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Post by macmex on May 22, 2022 20:26:47 GMT
I don't know just how to begin this thread, so I'll begin and we can add comments as we go.
Let me start out by commenting that, at least for people in my neck of the woods there is NO HURRY about getting sweet potato slips in the ground yet. I could plant by the third week of JULY and have a good crop, provided that my plants received regular watering.
I was communicating with Glenn Drowns, the other day and he commented the very same thing, even though he lives a lot further north than I. His comment is that he used to plant his sweet potatoes right after the danger of frost had passed, but that he found he had problems with scurf (fungal infection of the skin which affects storage life of the roots) when he planted while the soil was at all cool. Moving his planting dates to a later date resolved that issue.
I have two main reasons I want to start planting:
1) I have a huge number of orders for slips and if I get my own planted now, in a couple weeks those very same plants can serve as a source of slips.
2) I struggle to get things in the garden done at all, having so many things going. So, it's a big deal to knock off such a task.
Nevertheless, I think I'm going to finish getting my plastic mulch down and not plant so much until I KNOW that warm temps have returned. If I would like to wear a sweat shirt out there in the early morning, then it's probably too cool for optimal sweet potato planting.
Having said that, I did plant 11 slips yesterday.
The first five were all seedlings which I started (from seed) this year. At least two look to be purple rooted, though we'll just have to wait and see for sure what color roots they produce.
Two of these seedlings came from Kaukura Sweet, which is reportedly a good ornamental (bronze foliage & orange roots). I managed to get one seed from this variety to grow and also show the bronze color. The other seedling came out with plain green foliage. Sweet potatoes require another plant with different genetics in order to produce seed, so this seedling has to have another parent than itself. It is a cross. So we'll see how it turns out.
At least it's pretty.
When I knocked it out of the pot it was already forming roots!
I made a point with all of these seedlings, all of which had been grown out in pots, to strip off almost all the roots from each of them before planting them. Having developed in pots they had giant masses of roots which would have produced misshapen sweet potatoes. So, I stripped them off, leaving only a few stubby starts to begin again. They will be growing new roots very rapidly.
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Post by june on May 22, 2022 21:24:42 GMT
Love that new hybrid baby. Hope it tastes as good as it looks.
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Post by macmex on Jul 2, 2022 14:05:52 GMT
June 27 I planted the last of my slips, even though I could still plant for a couple of weeks. Now I need to get going on other crops. This has been a hard year for me in terms of gardening.
Here's a picture of my three rows of sweet potatoes. They are the right hand three rows, which have shredded paper mulch over much of their surface. The left two rows are okra.
The garden looks weedy... because it is. Presently my water hydrant is down, so today I need to dig that up and replace it.
This is the largest planting of sweet potatoes (up by 33% from last year, which was my largest planting). I'm very happy with this planting!
My beds and trays of slips have now filled out as if I had never harvested a single slip, and this, in spite of being the heaviest year of sales I've ever seen. I may end up harvesting from my slips beds to make frozen greens for winter time. We'll see. Everything is a matter of available time.
There's not a lot to do or see from this point until harvest, though I do enjoy observing vine growth and flowering. Right now most of the slips have started growing at an amazing rate. Some of the latter ones got fried by very very high temps but almost all are coming back. I only lost perhaps three slips this season.
Here's a picture of one of the last slips to go in, which got caught in the extreme heat. Remember, this happened because of the dark colored plastic mulch which causes a chimney effect. Mulching over the plastic helps but sometimes the heat is still too much. Once they slip takes root it'll be fine. This one really got burnt though.
Here's a picture of one, like it, which is recovering. I don't replace these even though they look awful. The truth is that under the soil they are strong and will come roaring back very quickly.
Sweet potatoes are amazingly resilient!
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Post by june on Jul 2, 2022 14:57:55 GMT
I'm done planting (again)...I've said that multiple times already... but done for sure this time. I've been gardening with one arm all year due to spurs and rotator cuff tears. I'm due for shoulder surgery next week and not allowed to even think about anything for 3 months.
Normally, I would have done some other things to my garden--like bring in several loads of composted wood chips from the Norman Compost facility...couldn't do that so I revised my irrigation system and deer fencing. All in all, I'm pleased with the condition of my little garden. I think it will fare well during the upcoming hot months (July and August) with minimal supervision and I'll slow down some for awhile.)
 
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Post by macmex on Jul 2, 2022 16:23:18 GMT
Will be praying for your recovery. Back in February, when I was diagnosed with a hernia, I was so distressed, wondering how in the world I'd deal with my sweet potatoes. It worked out. The Lord gave me help and then put me with an amazing doctor using the best technology.
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Post by june on Jul 2, 2022 16:48:25 GMT
Yes, it will work out. I'm looking forward to finally getting the surgery so I can get on with mending.
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