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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jun 26, 2023 14:04:30 GMT -6
For what it’s worth macmex, I haven’t put mine in the ground yet. I’ve potted some,but the ground? Nope. Like you, I absolutely must stop everything else to get it done starting tomorrow morning.
The bed that I’ll be putting them into is spent on nutrients. I have 10 10 10 fert on hand and have never used fert before. Will that be sufficient? I till it in, right? I can concoct a bucket of weedy brew for them, if that helps. A little fert below and good fert watered in from the top?
I’ve planted this late before and they did will for us, weather permitting. Wishing ya’ll abundant sweet potato crops!
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Post by macmex on Jun 26, 2023 15:07:54 GMT -6
Right now is actually a pretty good time to plant, as temps are stable and hot and there's still plenty of time for sweet potatoes to mature. Frosty, I've never used fertilizer before, other than compost and rabbit manure. I think sweet potatoes do benefit from some fertility. Be careful not to hit them with much nitrogen, though. That might hurt root production. If in doubt, just plant in the soil, as is.
Our straw bale experiment has to have some kind of fertilizer, as without it, the growing medium is extremely deficient in nutrients. I used some 10-10-10 in that ICB container before planting.
Water them in well and keep them from drying out for the first week or two, so they can get established. Actually, I aim to keep mine from drying out for the entire season in order to promote the most production.
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Post by woodeye on Jun 26, 2023 15:35:26 GMT -6
FrostyTurnip & macmex ,
I took a picture of my sweet potato row this morning, I'm so glad you all are talking about fertilizer. I have not used any fertilizer at all on them so far. None at planting and none side dressed. All I have in stock is 19-19-19 granular fertilizer that I got at the feed store because they didn't haven't any 10-20-10 like I wanted.
So, do you all think I should sprinkle just a dab of the 19-19-19 on top of the mulch and then water it in like I do on onions?
Or just leave them alone and see what happens without any fertilizer at all?
Here is what they look like with ZERO fertilizer.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jun 26, 2023 18:31:46 GMT -6
woodeye, I would not fert. Your red clay is high in nutes. It only needs help with its delivery system. Your tilling, mulch and watering should be sufficient. Sweet potatoes are good scavengers.
I planted the last year’s sweet potato in the bed I am trying to replant. After those potatoes, I planted wheat which is a notorious nute hog and I did not fertilize. I just harvested that wheat a week ago. The soil needs either a cover crop or fertilizer with planting. Until now, I have never fertilized sweet potatoes, not even with organic liquid fertilizers. Even so, I am going to use the fert very sparingly.
You can abandon your sweet potatoes and you will still have a harvest. I’m agreeing with George. Only on very rare occasions do sweet potatoes need fert. Water is best. Not too much, just regularly so they don’t struggle to find it when they should be thriving.
Your sweet potatoes look perfect to me at this stage in its growth. Be sure to wait on macmex response as he knows best.
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Post by woodeye on Jun 26, 2023 19:50:13 GMT -6
Good deal, FrostyTurnip, I'm watering them every other morning right now and with them mulched they seem to be liking it so far. I'll continue as is, and as you suggested, hopefully macmex will let us know what he thinks too...
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Post by woodeye on Jun 27, 2023 4:20:38 GMT -6
I just finished getting my sweet potatoes into the ground! Here's a link to see the whole saga. I posted it on the Sweet Potato Network. I took today off work in order to work in the garden. Need to get back out there instead of "writing about it."
Wow, macmex. Good thinking there, raising & leveling the plow in order to hook it to the tractor like that is a great idea. So happy that worked out well for you. Oh man, the loss of your tiller is major, hope it is fixable. Anyway, best of luck with all of your sweet potato ventures this year, looking good!😉
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Post by macmex on Jun 27, 2023 6:05:50 GMT -6
Well, I don't think the tiller is fixable and I'm not going to rush on replacing it. I have had a love/hate relationship with tillers (more hate than love) anyway. With my plow and disk I think I can do the largest open spot in the garden and call it good. I do have a little Mantis tiller which runs fine, but it gums up with roots and needs its tines to be removed and cleared every little bit. I don't consider the Mantis to be worth the time it takes, most of the time. Ron loaned me his subsoiler plow, which worked pretty well for uprooting weeds.
Okay, I'm going to admit to one of my idiosyncrasies. I have lots of box turtles here and find babies in the garden all the time. It just hurts me to to run a rototiller over a wide swath of ground, knowing that I am probably killing little turtles. When I plow, I feel they have a little better chance of survival. When I hand cultivate they are MUCH more likely to escape. I've observed them fleeing, ahead of me when I work with a mattock and hoe. I guess I am not all about production, I also love the life that co-exists in my garden area. I suspect a lot of it flourishes because I never get the garden to the point that it looks well weeded. There are always weedy patches here and there. This year, however, I've had a couple cultivated patches in the midst of a sea of weeds.
