About half appear to be curing correctly. They’re still firm, skin appears “tougher”, etc
I’m cooking the other half tonight to mash and freeze. I’ll try a bit as well. So far, very bland.
As I was peeling them to boil them, I think I figured out why some of them appear to be dehydrating, and getting dark spots. The dark spots are where the skin has been rubbed away. Because some idiot (this idiot typing this) washed them with a clean dish sponge to remove the dirt before curing.
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The half that didn’t shrivel appear good so far, and are now in my coolish (mid-upper 60s, but will cool to around 60 by winter), moist basement. Yet, I still see small sprouts growing on them.
A - how can I stop the sprouting?
B - how can I keep a couple to where I can sprout them when I WANT to next spring, (to grow next years’ slips) and make sure they last that long, and don’t sprout every dormant bud they have, and have nothing left to sprout in March?
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It is getting colder so I dug potatoes. They were grown from my own slips, only four bushes gave quite a lot of potatoes.
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Wow! That looks nice!!! I’m waiting for another month or so to dig mine…can’t wait!!
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Here’s my sweet potato patch. It’s gotten a bit out of control. Been trying to keep it in the confines of my small garden, but it’s a constant chore…These were regular store bought sweet potatoes that we had left over, so I wasn’t expecting them to take off the way they did and I didn’t bother to write down when I planted them…It’s still plenty warm here, so I’m planning to leave them in the ground as long as possible. Now whether there are any potatoes under there or not and how big they are is another question.
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yours look like mine…it runs wild in my garden but now that it gets colder, I just let it take it’s course.
We had our first frost so I dumped my 55 gallon drum over.
I was having high hopes of success from right off the top.
The soil is getting dryer the deeper I go. I should have done more deep watering!
I put some water in the bottom of this 30 quart pot with a false bottom to keep the potatoes off the water. I have them down by the boiler where it’s 90 deg. I put the lid on too. They weighed 20 lbs 11 oz.
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Tell us more about planting sweet potatoes in a barrel. What are the advantages? How many plants do you put in the barrel? Do you fill the barrel entirely to the top,or leave room to cover in case of frost? Can you put a pane of plastic or glass on the top to serve as a mini-greenhouse?
This was my first time growing them, so I am not to sure of advantages. I would say that I got some solar heat through the barrel till the vines totally covered the barrel. I drilled four holes one third of the way up, and four staggered 2/3 of the way up. I filled it full and planted one slip in each hole. I then planted four more in the top. The soil settled down four inches after a while. I did make a big plastic bag I used in the spring for a week during a cold spell. I drove four post in the ground to make a square and then put like a big garbage bag over it made from clear plastic. I only used that for about a week. Thern on top of the post I ran a circle of wire fence for the vines to grow on. I was dumping one to two sprinkler cans of water in it when watering, but that wasn’t enough to keep the bottom soil wet. I only watered it about once a week except during the dry spells I watered twice a week. I think half barrels would work better. My soil was mostly shredded leaf mold with some cow manure and a bit of moss.
I dug mine up last Saturday and they look a lot like yours but the taste should be fine. Mine were grown in 25 gallon plastic containers. I did not notice any cracking on vardaman but my nancy halls look exactly like yours, at least most of them. A few smaller ones had no cracking. Inconsistent watering is the only thing I could think of.
At least the barrel would keep the upper ones out of reach of the rabbits.
Its probley a little late to mention this but Sweet Potato leaves unlike potato leaves are edible.
https://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2012/08/cooking-with-sweet-potato-greens.html
I’d wish I knew about the leaves. It sounds delicious.
They are so tender and lush too. I knew that I could eat them and forgot. I bet they are still good in the pile out there. It didn’t frost last night and it’s raining. I’ll pick some to put in a salad with all my sweet peppers that are ripe or at least one or two. I planted a rain gutter grow in the middle of July and it is now getting ripe. Tomatoes are coming in tomorrow to finish ripening in the house. I already got some nice ones from it. It’s Four foot up in the air and no blight. The cabbage I think is speeding up with the cooler weather. I’ll put all the peppers right in the freezer with no protection. They stay good for over a year like that.
@northwoodswis4 I did have some of the lower whites growing along the ground and the rabbits!) and deer would eat them but the leader luckily kept going. I had chicken wire for the most part and deer once reached over to eat them.
This is how it looked on July 22.
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We ate some sweet potato leaves this year. Very mild flavor and a good healthy option for green smoothies or blanched greens once spinach has bolted and other greens have succumb to the heat. They are also very prolific and don’t seem to mind being picked.
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I’ve heard that the leaves were good to eat… haven’t tried them personally. Not sure I’ll get a chance either, something has been skeletonizing the leaves on mine.
Finally seeing a sweet potato blossom and some vine yellowing. hoping I’ll be able to harvest these pretty soon.
If you harvest them before they bloom are they not as good?
that I don’t know. thought I read somewhere online that it was a good idea to wait for them to bloom then give them another couple of weeks, but this is the first time I’ve ever seriously tried to grow them so I’m just winging it.