very hard to deal with. Hope you get that strengthened out, soon.

Been wearing a patch to try read but that is very trying and causes headache rather quickly. and there is no depth perception, either.
But this seems to help. I'll just have to wait till next week and see if I can catch him.
I'll just have to hold everything up to my straight line vision. as when I look down is when it gets worse.
I just have to be thankful I am this well off.

I do the same thing pretty much Holly Ann. I just don't use that soil/mix for any edibles. I don't think I have anything in there that would hurt, but I don't take the chance either. I have systemic that I have to use for mites once in a while and don't want that in my tomatoes etc.

But, it seems I still end up buying more potting soil every year. I mix the pro-mix with the other stuff because it seems too light and the other too dense. So that mix comes out pretty good.

Russ, it has been quite a while since your accident. How long did they give you to have that vision problem straightened out? I can't remember.

Yes, that was a good buy, but they only had the 2 different OSPs. I would have liked to have some Ace of Spades, isn't that the plain oval black one? And the other light green and the tri-color.

I reuse my potting soil for several years, mixing it with my compost, Lowes cow manure or humus, spagnum moss and slow release fertilizer, whatever I have on hand at the time. After 3 or 4 years I take all the 'old' potting soil and mix it in the garden. I've only been gardening seriously for about 8 years now, so have only 'dumped' twice. But Jeanette, I'm like you, I still manage to buy a new bag every year. Last year a lot of my neighbors put their hanging baskets out in the trash on the same trash day. I made the rounds and got a ton more potting soil. So I had to buy more of the cow manure, etc. from Lowes this spring. I love it when they have their half off for ripped bags.

Several years ago Franks Nursury went out of business and I managed to get a huge bottle of the water crystals. I still have a ton left and I believe it will be good forever in the dry form. I mix a small amount in my pots at the spot where the roots of the plant would be, I never have the crystals in the top 2 inches of soil. That way I rarely have the crystals coming out of the top. And I've never had them push a plant out of the soil.

Holly, I like the idea of having the container of 'cactus soil' on hand. What do you use to make it?
I'd like to use it for my Amaryllis and Cliva. They seem to do well in the store bought cactus soil.

Jeanette, the vision thing came on after the second surgery, on the lower eye socket bone structure. It apparently is the result of scar tissue restricting the lower eye muscle's movement. They didn't give me any time line. They did however think it should have been long enough. The Opthmoligist I went to in Omaha, wants to give it another 2 months. Then do some surgery on the other eye's muscle to try make a closer match in up and down movement.
The old mechanic in me would say fix what is broken. In other words, do something about the scar tissue around my right eye.
As far as I know the two light green ones are the Margarite and the Sweet Caroline lite green. There is also a Sweet Caroline Purple. Both have the same cut of leaves. and yes the Ace of Spades is a heart shape or regular shaped leaf. Which ever would be the best description of it. And of course very dark, nearly black.
I haven't had much luck with the tricolor. I'm not sure why but they just didn't fill in the spot I had for them. and of course, I wasn't able to come back the same, with the new sprouts.



Woo- Hoo ~ The garden is wet this morning. I will have to check the rain gage, to see if it was really enough to settle the dust. lol

Russ, I know what you mean. Just fix it. That's me too. Guess that is why I have had so many surgeries. Because that is what I always told them. To just fix it.

I'm going over to Wal Mart this morning and see if maybe they have their stuff in by now and hopefully not all sold out. Would love to get some more of the OSPs.

So now Russ, do you think you will have enough with the starts that Holly sent you? I mean like enough to supply us all with starts next spring? LOL

Jeanette

I could always hope. I love to start those little guys and get them to root.
You can do that when it is too nasty to be out in the garden.
Actually I would like to start enough to at least supply some with all my trades and swaps and other friends. Not in a real big way but just a few hundred a year.

I checked the rain gauge, " wow" 1". That was great! Now we are only behind by about 5"s for this date. I know everything in the garden looks better than it did yesterday. I have some stuff that never sprouted, or if it did the sprout dried up before it broke surface.

