Questions not deserving of a whole thread

Now you’ve got me worried about vermin! I’ve had rats gnaw away on beets several times. Hopefully if the tubers are underground they haven’t found them.

I’ll definitely be digging at least a few this weekend to see what’s going on.

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Will do, unless I see any activity from vermin in which case I’ll pull everything to get what I can.

Yes, @zendog you should definitely take a look. I get hit by some kind of rodent every year. I’ve never known for certain but i think I get him by rabbits, voles, and moles. I say that because sometimes I’ll have a potatoe that has been mostly eaten, yet not uncovered so I figure that must be a mole. Other times I’ll have something knock all the dirt off a potato that was barely covered in dirt or partially exposed already and they will eat 85% of it. I always figured this was rabbit and/or voles. Either way, when I start digging all my sweet potatoes I always find quite a few that have been completely hollowed out by some kind of critter! Very frustrating!!! Good luck with yours!

I don’t grow sweets, I grow white potatoes, but I get the same varmint problems. Voles, mostly. Also slugs

For which reasons, I pull them as soon as the vines die back in summer

I discovered my stinkbug was not not a stinkbug. It is a Western conifer bug . Whew. I looked it up as it was not squat in shape. It had a longer body and legs. :nauseated_face:

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Can someone answer a question for me please? I’m wondering this: if I bury a graft and the top part takes root would I still get any benefit of disease resistance from the rootstock or is this lost? For instance - medlar on hawthorn which is possibly more disease prone vs medlar on OHxF which is less disease prone. If the graft is buried and new roots form does this even matter?

I think once the graft union is buried, eventually you lose any benefits (disease resistance and dwarfing) of the rootstock, as the scion will start growing its own roots.

A question for you guys. When I was walking out in our pasture today, I found these berries growing low to the ground. They’re attached to very thorny vines, and even the calyx has some small thorns on it. They kind of look like gooseberries but I don’t think they are. Any ideas on what they might be? They’re about grape size, and still pretty firm.

Never mind, I looked online and they appear to be Carolina Horse Nettle, or Solanum Carolinense. Also known as wild tomato. I did think they looked like little green 'maters. The fruit will turn yellow when ripe, but they are considered a toxic Nightshade fruit to most animals and humans.

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was going to say, looks like the berries the potato plants make up here in the fields. there are thousands in between the rows during harvest time. the flowers make a green tomato on top and the roots make tubers under ground. wild game love them!

Well, I didn’t dig down to find out if they had any tubers, because those thorns were wicked! I reached down to move one of the vines and promptly got a thorn in my fingertip that drew blood.

I was wondering if you got any raspberries off your fall bearers before the hard freezes hit. My Freedom blackberry had some fruit buds on the primocanes before the freeze hit, but now they look kind of black. Which is odd, because it only got down to 29 Fri morn last week. Some of my rasps still have some berries on their primocane tips.

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my autumn brittens , jacylns and polka canes that are closest to the ground are still producing after 6 hard frosts. the rest are still leafed out but are reddish and not producing. funny thing is my wild canadian blackberries and wild elderberry bush are the only ones still green. tough plants! we’ve seen quite a few low 20’s.

Thanks, all my fall bearers (Caroline, Anne and Fall Gold) have either early fruit buds or actual berries on them now. Even my summer bearing Prelude has some buds on it, but I understand it will produce a few fall berries.

The few Anne berries I’ve had are kind of sweet, with almost an apricot kind of flavor. The one Caroline berry I had was kinda bland. Looming forward to a bunch of berries next year, especially all those thornless blackberries I have growing now.

Stupid deer have been browsing on the leaves of my plants closest to the house (about 100ft). I’ve caught them a couple times late at night down there. Very bold of them.

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I’m back with sweet potato questions. I harvested my potatoes about 2 weeks ago and have been keeping them in a reusable grocery bag with the top folded down and a towel over it to keep them humid while they cure. I have some blue ones on top and then a regular (maybe beauregard?) on the bottom. I checked them today and they blues look fine, but some of the regular ones are starting to sprout.

Do I just rub the sprouts off and maybe rotate them to the top where they are less humid? Also, if they’re sprouting does that mean they aren’t cured?

And finally, without baking and eating one, is there any simple way to know they are cured enough to eat?

Thanks all.

I like to “cure” mine in a dry place , open box.or spread out on a layer of cardboard .
Seams odd they are sprouting already , may be to much humidity ?

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Anybody had any luck growing JuneGold Peaches? 600 Chill hours seems low for a peach in Zone 7, but they are described as being “frost hardy” and are being clearanced by the local Lowes.

I don’t really understand why you are worried about keeping them humid? When I cure my sweet potatoes, my goal has always been the exact opposite- I always try to get as much humidity OUT of them as quickly as possible for the first week. I spread mine out on cardboard or newspapers in a dry place and put a fan on them for the first few days. The idea of putting freshly dug sweet potatoes in any kind of moisture holding vessel (like grocery bag with towel over it) seems counter productive and seems likely to cause them to mold and rot. I’ve mistakenly left some in a 5 gallon bucket before with no top and they usually spoil. The fact that yours are already sprouting tells me something is going wrong already. Mine never sprout until the following late spring/summer.

AS for when the are cured enough to eat…curing is just about making them so they will keep well. You can certainly eat sweet potatoes the day you dig them while they are still fresh, wet, and uncured. In fact, I love them that way. The skin is much more tender (will also scratch easier so be careful when handling fresh dug ones that you plan to cure). So you can eat them any time.

This is just my system passed down to me from grandparents and parents and others locally. I’m no expert but my sweet potatoes are always great and last over a year in storage. Perhaps others do feel sweet potatoes should be cured in a humid environment but it sure seems wrong to me.

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Because I believed things I read on the internet, lol.

I should have just asked here first instead. I’ve seen several things on other sites about keeping them humid, keeping them warm (85 degrees), etc. that I now see are not only unnecessary but may have actually contributed to a terrible case of sprouty spuds.

I had understood that until they cure, they aren’t as sweet since curing leads to some of the starch being converted to sugar. But it sounds like that might not be correct either so maybe I’ll cook up a few of the sprouted ones and see how they taste.

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ha! Trust me, I’ve been fooled by bad internet info before myself, and as I’ve said, it is always possible they know something I don’t. But in this case I feel pretty darn sure that you need to be spreading those potatoes out on something porous like newspaper or cardboard and letting them dry out ASAP! I don’t think most people use a fan, but I find it really helps speed things up.

I’d give a little more credence to the theory about curing possibly converting starches to sugar- I have heard that before and it could be true. But if it is, it isn’t a BIG difference, because as I said, I love eating fresh dug sweet potatoes and don’t find them to be any noticeably less sweet or more sweet, but certainly more tender and juicy. So that one could go either way. But I’m pretty sure you need to get moisture OUT of them ASAP. Good luck

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I had also read where sweet potatoes are supposed to be cured several weeks in a warm and humid environment. I read this article about “curing houses” for sweet potatoes. I can send you the article if you like. It is from an article from “Appalachian’s Place Based Foods”. Interesting read.