Post by macmex on May 18, 2015 8:35:41 GMT -6
If you have never grown sweet potatoes, I'd encourage you to give them a try. They are one of the most satisfying crops we grow. Last year was the best harvest we've ever had, well over 600 lb of roots. We eat them a lot (obviously)!
Many people don't know how to grow sweet potatoes, which turns out to be a major reason they don't grow them. First of all, DON'T buy plants in little pots (as in the big box stores)! These generally do not produce a good crop. The reason for this is that the roots are already root bound, in those little pots, and you will get gnarled sweet potatoes from them. If I HAD to get a start from a big box store, I'd probably plant a plant in my garden and then, once it started to grow, I'd pull more slips from it for my main crop. It is better to plant slips with NO roots than with too many roots. The slips I plant in the last video have as much root as I'd ever want to have at planting time, and that, simply because I had been hanging on to the slips after a sale fell through. They grew roots, while setting in water and waiting to be planted in my own garden.
"Slip" is just a specialized term for "cutting." It is a piece of stem with leaves, planted into the ground to produce a viable plant.
"Hill," when speaking of sweet potatoes, is almost exactly opposite of "hill," when speaking of Irish potatoes. When one plants Irish potatoes, the traditional method is to make a trench, plant pieces of potato root in the trench, and then pull soil up around the sprouting potato plants, as they grow. This produces a ridge of soil around the Irish potato plants. With sweet potatoes, one begins with a ridge of soil, 10-12" high, and plants the slips in the top of the ridge. As the slips grow roots, they will dive down deep into the ridge, seeking both nourishment and moisture. Those first roots usually develop into your best sweet potatoes. Being in a ridge makes it that there is less resistance for the roots to overcome, as they push downward. It also makes a very big difference in the easy of harvest.
There are only a couple of varieties available, commercially, to home gardeners, who depend on "box stores" or common seed catalogs. The two largest suppliers of heritage varieties are:
Sandhill Preservation Center:
sandhillpreservation.com/
and
Duck Creek Farms:
duckcreekfarms.com/
I personally sell some slips, of about 10 varieties. But these two have hundreds of varieties. One of the truly great traits of these suppliers is that they are very much into preservation and cooperate together in maintaining what they have. They are "seed companies." But they are also "on a mission."
Here are the links. If anyone reading this would like to try sweet potatoes, they may be helpful. Sweet potatoes can be planted in the Oklahoma area from about the beginning of May until the first week of July.
George
making a "hill" for sweet potatoes
Finishing a hill for planting sweet potatoes
Planting Slips
Many people don't know how to grow sweet potatoes, which turns out to be a major reason they don't grow them. First of all, DON'T buy plants in little pots (as in the big box stores)! These generally do not produce a good crop. The reason for this is that the roots are already root bound, in those little pots, and you will get gnarled sweet potatoes from them. If I HAD to get a start from a big box store, I'd probably plant a plant in my garden and then, once it started to grow, I'd pull more slips from it for my main crop. It is better to plant slips with NO roots than with too many roots. The slips I plant in the last video have as much root as I'd ever want to have at planting time, and that, simply because I had been hanging on to the slips after a sale fell through. They grew roots, while setting in water and waiting to be planted in my own garden.
"Slip" is just a specialized term for "cutting." It is a piece of stem with leaves, planted into the ground to produce a viable plant.
"Hill," when speaking of sweet potatoes, is almost exactly opposite of "hill," when speaking of Irish potatoes. When one plants Irish potatoes, the traditional method is to make a trench, plant pieces of potato root in the trench, and then pull soil up around the sprouting potato plants, as they grow. This produces a ridge of soil around the Irish potato plants. With sweet potatoes, one begins with a ridge of soil, 10-12" high, and plants the slips in the top of the ridge. As the slips grow roots, they will dive down deep into the ridge, seeking both nourishment and moisture. Those first roots usually develop into your best sweet potatoes. Being in a ridge makes it that there is less resistance for the roots to overcome, as they push downward. It also makes a very big difference in the easy of harvest.
There are only a couple of varieties available, commercially, to home gardeners, who depend on "box stores" or common seed catalogs. The two largest suppliers of heritage varieties are:
Sandhill Preservation Center:
sandhillpreservation.com/
and
Duck Creek Farms:
duckcreekfarms.com/
I personally sell some slips, of about 10 varieties. But these two have hundreds of varieties. One of the truly great traits of these suppliers is that they are very much into preservation and cooperate together in maintaining what they have. They are "seed companies." But they are also "on a mission."
Here are the links. If anyone reading this would like to try sweet potatoes, they may be helpful. Sweet potatoes can be planted in the Oklahoma area from about the beginning of May until the first week of July.
George
making a "hill" for sweet potatoes
Finishing a hill for planting sweet potatoes
Planting Slips