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Post by macmex on Jun 13, 2022 12:33:12 GMT -6
This year I committed to producing more slips than any other time in my life. In part it's because I love sweet potatoes and hope to encourage others to grow them too. Another reason for increasing my slip production is that, given our climate, I honestly can't think of a crop with more practical value for sustaining food production than the sweet potato. They not only produce a lot of food, but the roots keep well at room temperature, oftentimes up to a year.
Anyway I spent yesterday afternoon in the blazing heat, bundling four orders of slips. One order was for 520 slips, which is a whole lot more than I plant in a year!
Here's a photo of the slips before I boxed and labeled them for shipment.
Here's a picture of them ready to go in the mail.
I have another order for 200 to fill soon and then just one more order, probably for about 50 slips, after June 27.
"June 27?" one might think, "Isn't that kind of late?" No, not for Oklahoma, in fact, that order is from Sandhill Preservation Center, in Iowa, where it is much cooler than here. No one knows slips like they do, and they plant late for better production.
So, if you have space, slips, time and energy, consider planting sweet potatoes. In our region I've planted as late as July 18 with good results. It's just important to keep them irrigated during the hottest time of the summer, so that they put on weight in their roots. Sweet potato plants + HEAT + water = BIG/fast PRODUCTION
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Post by macmex on Jun 13, 2022 12:41:53 GMT -6
I was losing some sleep over wondering if I was going to be able to get together all the slips for that really large order. Wouldn't you know? Once I had harvested all I needed, I look out on my bedded roots and think... I can hardly tell I pulled 500 slips from here!
Here's a picture of some of my outside slip producing beds:
Here's a picture of the trays which are still in the greenhouse. This is AFTER I harvested all those slips!
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Post by june on Jun 13, 2022 13:07:06 GMT -6
Those all look really great. I got all my slips planted, but feel like I have really done a poor job in my garden this year due to health issues. I did the best I could, but this year has been a real struggle for me.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 13, 2022 14:39:40 GMT -6
Congratulations, macmex. I’m glad you got that large order out, and it looks like you’ll have plenty for the next one. Sweet potatoes really are amazing!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jun 14, 2022 14:22:52 GMT -6
You go, George! I enjoy reading your success stories. Sounds like that tractor is gonna come in handy this Fall. In case I forget later, I have a sub soiler over here with a 12" inch sweep for digging Kennebec potatoes. That might be a thing you could use on your sweet potatoes too? You lose a few potatoes that way, but when working with large numbers, It's a lot better than hand digging. The last time I used it was two or three years ago, when my Daughter-in-Law and I dug 200 pounds of potatoes.
I guess I'm the only one in the family that actually enjoys digging potatoes.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 14, 2022 15:36:59 GMT -6
My husband and I like digging potatoes, but I think I’d find 200 pounds by hand to be a bit much. I did three pounds by hand this morning from just a few plants, the foliage of which had completely died back, and I didn’t want to lose track of where they were. It hasn’t been a great potato year for us here because of the heat and drought, but I have high hopes for the sweet potatoes as long as I can keep them watered enough. macmex, when you’re done with slips, what do you do with the areas where you bedded the potatoes? Do you pull them out and use the ground for other crops, or do you leave the potatoes in the ground and go on to harvest later in the season? Can they make more tubers or are they too crowded? I have a planter full of slips. I’ve supplied my neighbors and planted all but 20. Once my I onions come out, I’ll plant those. I don’t think I can leave the slips in the planter, but I was thinking of dumping the whole thing in an area of our backyard where we used to have a lime tree (but I’m pretty sure what’s growing there now is rootstock from below the graft). Even if the roots didn’t make a lot, the area could use some nice ground cover, and I figured that sweet potatoes are hardy enough to handle treatment like that.
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Post by macmex on Jun 30, 2022 8:41:25 GMT -6
Oops! Sorry, I let these questions slip past me. Seems I'm becoming worse at catching them. I actually look forward to digging my sweet potatoes by hand, though there will surely come a day that I won't be able to. I like examining each plant, how the roots are attached and positioned under it and taking notes. My wife, Jerreth has observed that I'm never happier than during the weeks that I'm digging my sweet potatoes. Really, I might be too attached.
I usually just abandon the roots which are in trays. Last year, at the end of October, I realized I had FORGOTTEN to plant any White Eclipse slips. I dug around in the weeds and found their tray. Unfortunately, rodents had eaten all the roots. But as I looked, I actually found enough for three cuttings. The vines had left the tray and rooted themselves in the weeds. So, I nursed those through the winter, under lights and recovered this rare variety. That was a close call!
I have a couple pretty good size beds of slips, planted directly in the ground. I may tear them out, as they are definitely over crowded for root production. On the other hand, they are making wonderful amounts of vines, which could serve for human and animal feed. I should chat with my wife about it.
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