2020 Growing Season for Sweet Potatoes

[macmex]

Here it is, June 2 and I've been planting slips since yesterday. Slip production was simply AWFUL this year, that is, until about two weeks ago. They finally started growing. I think the problem was a combination of terrible, cheap, BAD potting mix and fluctuation of hot and cold temperatures. My sun porch, which is unheated, has also become more shaded in recent years. I finally put the trays out in the garden, and it helped. 

Here's a picture of the two rows, dug, but not yet covered. I'd estimate that they 're about 90' long each.



Here's a photo of the same rows with plastic down.


I've since mulched them and planted about 3/4. I will have to wait on planting some, as my slips are running low.
If using plastic it's extremely important to mulch over the plastic. Otherwise the heat can build up underneath and exit through the holes where the sweet potatoes are planted. This "chimmney effect" can cook and kill the slips.

[heavyhitterokra]

You've got that looking really good, George. That Plasticulture sure makes the potatoes easier to dig in the Autumn. It keeps heavy rains from pounding your soil and compacting it around the tubers.

[macmex]

I've gotten the rows mulched now and about 3/4 planted. I could have finished planting yesterday, but I'm waiting on more Red Wine Velvet slips to appear. Jerreth wants lots and lots of them, and I have to admit that it's a great one. Besides Red Wine Velvet, I really miss Grand Asia. Over the last three or four years the variety mutated from red skin, white, dry flesh to red skin, yellow, moist flesh. This spring I determined to CAREFULLY select roots for just the white fleshed version, and plant only that one. Alas, there were only two roots left in my box, which had white flesh, and only one of them sprouted. So, I planted only four slips. Next year we hopefully will have this one in quantity again.

[heavyhitterokra]

Too much water can cause leaves to turn weird colors and die back. Water stress often presents a red color.

I have a lot of that going on this year because of too much rain. I know you do not have too much rain though, so maybe something else?

[macmex]

Variety can also be a factor with leaf color. Some varieties' new growth will have quite a reddish/purple tint to it. Bon, I forget what varieties I sent you.

[heavyhitterokra]

I just bury my sweet potatoes lengthwise in a cheap plastic tub full of wet sand in early-Spring and they sprout like crazy. The slips seem to feed off the potato for quite a while before they need any real nutrients. My sand has been outside in buckets for so many years, it might be half dirt, just from leaves falling in it over time?

When it's time to plant, I just cut the slips loose with a knife, leaving a clump of roots and some potato attached and set them in the garden with a good watering in. Sometimes, I get lazy and just start poking whole potatoes in the ground, slips, roots and all. I got 27 pounds of sweet potatoes off of one set like that once, but it doesn't happen like that every year.

This year, in particular, has been very hard on my sweet potatoes. They still look terrible from too much rain.

[macmex]

I haven't made chips with them, but I bet they'd be good.

My favorite way to fix them is to simply bake them, whole, and for about 70-90 minutes at 325 F. I want them to be so well done they're mushy. Their fabulous. 

Another idea is to make atole with them, substituting sweet potato for pumpkin in my pumpkin atole recipe.

Sweet potato leaves really cook down. You need a lot of them to make a mess, but they're quite tasty and nutritious as a green. 

[macmex]

Been meaning to post a picture of the sweet potato rows, finished. I mulch over the plastic in order to avoid cooking the slips. Otherwise, the plastic heats up and the escaping heat (through the holes where the slips are planted) creates a chimney effect, cooking the slips.



For the first days after planting, it may appear that there aren't any sweet potato plants there at all. They're kind of lost in the mulch. But now, about 3 days after this photo was taken, they start poking up from the mulch. It always amazes me how resilient sweet potato slips are. This year only one appeared to die, yet I dug around with my fingers and found a living stem, already starting to bud again. I even plant them with NO ROOTS and they do well.

[heavyhitterokra]

I finally got all my sweet potatoes planted. Thanks, guys, for the slips of so many varieties!

[mountianj]

red wine velvets are taking off.

[macmex]

Most of ours are taking off, now, as well. It's heartening to see. My Red Wine Velvet slip production finally caught up and surpassed demand (for my own use and that of customers wanting to purchase slips). I'll even end up with about 10 plants of Grand Asia. My one root has been making slips and I am still pulling about a slip a day and planting it on the end of the row with a little space in it. I left room for some more Grand Asia, in hopes that this would happen.

Grand Asia is what I call an "early variety." Sweet potatoes never ripen, per se. The roots just keep growing as long as conditions favor growth (hot weather and plenty of moisture). Grand Asia is one which makes large roots when grown out for the full season. This is because its roots size up quickly. 

[hank]

Ginseng Orange sweet potatoes.

[macmex]

That's sure a pretty sight, Hank! Looks like you're headed for an excellent harvest!

[hank]

So far they are doing great.

[heavyhitterokra]

Looking good, Hank. Thanks, for posting that photo.  I was able to zoom in on it and see it closer up.  Where did you find your straw?  All I could find this year were compressed bales of chopped straw.