two planting methods, two different yields

[john]

I just started harvesting my sweet potatoes this week.  I did a trial of two different ways to plant them and am seeing very interesting results.  The first method was to create a hill or raised bed with my tractors disc hilling attachment, then I used a stick to push the slips into the soil.  The second method I employed was I used a middle buster to carve out a deep furrow.  I then layed the slips on one side of the trench and I pulled soil over each slip with a hoe.  The plants were basically on there sides at a 45 degree angle.  Both plants grew very well and seemed to thrive equally throughout the season.  Well now that I am harvesting, I am noticing that the plants that were grown on the hilled soil and pushed in with a stick are significantly outyielding the other row.  I would say almost twice the yield.  Some of the differences are that the plants that were pushed in with a stick tend to have a large cluster of potatoes right under the main stem.   They are very easy to dig and have nice size.  The other row that was planted in the deep furrow has fewer tubers spread out over a greater distance. (The size is similar but these potatoes are a little shorter with rounded ends, resembling more of what you would see in the supermarket.)  Many of them are set very deep and into the harder soil beneath.  This row is much harder to dig.  I am quite surprised that planting technique could make such a difference in yield.  The variety is 'Beauregarde' and each row contains about 200 plants in them.  I thought this was interesting enough to share.  

[macmex]

Thank you John. This is what I have strongly suspected for years. I never did exactly what you did, for the second method. But I have planted them through plastic, flat without a hill. Each time I do this, I can think of some other reason why they don't yield as well as the ones planted on top of the hill/ridge. But the fact is, that the hilled planting always, significantly, outproduces the other. This is the kind of input our group can use, based on actual experimentation. Thanks!

[john]

Most of my sweet potatoes are dug, I have a few plantings left that are undersized, so I am letting them go for a while. It is interesting to note that I have this one location that is very dry and has poor soil. The sweet potatoes never vined out much in this spot. (The pigweed only grew a foot tall in this location! In other spots I have some that are over 6' tall.) I was disgusted with what I was seeing because I assumed that the whole planting was a wasted effort. Just for the heck of it I decided to see if there was anything underneath. I was shocked to find that there were some decent sized roots. This is good news for me because these were hard to find potato varieties sent to me from Sand hill preservation center. I will taste them and evaluate to see if I like any of them enough to grow next year. They are Oklahoma nugget, Carolina Nugget, Morado, and Molokai purple. I really love the leaves on the Carolina and Oklahoma nugget. My back got tired of digging and I decided to try my cub tractor. I weedwhacked down the vines and leaves all that was remaining was a main stem sticking out of the ground. I ran the cub through with a middle buster right up the center of the row. I was able to get half the potatoes from the initial furrow. I then used my hoe and unearthed the rest from each side of the furrow. I prefer the hoe to the potato hook as it is inevitable that you will hit one. The damage from the hoe is shallow and will heal better than a deep puncture from the hook. These are just some of my observations and opinions, I know many will think differently. That is good too. There is more than one way to " skin a cat."

[john]

Any suggestions as to the best white sweet potato variety to grow? I do love the 'Haymans' that I got from the eastern shore of Virginia several years ago and I also like the 'White Triumphs' I got from George's Plant Farm. But the yields are much lower than the orange and red skinned types. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[macmex]

I grow two, which are each favorites. They both produce well.


Brinkley White is actually a very light yellow fleshed variety. But it is so light that one would assume it is white. The skin is white/tan. It produces well and, when cooked well, is quite sweet. I ate these for weeks last winter, almost 5 days a week, for my morning snack. Never got tired of them!

Grand Asia is purple skinned and has white flesh. It is fairly dry fleshed and not as sweet as most American varieties. It is exactly like the local variety, grown in much of Central Mexico, where we lived for over a decade. I used to add brown sugar and some butter when eating it. But I've grown so fond of it's delicate flavor that I, now, only do this with really large roots, which are drier and not as sweet as those 1 lb or under. Grand Asia regularly outproduces all others that I grow by two to four times the amount. This alone makes me extremely fond of the variety.

George

[john]

Hi George, thanks for the tips on varieties. I have never tried Grand Asia or Brinkley White. I grew a purple skinned white fleshed one last year called Hong Kong. It was a good yielder and many were very large. I don't know if it was the taste or the color, but I just did not seem to like those as much as the white or yellow/orange fleshed types. I don't mind the dry as long as they are sweet with mild flavor. I will have to see if I can order some Brinkley White's for next year. Perhaps some Grand Asia too. The yield sounds amazing with them. I really love sweet potatoes, and I eat them all winter. They do well here even though are summers are not like yours. Some varieties don't amount to much here. Last year I trialed bunch Porto Rico and another one called Carolina Bunch. Both produced small potatoes and low yields. Although there flavor was tops in my opinion. I grew one called Julian that did do very well for me. It was very sweet and had good taste. I grew them again this year and they did even better because I could start them earlier from my own slips. The only problem is that they are a prolific sprouter. Many of them had plenty of sprouts on them when harvested. I can see why they are not a popular commercial type, especially when you compare them with the look of a Baeuregard. But just like with tomatoes, you can't judge them by how they look!

[macmex]

Sounds like you are accumulating a good deal of experience with varieties. That's good. I wouldn't get discouraged with Julian. Sprouts don't seem to hurt my sweets. Some of mine will have sprouts on them when I harvest. I just break them off. Then, they seem to keep alright.

George

[philagardener]

I have had excellent luck with O'Henry as a white sweet potato. Here is a picture of this year's harvest. Beauregard is the red along with a bumper crop of Japanese/Stokes Purples.