I could always hope. I love to start those little guys and get them to root.
You can do that when it is too nasty to be out in the garden.
Actually I would like to start enough to at least supply some with all my trades and swaps and other friends. Not in a real big way but just a few hundred a year.
Now how many did you want. LOL
Holly Now those were mostly Margarites right??
You know after 6 Margaritas, you could feel pretty good. :>)

I checked the rain gauge, " wow" 1". That was great! Now we are only behind by about 5"s for this date. I know everything in the garden looks better than it did yesterday. I have some stuff that never sprouted, or if it did the sprout dried up before it broke surface.

Russ, Good luck with the vision. Yep they were Margaritas, LOL I did have a mango rum Margarita just the other evening when we were out for Mexican and WOW was that good. I haven't had any Tri-color OSP. Didn't buy any, had a friend give me her potatoes that grew from her Tri-colors but they don't come true. Not sure why they don't but that has been my experience. Last year another DG member gave me one that she had on a windowsill for years and those nasty Spider mites did it in so I didn't get any cutting from that.

I have found something that seems to work, for now. I bought a pair of reading glasses, close to my prescription bifocals. But not quite. I put them over my regular lenses. As long as I am not looking down, I don't see double and can read and see the computer screen just great.
So I think I will persuade my regular optometrist, to have a pair of reading glasses made, and I will just bob my head up and down, to do my reading.

Hopefully some healing will take place and allow a little more movement of that eye, upward.
If I can avoid another surgery, I'll be happy. Or at least prolong it and maybe remove one of the steel plates, after the bone nits together.
Time may tell.

I haven't had a problem with spider mites but I have usually had an infestation of fungus gnats, I first thought they were aphids, until I saw some develop wings. I have been spraying them with a mild soap spray. It works pretty good on the adults. I also started putting a small dish of a little vinegar with a couple drops of dish detergent mixed in. They seem to be attracted to it and the little bit of soap don't let them take off again, so there they lay submerged in their demise. lol

Yea- - -We have rain! In the past 2 weeks we have an accumulated 3-1/2"s.
every thing is looking better. That is what survived the dry spell. We are still around 4"s short on rainfall but I think this has saved us. I don't mind a bit about our lawn getting kind of tall.
Holly your SPs look great, as soon as the ground allows I will have them planted.
Thank you again.
Russ

My pleasure Russ, Congrats on the rain! :} Do you think maybe I could send some of mine out your way? It is raining "again" in our area. Our water levels were a bit low going into spring but not any more.

Holly; I will have to admit, that when the rain was either going South of here or North, we sometimes were on the verge of saying Why Lord, why not here.
The Eastern part of the state was getting rain.
But no I'm not going to question The Lord. He has everything all under control. It is us people that mess things up. And I point a big finger at the government too.
They built a weather control machine and had to try it out. Not just the US either, Russia and China have them too. It may be a while before it all balances out again. That is IF they don't do any more tests, in the near future. Global warming Ha.

LOL, It's all a conspiracy ;}

You all could have had what we did. On Tuesday we had thunder and lightning all day long but not a drop of moisture. On Wednesday we had a little bit of the T&L and the heavens opened up. Rain and hail we haven't seen in years. The brugs are shredded. Hanging like ribbons. Now today it is starting with the old sunshine.

Guess it's time to fertilize.

Jeanette

We were lucky, big storms ran through our area but the hail (it was big) was just a bit southeast of us.

We got another 1 - 1/2", last night. I slept through all the T&L. Barb said the house shook with the wind and the rain hammered the siding so hard it sounded like hail.
It started up again at 6:30 this morning. I woke up for that. It was coming down so hard, the garden looked like a lake, Needless to say the weeds are doing fine.
I may have to wade the mud and clean out 3 or 4 rows of corn. The weeds are the tall ones and the short stuff is corn. might have to keep reminding myself, while I am busy pulling the weeds. Gary was supposed to be doing that.
We'll see what happens next year, when I decide not to put so much stuff in.
I wish everybody well.
Russ

Russ, doesn't sound like Gary is very reliable, or maybe lazy? Appreciates all the produce you take in tho right?

My daughter and SIL were here this week and helped out in the yard. That was nice 'cause I don't feel well. Monday I went in to the clinic and had a tick removed from my neck. Don't know if it is from that or when I had my foot operated on a couple of weeks ago the surgeon gave me a prescription for oxycontin and it made me kind of sick too. I quit taking it. So between the 2 of them I'm not sure why I feel so punky.

