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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 7, 2022 18:56:13 GMT -6
Those are beautiful Chrysanthemum!
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 8, 2022 6:34:50 GMT -6
I think they grew another foot in our heat yesterday. Even they looked a little wilted in the afternoon sunshine, but they perked right back up when the sun started going down. They really are noticeably longer.
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 25, 2022 11:46:21 GMT -6
I haven’t gotten the sweet potato slips planted yet. I had expected my onions to be finished by mid May, but the Red Creoles in the bed that I had planned for sweet potatoes are still upright without big bulbs. I don’t want to pull them earlier than necessary, so the sweet potatoes are still growing on my deck. They’re trailing out several feet at this point. At least I don’t have to worry about rushing them into the ground. I’ve never seen a frost here before the end of October.
Any suggestions for me on handling my long slips? What is just too long to plant? I know I can plant smaller cuttings, but I only have so much space, so I don’t need to multiply my slips.
My other greens haven’t succeeded, so it’s possible that I can just sautee the extras for a meal, but I’m not sure there are really enough for that.
I’m getting impatient about planting them, but I just have to wait on those onions.
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Post by macmex on May 25, 2022 12:22:21 GMT -6
There should be plenty of time to plant sweet potatoes, especially in your location. I would think you'd be fine even if you waited until sometime in July to put them in the ground (as long as you keep them watered while they are growing in the ground).
One can plant longer slips. I've read that putting more leaf nodes underground at planting time will produce more and slightly smaller roots at harvest, whereas planting a slip with a single leaf node under ground will produce fewer and larger roots. I haven't done the experiment to confirm this.
If your slips get too long you can trim them, either making more slips to share or sell or else you can just eat them. The tender stems and leaves make a good addition to soups and stir fries. I've even cooked them up like spinach, though I found them a little bland that way.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 27, 2022 11:48:21 GMT -6
When trimming sweet potato vines always consider the vines are what make the potatoes grow bigger. The deer around here prune my vines back to about two feet long all summer. Those vines hardly produce at all, but the vines that get twenty feet long produce tubers in excess of ten pounds some years.
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