2018 Sweet Potato Harvest

[macmex]

Well, I started earlier than usual. Last year, by the time I dug sweet potatoes, the rodents had eaten about 90% of the roots. This year, though I am finding some rodent damage, I am getting a decent harvest. It started out rather light, as my drip irrigation apparently didn't make it down to the end of my long row. I started digging there. My heart sank, as I scrabbled to dig a few little sweet potatoes. But after I got through the first 25' of row, getting closer to the water source, I started getting bette
r harvests.

Here's some of my Oklahoma Red Harvest. Oklahoma Red did exceptionally well this year.




Here's one of the rodent damaged roots.



I still have more than half of my sweet potatoes to dig, but I took "a break" to cut some firewood for the winter

[heavyhitterokra]

I'm glad you got a harvest, George. I planted my sweet potatoes outside my irrigation this year, so I'm wondering if I'll have any harvest at all.

I've had years when my drip irrigation was damaged by rodents to the extent that the row was starved for water. In those cases (if I find the leak) I cut the line in two and splice it back together with a screw-in coupling. If you ever need one, give me a holler. Chances are, I'll have one somewhere (if I can find it).

If the rodent damage only makes a hole the size of a pencil or smaller, I patch those leaks by placing a dead stick in the chewed hole that the rodents made. When the dead wood gets wet, it swells and stops the leak. (This method won't work with green wood). It has to be dead and dry. Also, the patch stick needs to point downstream or it will cause problems when the flow of water returns.

I think I gave away all my spare drip line, but in future years, I may have surplus again, so don't hesitate to ask. I'd be more than happy to share or to help out however I could.

[philagardener]

Looks great! Mine are still in the ground but I am thinking about when to lift them. 80s this week so they still might be sizing up. We had a lot of rain out here on the East coast this year and my sweets just took off. They grew everywhere and swamped out the beans in one of the adjacent beds. Last year I also had some rodent problems - they dug in and got tubers, so I am hoping that hasn't happened again.

[macmex]

Let us know how it goes when you dig them!

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

I dug my Sweet Potatoes October 30th. I have them in the back of my truck, getting washed off by the rain today. I only had 6 plants this year. The deer kept them cropped so closely, that I didn't think I'd get much of a crop at all.  Not to mention that it got so dry about mid-Summer and these were not planted under any irrigation. 

I ended up digging about 43 pounds from those 6 plants, so it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

This is a photo of a couple of my better-sized potatoes.  One was 4.8 pounds, the other was 4.6 pounds.  I also had a few 3 pounders.  I dug those first, to show my Wife.  They'll pair well with turkey, this Thanksgiving.

These sweet potatoes were the Beauregard variety.  I bought the transplants from Walmart last Spring.  I planted 9 sets, but deer killed 3 of them before they became established well enough to survive the carnage.  Out of the remaining 6 plants, only 3 did well at all.  The deer just wouldn't give them a break.  I guess, as long as I have homegrown sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, I'll call that a success.  

[philagardener]

Finally got mine out of the ground earlier this month.  Mixed varieties, nice red/white/blue(purple) theme.   Not a heavy harvest, but OK. Roots tend to long in my clay soil, rather than rounding up nicely, and some plants didn't have anything worth saving.

[heavyhitterokra]

Man, those two Beauregard Sweet Potatoes that got over 4 1/2 pounds this year were hard to butcher!

I helped my Wife prepare Thanksgiving dinner this year and she gave me all the big potatoes to peel and cut into cubes. It's tough to peel a potato that is so big and round that you can't get a straight line cut going. (Picture peeling a 4.8 pound volleyball). They made really good baked sweet potatoes but cubing them required a meat cleaver. Now, I know why housewives don't like those huge, round, sweet potatoes. Back in 2015, when I grew those 6 pound Evangeline sweet potatoes, my poor Wife peeled them all by herself.

My 3 pounders this year were more torpedo shaped and much, much, easier to peel and cube. Philagardener, be glad your clay soil tends to produce long potatoes. Those big round ones are no fun to process.

[philagardener]

The longer, thin ones are OK to peel, but one has to do more of them, and they aren't as good for baking whole.

Still looking for "Goldilocks" - not to big, not too small, just right! 

[macmex]

I just bake the really large roots. It takes longer, but I put them in the oven before chores and take them out in time for supper. Once they're soft, I can cut them up as I please. 

If you have really hard clay you might try Oklahoma Red. It does seem to do well in those conditions, though, I still try to break up the hard soil by adding some organic material. If the soil is really hard, Oklahoma Red will produce really long, skinny roots, which run shallow. But once it can penetrate downwards, it makes nice plump roots. Red Wine Velvet and Grand Asia also seem to handle hard soil better than most. Grand Asia will get huge if planted early. I think that makes it an "early" variety. Harvested with fewer days under its belt, it produces more normal size roots.