I have to remember to start sprouting my sweet potatoes. They're in the cool pantry now (60F). I'll bring a bunch of small ones into the kitchen to a warm spot.

sweet potato harvest

I harvested my sweet potatoes today. I just had on small row that I grew at my community garden. With a very bad vole population this year, I was afraid I find all sorts of half eaten tubers. But only one had nibble marks. And many of the tubers were pretty good size. I was surprised to see several were sprouting already - underground. What's that about? The hot weather? I'm glad I got them out of the ground a bit early. I normally would wait 'til after a frost but I thought I'd get it done now.

potting up a sprouted sweet potato

My mom gave me this nice sweet potato. From the super market. I find it really hard to get these to sprout. I love to grab one that is sprouted. I put it in a pot. It'll go on the kitchen window sill. They grow slow, then fast.

I've heard of gardeners who start their own sweets having the kitchen window covered with vines by planting season. Well, that would be fun. Last year I bought 12 slips and they weren't cheap (though I forget how much they were - $25 maybe). Maybe some of mine will sprout, at least they weren't treated with sprout inhibitor like the supermarket ones are. I'll watch them.

sweet potato harvest

I started digging my sweet potatoes this week. I only dug a small area at the back of the bed. I was pleased to find a lot of tubers, but SO much worm and grub damage. OMG.

I was looking at Daphne's sweets and they are picture perfect. I have a challenge ahead of me. I wonder if I can get my soil cleaned up for a perfect future harvest? A Clemson University Fact sheet says there are all sorts of beetle grubs and wire worms that can eat into sweet potatoes. They recommend hand picking beetles, a Bacillus thuringiensis product, crop rotation, and winter tilling.

I looked into winter tilling at LSU AgCenter. They suggest turning in compost in the fall/winter to increase decomposition, kill or inactivate disease organisms, insects and weed seeds, increase soil drainage in spring, and incorporate lime if needed. Sounds good. I'll try it in a few beds.

BTW, in spite of their appearance, my sweet potatoes taste delicious!

today's harvest

The dogs and I spent the afternoon in my community garden plot. It was another beautiful fall day. I dug sweet potatoes. A 4x4 foot bed full of them. I think I got a better harvest last year, but still the yield was good. I always love discovering fresh tubers in the dirt. I pulled the last small celeriac too and cut some of the ever present dill. And, once again, picked a ton of cherry tomatoes. That tomato plant just won't quit!

A fellow gardener told me the she cures her sweet potatoes. I vaguely remember something about doing this. She puts them at high humidity and high temperature for a week. I think she said she uses a tent and a humidifier. I just store mine in the kitchen and they seem good. I haven't even washed mine, I'll do that when I eat them. (Added later) I just now read back in my blog. Someone recommended keeping sweet potatoes in a box by a radiator. I will wash mine and do that.


Isn't my Skippy a handsome boy! And Suzie is posing for her picture again.

sweet potato sprouts

I count about 17 sprouts coming along. Some really small still. Last year I planted about 30, but they were too close. So about 20 should be good this year.

potting up sprouted sweet potatoes

I have lots of little sprouts on my sweet potatoes so today I potted them up in soil. My first pot under the seed lights! I'm saving those big plastic lettuce and spinach containers for potting this year. They are a nice size.

sweet potato sprouts

About 5 or 6 of my little sweet potatoes have sprouted now. They're in a pan with a little moisture, partially covered with plastic, in a warm spot.

sweet potato sprouts

My sweet potatoes have started to make cute little sprouts! Yippee!

I remembered at the last minute to save a few of my homegrown sweet potatoes for sprouting. The last ones were the smallest - a mix of white (Hannah), oranges (Jewel and Beauregard) and reds (Garnet).

For years, I've had trouble getting sweet potatoes to sprout at our old house. I've read they need warmth, but whatever I did didn't seem to work - maybe because my old house had mostly cool spaces. A couple weeks ago, I put a plate full of small sweets in the utility room of our new house. (Our new house may not have a cool space for a root cellar, but it does have a nice warm utility room.) My guess is the utility room is 75-80*F. I add a bit of water to the sweet potato plate every few days to keep the potatoes moist. And I covered the plate partially with plastic wrap. After about 2 weeks, I'm seeing nice sprouts. I can't help but cheer!

I think I see about 10 or more sprouts on several different potatoes.

I don't know if this will be too early for starting sweet slips. Since I haven't been this successful in the past, I am not sure. But it the slips get too big, I think I can cut them back (knock on wood). It's exciting to have them going!

frost

We had our first frost last night at Rock Meadow. Right on schedule. The squashes, tomatoes and peppers have all wilted back.

harvest

sweet potato sprouts

I have three sweet potato varieties sprouting: Beauregard, Jewel and Hannah. I am keeping them at 80*F, as they don't seem to grow at all at cooler temperatures. Still, they are growing slowly.

tiny little sweet potato sprouts!