Hope you feel good enough to go out and pull those weeds Russ. Remember, the tall ones are weeds and the short stuff is corn!!

Jeanette

:>)
Sorry your not quite up to par.
Keep a check on that tick wound, don't want any lime disease.
I too had a reaction to the pain pills that were prescribed. ( percocet ) the generic Endocet. It really upset my stomach. I would upchuck. Nuff said.
Many times what the Dr. prescribes don't agree with a person.
Get well quick.
Russ

Holly Ann, I have been thinning my one plant of Blackie and some on Margarite the last month or so, so I now have a half a dozen. Don't know if they will make it thru the winter since mites hit so fast and you don't know until it is too late.

I made up a batch of Tapia's insecticide to use and sprayed them today. I am sure they won't have tubers this winter, I have them in 6" pots. It will be interesting to see if I can winter them over.

Just thought you might be interested.

Jeanette



This message was edited Sep 30, 2009 6:11 PM

Jeanette, I think Holly is on vacation right now. She started me on OSP propagation about 2 years ago. I had the great pleasure of swapping different OSP vines with her this spring at the plant swap she hosted. "What Fun!" we each had an OSP vine that the other did not.

I know about the mites, I was hit by them last spring with the ones I was overwintering in the basement. My Mother plants were almost goners but I hung on to them and placed them out side when the weather got better, they came back looking as lovely as ever. So don't give up on them. Mine had no leaves, but there was still life in the stems.

Which ones are you guys growing??

I am starting to loose track, but Ace of Spades, Marguerite, Blackie and Bewitched. No luck with Tri-color overwintering.

Tri color is one I was growing so good last year is one of the ones the mites took out first. Because of it's colors you kind of miss the damage of the mites until it is too late.

What is Bewitched? Don't recognize that one. What do you have your plants in? pots? I am rooting these in the polymer crystals. It works real well because they hold the plants up in place and furnish water when it gets low too.

Tri-color got hit first for me too.

Bewitched is the black but the leaves are Spade shaped not lobeled like blackie. There are pictures in plant files.

I start my cuttings in potting soil or seed starting mix, depands on what I have on hand in the winter I use small 3 to 4 inch pots for cuttings. I always use rooting hormone. If my plants are in small pots for the summer I just bring them in and take cuttings later. If they are in very large pots I'll take cuttings and dig out the tubers and store them, that way if I lose the cuttings I'll have the tubers to fall back on.

Sounds like a plan. It is getting pretty cold here so I will be bringing my mother plant in one of these days but I will either douse it good with the mix or give it a systemic.

Jnette I had some coleus root in polymer gels as well... I had received a very large cutting order from NC farms.. when the order came in I was not sure how to hydrate the coleus cuttings that were only an inch tall... so I stuck them all in the gels to keep them upright and get those tiny stems in water... when I was getting near the end I got tired of putting them in soil ... and most of them that were left rooted

Yes, they work pretty good. When my daughter was here while back she took some of my crystals home to put in with her brugs when she prunes them to bring them in for the winter. To root them. I wonder if she has done it yet and how it is working. I will have to ask her.

That is the best use I have found for them. I did use them in my hanging baskets of fuchsias and they must have done pretty good 'cause I don't think they dried out at all like they normally do once in a while.

Hi guys, We have a rainy day here so I stopped in at the local library to check in.
Jnette, This is a great time to bump up the thread as in many areas it will be just the right time pull those potatoes that have been hopefully growing all summer. So anyone that hasn't done so before start digging up those OSP and look for potatoes to save for next years plants.
I have had no luck with the Tri-color and didn't plant any this year, I'll have to try those again next year. When I get back I'll be pulling my OSP to see how many potatoes I have to overwinter.
LadyG gave me an Ace of Spades and I am hoping for some potatoes from that plant.
I was a bit disappointed with my Blackies this year. They weren't as dark as they have been in the past. Not sure if it was the location I have them in a pot that gets serious sun for most of the day. Some of the leaves are pretty dark but a lot of them are more of a dark green than the black I'm use too.
Now that you mention mites I hadn't noticed any but maybe that was why my blackies looked so washed out recently. Although the plant looked fine at the time if just might not have started to wilt and brown yet. My DIL did mention that a couple of pots looked a bit wilted and I thought it was just end of the season and a bit chilly but those pots she mentioned have the Blackie OSP in them. I've used those crystals to root a few plants from time to time and we use it in all our window boxes and pots. I have a few cuttings from a smoke bush and boogie in oasis foam right now I guess we will see how that is doing when we get back.

