hank
New Member
Posts: 34
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Post by hank on Jul 6, 2020 11:14:16 GMT -6
I bought the straw from the Farmer's Co-Op in Tahlequah. Sunshine Nursery also has straw. I bought the straw four months ago.
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Post by rdback on Sept 24, 2020 17:03:03 GMT -6
I bought the straw from the Farmer's Co-Op in Tahlequah.
I bought mine at the local Co-Op as well. Six bails - $45.00! Couldn't believe it. I think I might use grass clippings next season lol.
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Post by macmex on Sept 30, 2020 14:08:48 GMT -6
I wanted to start digging sweet potatoes a few weeks ago, but I had injured my leg and couldn't. Two days ago I managed to dig two plants, and last night I dug two more. The harvest looks good, but the rodents are awful. I dug White Eclipse last night and there were only a handful of roots without significant damage. Still, the weight of what I am getting is quite impressive.
This is what I saw when I cut the vine of the first plant and lifted the plastic mulch. These are Cook Family Heirloom and they had grown right under the plastic. Notice the rodent damage.
It seems that rodents don't care for Molokai (dark purple) as much as others. This variety had less damage.
White Eclipse appears to have suffered more damage than the others. Still, the harvest from this variety is prodigious. White Eclipse takes longer than most to sweeten up in storage, but the variety is also SUPERB for storage and when it does sweeten up, it's really sweet. It's much drier in texture than most varieties and it's much more firm than Grand Asia. I believe it's the firmest fleshed sweet potato I know.
I need to hustle on this harvest so as not to lose a lot to the rodents. We lost our cat in February and got another this last summer. Then that cat was killed by a dog and it took until nearly September to replace her. The current B.R.C.U. (biological rodent control unit) is still quite small. She's just starting to hunt.
Apart from having a cat, the best way to avoid rodent damage in sweet potatoes is to harvest before nights start cooling off.
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Post by macmex on Oct 2, 2020 13:58:54 GMT -6
One of the best arguments for growing the same variety over the course of years, is that varieties have different growth habits, especially when it comes to the placement of their roots. It sure helps with digging, to know more or less where to look and how far down the roots will go.
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Post by macmex on Oct 2, 2020 14:15:46 GMT -6
Last night I dug Hopi, one of the varieties I obtained in recent years. It has copper colored skin and orange flesh. Roots are pretty regularly shaped. I've found that Hopi keeps very well in storage and has excellent flavor, after storage for a while. I still need a bit more time to get to know it, but at this point I'd say that it sweetens up after more than a month in storage.
I was impressed that all of Hopi's roots were right beneath the central stem. They were very easy to dig; didn't break any. None were especially large, but most were in the 1 to 1 1/2 lb range, which is what most people prefer.
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Post by macmex on Oct 5, 2020 12:25:19 GMT -6
October 4 I finished digging all twelve plants of Brinkley White. This variety has been one of my favorites since 2002. I don't know why, bu this year, though it produced many pounds of roots, the great majority were ugly as could be. Most had split early on, and then continued to grow, producing grotesque looking roots, which should still be eatable. They just look really sorry.
Some were also affected by what I've heard to be called "skurf." Neither does it prevent one from eating the root, but it looks even more ugly.
I am not positive about this, but my theory is that something happened with the irrigation. These plants received adequate irrigation early and late in the season, but sometime in the middle they dried out and stopped growing. Then, with the return of irrigation, they grew rapidly, splitting and getting this skurf condition. I will only save seed potato from healthy, non split roots.
Brinkley White becomes sugar sweet in storage and keeps extremely well. Some might be put off, in that the sugar in the baked flesh, which is already a very light lemon yellow in color, turns dark after contact with the air. The flesh of baked roots often turns slightly greenish in color. Still it is one of the sweetest and in my favorite three varieties.
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hank
New Member
Posts: 34
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Post by hank on Oct 6, 2020 11:23:14 GMT -6
I had an excellent crop of Gensing Orange sweet potatoes.
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Post by macmex on Oct 6, 2020 18:49:39 GMT -6
Looks great Hank! I haven't gotten to my Ginseng Oranges yet.
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Post by macmex on Nov 3, 2020 8:22:59 GMT -6
It's been some weeks now, but I finished digging sweet potatoes. Ginseng Orange did very well for me this year.
Bon, how was your sweet potato crop?
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Post by macmex on Nov 4, 2020 7:21:06 GMT -6
I've noticed that some varieties have good and bad years, when other varieties seem either perform the same every year, or more often, have different good and bad years. Brinkley White is the one that hits me the most, as having either great years of not very good years. Yet, with sweet potatoes I seem always to get an acceptable crop.
Here's what Brinkley looked like this year. I planted a lot of them, as they are one of my favorites. No other variety had this problem in 2020. I suspect that Brinkley grew, stopped growing for some reason, for a few weeks, and then suddenly exploded into fast growth, causing major splitting.
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