About a month ago, I selected a couple sweet potatoes and put them in little bowls of water, hoping to get them to sprout. I put them on the floor by the heater, but since they got in the way there, I moved them to my plant shelf. Today I checked on them - sadly, no sprouts yet. :-(

Then later, as I was selecting a sweet potato for dinner from my basket in the kitchen, I found that one of these had tiny little sprouts! Yippee!!! I put this tuber in a bowl with water. Finally, I have a sprouting sweet!

I am guessing that this one sprouted because it was stored in the warm kitchen, quite near the oven. Maybe the room with the plant shelf is too cold for sprouting sweets? In any case, it is exciting to have one sprouting. As I learned last season, one sweet potato makes a lot of slips, and one slip makes a lot of sweets.

starting to sprout sweet potatoes

To get a head start, I put my sweets for sprouting in small bowls with half filled with water. I lined them up under the radiator for extra warmth. I will be collecting some pint jars (and toothpicks) for setting them up correctly soon. Here is a great link for reading about how to sprout sweets: Starting Sweet Slips.

I have three varieties starting. Two from my harvest from this year (Jewel's and Hannah's - these are dry textured, orange and white flesh) and a new one I picked up at the supermarket last week, (Beauregard - a moist orange type). These are three of the most common commercial varieties. I am thinking I will also try ordering a few heirloom slips from Sandhill Preservation next year. They have some very nice assortments: their choice of heirloom varieties, 2 types $5. Sounds good to me!

digging sweet potatoes

Yesterday I dug about half of my sweet potato bed. It was drizzling on the eve of Hurricane Sandy's arrival. I told myself I wouldn't get my hands dirty as I planned to shop afterwards. I often fail at this plan. My hands got really muddy. I dug a nice pile of sweets.

sweet sweet

I dug up a big ol' sweet potater today!

I'm holding off on digging the bed 'til after a frost kills the plants back. But its not like a bed of squash where you know what's growing, what you're waiting for. I've stuck a fork in the ground a couple times in the last month to see if I find anything and both times i found teeny little sweet potatoes. Third time today, and I found a giant!

It looks like a white fleshed sweet potato. Just over a foot long. I planted red, orange and whites sweets last spring.

sweet potato sprouts on the window sill

My sweet potatoes I dug last fall finally sprouted this fall. As Donald recommended, I potted them up. They are on my kitchen window sill with cacti and a poinsettia.

sweet potato sprouts

Since last fall (Oct 2010 - over a year ago!) I have held a basket of small sweet potatoes to see if they would sprout. Finally it seems they are sprouting. I am thinking about howI can set them up so they will grow inside over this winter. Looks like sweet potatoes may be a biennial crop for me.

fried potatoes

I can't do much gardening now, but I'm cooking and eating my produce. Today's recipe is fried potatoes. I found, then lost, a recipe online that worked great.

Standard potatoes: russets, blues, etc.
Sweet potatoes
Canola oil

1- Scrub and cut standard potatoes (whites, yellows and/or blues, leave skin on). Rinse in cold water, then soak 5 or more minutes in cold water.
2- Heat oil to 210-230*F.
3- Dry soaked potatoes on towel, then fry about 10 minutes in preheated oil. Remove to paper towel and let cool.
4- Increase oil temperature to 265*F.
5- Scrub and cut the sweet potatoes (leave skin on).
6- Add all potatoes (sweets and standards to the oil. Fry 5-10 minutes til nicely browned. Add salt and enjoy!

digging sweet potatoes!!!

My son helped me dig sweet potatoes on Sunday evening. What a great event!!!

I have to admit that to get my 18 year old into the garden, I had to trade for something he was interested in - $$. Since he currently doesn't have a job, but wants cash, I offered him the rate he got at his most recent job. Anyway, he got the garden fork and started in on the bed as I ripped out the vines.

My sweet potato bed was about 4 by 4 feet. Located just east of my popcorn (that failed this year :( ), its was bit shaded, and the vines had grown up and into the corn stalks. Its my first attempt at growing sweet potatoes and I was nervous.

Underground crops are such a suspense. I may have been holding my breath as we started. But with my son's first digs, he turned up beautiful orange, red and white tubers. And as I pulled the vines, lots of tubers came up attached to the plants. Wow! What a nice crop. My final weighing said 8 pounds of sweets. A good size bucket full.

One of the best parts was when my son said "I'm finished. I've got all of them." I asked if he would double dig just to make sure he found all of them. He said he had been double digging and they weren't any more. So I offered him a dollar for any additional ones he could find. His eyes lit up and he went back to digging. I tended the basil, weeded here and there, picked the pumpkins, and he dug. He kept announcing "Here's another!" ... "One more". Eventually, he earned another $15 and I finished the rest of my garden work with great company.

There is something very exciting (or not) about underground crops. I was so excited to dig potatoes with my parents this year and they turned out horrible - eaten by voles. Who would know. The leaves look great, but what'[s underneath?

The sweets we dug were all sizes and shapes. Tiny ones, big ones. Red, orange, white. Sunday evening I threw a few baby sweets in to roast. They were delicious. I started to peel them, but learned that baby sweets don't need to be peeled. I've never had a baby sweet potato before.

So I have another basket for my larder. We love sweet potatoes! I am looking forward to enjoying all of them.




... click on the label below to see my past posts about sweet potatoes....