Holly, I'm puttin' my money on mites on your plants. That is exactly what they do and before you know what hit you the plant can;t be saved. I am picking one day out of the week and going to spray them with Al Tapia's concoction for killing bugs. Maybe for 3 or 4 weeks and then let up on them. Every week could be a little extreme. I could then do it once a month or so. Right now I have a half a dozen plants in the house in 6" pots. Problem is, I don't have enough places to put them so they aren't together. They pass those mites around.

It has frozen pretty hard here and caught us by surprise so I might have lost the mother plants Might still be able to get potatoes from them if there are any. All I had were the Blackie and Marguerete. sic Doing that today.

Well a hard frost caught me off guard too. Now all my SPs are black.
I had dug 3/4 of the ones for eating. I hope I have even little taders under the OSPs.
My regular SPs didn't do very well. I think the weeds took the lions share of the available moisture. I got very few large ones and the number per hill was way down too.
If I stay away from anything that might jump up and hit me in the head again, I might have better luck next summer.
Got to go see the Doc tomorrow. Get the stitches out, from the surgery 2 weeks ago. Had to have a nerve deadened, that was giving me some pain. He also filled in a place from my eyebrow up about 2 inches. A nurse asked me what he used to fill it in.
Without cracking a smile, I said bubble gum. LOL
I won't get to the OSPs until afternoon. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Russ

Hey Russ, sounds like you have had a so so year with your garden. But with all of your medical problems this year I would say you did pretty darned good. Also, the weather didn't cooperate for any of us. So all in all don't feel too bad. I don't know if I have any taters under those 2 plants that I have been taking cuttings off of. I don't know if I can get them thru the winter.

So, what was the surgery about 2 weeks ago?? What did the dr. fill in the space with? And, don't tell me bubblegum.

How is Barb? And the rest of the family? Connie still ok? Are you all set for another winter? I hope it isn't as hard as last 2. I swear after last year I swore I was getting out of this country. And, here I am. Just spent $12,000 for a new roof. This spring another $3,000 to replace a deck. Last fall $4,000 for painting the house. It is always something when you own a house.

Take care, and keep in touch. Jeanette

So, what was the surgery about 2 weeks ago?? What did the Dr. fill in the space with? And, don't tell me bubblegum.
There was a V shaped indentation where the bone did not fill in and a nerve was being pinched right in my eyebrow area. That was giving me a nearly constant headache. So the same surgeon cut that nerve and filled in that space with
( artificial bone) I don't remember the medical name for it but the Dr. described it as artificial bone.
I brought him and his wife a small jar of prickly pear jelly and a pint jar of wild plum jelly. They were tickled. They both Feel that my case is special and likewise I feel that without his skill and the Lords guidance, I wouldn't be here.

Barb just got over a case of bronchitis and her ribs are starting to feel better without all that coughing.

Connie is about the same. She is bouncing back and forth between her youngest daughter, Here and is helping a friend re do a house. They are not in a hurry and she can handle some painting, taping and such. And helps with meals. So she is fair, or at least being as useful as she can be. I gave her a challenge a couple weeks ago. I made some wild plum jelly and sent some with her to her daughters. I told her she had to make, and bring some back.
She did! So I sent some more of the same jelly and some pickled beets and watermelon pickles and bread and butter pickles with her. She acted like she hit the jackpot.
She said she almost felt like a kid again, eating the watermelon pickles.
She loved them when she was little and would almost eat a whole jar of them.

Well just as long as she don't over do, she don't get a really really bad headache. The least amount of stress though, an wham she is down. Always worry when that happens, as that could bring on a stroke, and possibly " the big one".
S S has turned her down twice, she has re submitted. The next time, if they turn her down again it is lawyer time. I'm sure she will eventually get a disability, and that will give us some relief from making sure she gets her medicine, has a place to stay warm and all those necessity's.

I would love to be somewhere WARM, for the winter but I would probably have to come back here for the Spring Summer and Fall. You know the construction and pot hole filling season. lol
Do you think either one of us could learn to garden in the South???
R