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Post by macmex on Oct 28, 2022 19:48:19 GMT
I'm still digging at the end of October. Been hard to make time but should finish this weekend. Overall the harvest has been smaller than usual but not as bad as a really catastrophic year. Rodent damage hasn't been too bad.
Here's a photo of either Red Wine Velvet or HI Orange, right under the plastic mulch when I pulled up the mulch. This particular root required no digging.
Both these varieties performed better than most others during our crazy summer.
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Post by macmex on Oct 31, 2022 13:27:06 GMT
Yesterday afternoon I got to work more on the last of our sweet potato harvest. Harvest this year has been rushed due to time constraints. Yesterday was a relief and pleasure. We've had some rain and the soil has loosened up a bit. I did have to dig in a part of the garden where there is a lot more rock, so it wasn't exactly a piece of cake. Still, it was much better than it had been!
Here's a photo of my Brinkley White harvest (or at least most of it).
By no means is this a large harvest yet I found it comforting in such a difficult year, that this variety produced a decent size harvest of medium/small roots.
Here's a photo of the predominant size root in this harvest.
It was also nice to have moist soil clinging to the roots. Not that I really like dirty roots. It's just that it indicates the return of a healthier situation in our soil.
Brinkley White is a variety I've grown for 20 years. It's been very reliable. Additionally, when fully cured in storage, the roots are sugary sweet.
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Post by macmex on Nov 2, 2022 11:55:33 GMT
Well, I finished digging sweet potatoes on October 31, much later than I would have preferred. Fortunately, the ground has not yet cooled to the point of causing any damage to the roots. Harvest has been smaller than usual. This is in part because some of my drip irrigation malfunctioned toward the end of the summer. Next year I will do to lines of drip tape per hill, in order to have a backup and, I am toying with the idea of putting regulators on BOTH ends of the row, so I can quickly and easily change regulators if one stops functioning.
I don't think the lower yield is completely due to irrigation problems. There's been something about this season which caused everything I grew to under perform. The weather has been very atypical. Hopefully next year will be better.
This year I grew more sweet potatoes and more varieties than ever before. Next year I must cut back some. I can't keep up. It appears that I have failed to find any new growers to help carry on sweet potato diversity. I fear for what will happen when Glenn Drowns at Sandhill Preservation Center can't continue with his extensive collection.
Though I will cut back I doubt that I'll stop experimenting with true seed. It's not difficult and it's exceedingly enjoyable. In the coming year I may introduce a new variety. Seedling #1 from 2021 performed exceedingly well this year, in spite of conditions and in contrast with most other varieties. If it has consistently good flavor and texture and also keeps well for me, it'll get a permanent place in my garden as well as a real name.
Here's a picture of one of the last plants I harvested this fall. It's High Orange. This one did alright.
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