[Heavy Hitter Okra]

I started to harvest my sweet potatoes in early October, but dug 13 hills, before I finally found 3 good ones, due to severe rodent damage. (I don't know what kind of rodent). I never saw anything but the tunnels that they made, while they were going hill to hill.

Because of this damage, I never harvested the rest of the Sweet potato row.

Today, I went out to see if I could get enough sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. We will be feeding about 15 or 20 people, so I needed a couple casserole dishes full of potatoes.

I started at the opposite end of the row this time, so I wouldn't have to carry them so far.

One of the first potatoes I dug, weighed 6.5 pounds!

This was pretty consistent, for quite a few hills, as many more weighed in at 4 to 5 pounds each. Most of the hills with such large potatoes had only produced two or three potatoes each. Other hills had wads of potatoes weighing only a pound or so, but were very prolific.

My largest producer put on 28 pounds of potatoes under one hill.

Many of them were severely damaged by rodents and rendered un-marketable. I fed several bucket loads of them to the hog, and will have several more bucket loads going to the hog later in the week.

I don't know what variety these large potatoes were?

There are two different kinds, one has yellow skin, the other has orange skin.

There were so many, I didn't get them in before dark, so they are still on the washing rack. It will be in the lower 20s tonight, so I have to bring them inside, before they freeze, but I had to come inside to warm up first. I am soaking wet from washing mud from them. It rained about 4" inches a couple days ago, and they are a mess!

Maybe, I can get a good photo in the daylight tomorrow.

[macmex]

Ron, I remember now, that Gary Schaum got you a start of Cook Family Heirloom. I bet one of those is Cook Family Heirloom.

George

[john]

Ron Sorry to hear about many getting eaten. I have had years where the majority of my crop has been eaten by voles. I have considered not growing them, but I love them so I can't do that. Instead, I try to harvest them as soon as they are of a good size, to keep the voles from getting them all. I keep an eye on the crop during the growing season by sticking my finger into the hill and feeling for tunnels. Once they start eating them you may have to dig them and lose some overall size but save the crop. I have used poison baits, but I prefer not to use them if possible. (there is one called contrac that doesn't cause secondary poisoning to cats and other animals.) The cats here, will hunt voles for sport, but voles are not a top priority for them as they must not taste as good as a bird.

[Heavy Hitter Okra]

George,

you're right. I had forgotten about the Cook family Heirloom.

I also had a few Evangeline, and a few Beauregard, too, but they are both orange skinned. It seems like the Cook Family Heirloom may have been yellow skinned? I don't remember?

I've just never had any grow so big before. This was a very late Fall too. We usually get frost a lot earlier in the year than we did this year, so they had an extra month to grow, but still... Six and a half pounds?

Maybe it was the 62" inches of rain we had this season? I looked that up on the Mesonet rainfall chart for Tahlequah.

[macmex]

Ron,
    If you would, save me a root or two of the Cook Family Heirloom. I'd love to grow it out! I bet it's the yellow skinned variety. We'll have to check with Gary Schaum.


George

[Heavy Hitter Okra]

George,

I dug about 300 pounds of sweet potatoes in one drizzly evening, by myself. I was digging a half bushel at a time, because that was the only container I had with me (initially, I was only going to dig enough for Thanksgiving dinner). I had no idea I had so many! I thought the voles had ruined the entire row.

We were supposed to get a really hard freeze that night (and we did) so I was just trying to get them out of the garden, so the freeze wouldn't ruin them.

I'd dig a few potatoes, then When the half bushel basket would get full, I'd carry it to the truck, and dump it out in the bed.

Because of that, I ended up with a pile of sweet potatoes about two feet high, across the whole tail gate end of the truck.

I hurriedly took them home after I dug them, to spread them out and wash the mud off of them, because we had gotten 4" inches of rain a couple days before, and the potatoes were a gobbed up, muddy mess. It was dark by the time I got them all spread out and washed in the truck bed. I was working with only the truck's cargo light (kind of a dim flash light quality light source).

By the time I got the mud off of the top of them, ice was forming and causing the potatoes to stick to the truck, and to each other, so I piled them on my mint rack, in the dark, and finished washing the bottom sides.

My Wife was busily packing them off to the kitchen to get them warm, before the ice could damage them.

As you might imagine, by the time we got done, all the potatoes were mixed together. So I didn't know what was what.

On Sunday morning, I took my 10% to Church, and gave them away to anyone who might want any. That afternoon, I drove by some of the places where I know people who could probably use a hand getting ready for Thanksgiving, and gave away all they needed.

I'm down to a hundred pounds or so, now, but you're welcome to come over to the house whenever you get the chance, and take pick of the litter, for seed potatoes.

No one wanted the really big potatoes, so I've still got those.

What ever is left, I'll sell to the Hospital. They don't mind the monster potatoes, because they butcher them up to cook in mass quantities, but you'd better hurry, because they have a standing order for December 8th delivery.

[macmex]

Ron,
    I'll be by! Thanks! I know you planted Cook Family Heirloom and also that commercial variety which you purchased from a guy selling from his truck, last year. I can't recall the name of that commercial variety. But it was really really sweet. To me it tasted like Bazooka buggle gum. I think it was lighter skinned, but I'm not sure. 

I'm so glad you got a decent harvest! I was digging the last of mine, about the time you were digging yours. Fortunately, the last 15' of my main row had some decent roots. But I just purchased over 100 lb from the store, when they went down to 33 cents to the lb. We're set now, until spring!

George