I think Frosty's comments are right one. I have only tried using any fertilizer, in the form of rabbit manure and barn scrapings, in the last two years, and for me, the jury is still out. I have occasionally seen where some high nitrogen material got right under a sweet potato plant and produced hairy, useless roots, so I'm a bit gun shy about fertilizer. I do think I'm doing right to try a bit with the straw bale container, however. That medium is devoid of nutrients if one doesn't add them, and, after all, it is an experiment.
For future seasons, I would recommend that you check on potash levels in your soil and amend for the ideal requirement for sweet potatoes, if you can. I'm still doing this. My garden's levels are not ideal yet harvests have been quite good. I read that potash is very important for root production. Still, as with a complicated machine that one is using (it's running okay) and one doesn't fully understand, I'm inclined to be very cautious with amendments other than good mulch and, perhaps rabbit or sheep manure.
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Post by woodeye on Jun 27, 2023 8:40:56 GMT -6
I'll try again to post this message, a thunderstorm took out my internet while I was typing earlier.
Thank you, macmex. The case has now pretty much been closed, I will follow you and Frosty's advice, I appreciate the information. I'll continue as is, just watch them and water them, and as long as the vines stay healthy looking that's all I'll do for now.
I have never dealt with potash levels at all, I'll have to do some research on that because I do want to continue growing sweet potatoes, they're definitely in my heritage but I'm just slow to become this interested in sweet potatoes for reasons unknown.
It's great that you have lots of box turtles. They have declined immensely in my area for some reason. Back in the 80's and 90's they were abundant and it was a chore at times to dodge them on the highway. It has been years since I've seen one single box turtle on the highway around here, and very few anywhere else on the place. They have gotten so rare that I take a picture of about every one I see now. This year I have taken one picture of a box turtle and saw one terrapin but didn't take his picture because I'm not fond of terrapins at all, they love low hanging tomatoes.
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Post by macmex on Jun 27, 2023 10:33:28 GMT -6
We had to move all our strawberries to an elevated container garden on account of the box turtles. They were making daily raids on the strawberries, and, of course, any low hanging tomatoes, but who can blame them? When I grew up in NJ there was an abundance of box turtles but they waned until seldom seen. I'm sure that part of the problem is how county road departments mow and roads crisscross the landscape, providing a huge problem for the wandering turtles. Another problem is that they need some undisturbed land where they can breed and lay eggs. I know that Glenn and Linda Drowns, when they established their 40 acre preservation center, left several acres undisturbed for just this reason. I have always gravitated to turtles and probably always will.
Here's a picture of a baby I encountered last year, while cultivating. He was "sprinting" for cover when I found him. I found his parents nearby, mating. Anyway, I consider turtles to be simply part of my garden and enjoy them.
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Post by woodeye on Jun 27, 2023 10:43:27 GMT -6
Now that is a cutie there! I can remember back in the 80's when I lived on a different property, I would see lumps out in the scattered post oak leaves and it was box turtles hid under the all the leaves to stay cooler when the temperatures started getting hotter. It's the same property that I accidently found a box turtle nest for the first time. It was near the barn and I was digging a trench to install a 6 inch diameter pipe to serve as a small tin horn. When I found them I thought I had dug into some styrofoam shipping material, the eggs were white as snow. I covered them back up immediately, I don't know if I may have ruined the hatch. I hope not...
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jun 27, 2023 14:32:53 GMT -6
With all the talk of sweet potatoes, I went out and took a picture of mine this morning after I had finished watering. There are more in two beds with a zucchini in the middle, but they’re not growing so well due to lack of light. I had to admit that I hadn’t expected the zucchini to last quite this long given the borer pressure down here. I imagine that they’ll be dying back soon, though. I’m afraid I’ve got no turtle photos to contribute. I believe that I have seen just one in my time in Texas, and it wasn’t even on my property, though it was in my neighborhood.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jun 27, 2023 18:07:47 GMT -6
We pay respects to Mr. Turt! He’s a snapper, tho. Tell the dog to leave him alone. Every dog we own gets bit and they deserve it when it happens. Keh
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Post by macmex on Aug 9, 2023 8:56:51 GMT -6
Here's a picture of one of the experimental seedlings I'm trialing. I put out about 6 plants with my regular sweet potatoes but also planted another six in an ornamental garden at work. If it produces at least as well as last year, tastes as good as what I tried last winter, and keeps well, then I'll name it and release it as a new variety. I love the subtle tones in the leaves of this plant. The roots have red skin and light orange flesh, which is moist and sweet.
Here's a link to more description and history. The first post in the link has two other links which give even more background.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 9, 2023 9:14:04 GMT -6
A gorgeous plant, macmex. Very impressive growth too!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 11, 2023 6:10:29 GMT -6
That is a striking plant, macmex. I looked back at the other thread and saw some of the earlier photos, too, though I didn’t get the whole history read. Thanks for the photo here.
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