Looks like they are going to have plenty of slips this year. Mail in your order today!
Also, this is unrelated to sweet potatoes, but we have received poultry 3 orders from them so far, 25 mixed chicks, 20 ducks, and 25 mixed chicks. We have been really pleased with what we received. We have three additional orders coming so far this summer, 15 Bresse chicks, 15 mixed quail, and 80 mixed chicks. I highly recommend them if you need to order poultry, just keep in mind that they only take orders via mail (the good old fashion way).
Is there a reason why sweet potatoes don’t make seeds? Mine flower profusely but never make any. I don’t really want/need them to, more of a curiosity.
As an update, all of my plants look healthy and are growing.
I think there is something to be said for plants that have been propagated vegetatively for such a long time having a tendency to produce less seed. There is also some anecdotal evidence that plants produced from seed tend to be better at producing viable seed themselves. There’s a fellow in southern Indiana named Mark Reed that collects sweet potato seed, and he’s talked about that characteristic. He’s even to the point now where he regularly gets seed grown volunteer sweet potatoes in his Indiana garden. Not a long enough season for the volunteers to produce but that’s still pretty amazing.
well they are growing. I fed them root fertilizers into the dirt and kept it light and loose. they’re in the hottest part of the lot along the walkway. this one by the bird bath was handy for a photo
they have grown pretty good so far, I’ll harvest leaves starting next month as they get bushy. I grow them mostly for greens but am hoping there’s time for the tubers to form this year, if I did this correctly. two slips in each 5 gallon pot.
Got my slips from Sandhill yesterday and planted them up into some growbags. They must be having a bountiful year with slips.
I was surprised by how generous a portion i recieved: 5 of the deleware purple I ordered 3 of and I think it was close to 10 each of the 2 assorted varities I had ordered 6 of. (And some of those assorted slips were big enough i could easily have made 2-3 slips from each if i wanted)
Had to up the number of grow bags I had planned for them all haha.
My sweet potatoes arrived from Sand Hill on Monday. I divided them so that I only have 3 slips of each variety planted in this test plot. Once that pile ran out, I planted some of the extras:
One really good tip that I read from material that I got from Sand Hill was not to let the vines root into the ground. Obviously, if the vines root into the ground they will begin to grow, and it will take energy away from the tuber production. Seems like common sense, but I had never thought about it before.
I created the below chart from the sandhill preservation website’s information of the bush and semi-bush cultivars. There are a total of ~268 cultivars listed ~195 available on the website so this is only a small fraction of their sweet potatoes, but as I was only interested in the bush and semi bush cultivars, this was as far as I was willing to go. I tried my best to take the information provided verbatim from their data. If a cultivar wasn’t given a description of the color, chances are I didn’t document one even though pictures are present on the website (you will also note that cultivars ‘Continental Red’ and ‘Coop O’ have the same flesh color description, but their pictures are very different). I did my best to ignore the pictures entirely, but in something like the case of ‘Lilac’ I took data from a different cultivar that it was said to be an “improved” cultivar of. I included cultivars that were unavailable for the year, but none of the ones that have been unavailable since their losses in 2020. Personally, I just really prefer to use a table sorting through data and I am hoping what I started might help someone or someone can build off what I began.
Variety
Timing
Vine Length
leaf Shape
Leaf Color
skin
flesh
Yield
notes
8633
Early
Bush
Normal
Reddish/Orange
Orange
Above Average
A great producer but a less than ideal slip producer. Late sprouter, but grows fast.
Amish Bush Porto Rico
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pink
Orange
Above Average
Amish Red
Early-Mid
Bush
Cut
Deep pink/Red
Orange
?
Arkansas Gold
Early
Bush
?
dark red purple, deep green
Golden/Tan
Yellow - Bright
Average
Late sprouter, but grows fast
Beetlejuice
Early-Mid
Semi-Bush
Deep Cut
Copper Pink/Orange
Orange - Pale
Great
Late sprouter, but grows fast. Attracts Japanese beetles
Beiler White
Early-Mid
Semi-Bush
Normal
White
White
?
round roots under plant
Betty’s
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pink Red
Orange - Light
Above Average
Bradshaw
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pinkish Red
Orange
Above Average
Bugtussle
Early
Semi-Bush
Ivy
Pinkish Red
Orange - Medium
Very Good
Bush Porto Rico
Early-Mid
Bush
Normal
Yellow/Orange
Yellow/Orange
?
needs a long season, but may be harvested mid-season
Camote Morado
Mid
Semi-Bush
Normal
Purple
Purple
Good
Camote Rosita
Mid
Semi-Bush
Deep Cut Ivy Leaf
White Streaked
White
Good
Carolina Bunch
Early-Mid
Semi-Bush
Normal
Light Orange
Orange - Light
High
Selected from a seedling of Excel
Carolina Nugget
Early
Semi-Bush
Ivy
Pink
Orange - Cream
Above Average
Caromex
Early-Mid
Bush
Normal
Orange/Red
Orange
?
Contintental Red
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pink/Red
Orange - Light
Above Average
Coop O
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pink/Red
Orange - Light
Above Average
Copper Jewel
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pink/Red
Orange - Light
Very High
very uniform roots
Cordners Red
Early
Bush
Normal
Red/Orange
Orange
Above Average
poor keeper
Envy
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pale Orange
Orange - Pale
Above Average
Stays slightly Firm when baked
Georgia Red
Mid
Semi-Bush
Normal
Tan/Orange
Orange - Deep
Above Average
not red flesh as might be suggested by the name
Ginseng Orange
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Orange
Orange
Above Average
Large
Ginseng Red
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pink Red
Orange - Light
Excellent
Large, flavor improves if kept 6 weeks or more
GoldRush Red
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pale Orange
Orange - Pale
Above Average
Hatterias
Early
Semi-Bush
Normal
Deep Copper Red
Orange - Bright
Excellent
Never a good sprouter
Hong Hong
Early
Semi-Bush
Normal
Purple
White
?
flowers early, large roots located under plant, One of Sandhill’s favorite ones to grow as it can bulk up so fast you can get some real big ones.
Ivy Leaf Carver
Early
Semi-Bush
Ivy
Pinkish Red
Orange - Light
Above Average
Not the true Carver cultivar
Japanese
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
Pink-Red
Orange - Pale
Excellent
Consistently reliable producer
Jewel
Mid
Semi-Bush
Normal
Light Orange
Orange - Light
Above Average
Produces medium size roots regardless of the season length
Julian
Mid
Semi-Bush
Normal
Cream/Orange
Yellow/Orange
Average
Laceleaf
Early
Semi-Bush
Cut
greenish purple leaf
Pink
Orange - Pale
Excellent
Lilac
Mid
Semi-Bush
Normal
Deep Purple
Purple - Deep
?
Looks like an improved version of Molokai Purple (took skin and flesh colors from Molokai Purple entry)
This is wonderful! I really appreciate the work you put into this because I do have a hard time with Sandhill’s website…
I just keep getting reminded I need to make my order…
I’m a bit of a data/ranking nerd. Going through their data is frankly painful the way they have it set up. I really wish it was standardized.
Timing is straight forward - Early, Mid-Early, Mid, etc…
Vine Length is straight Forward - bush or semi bush, although there were 2 cultivars I added that listed a vine length of 4-6 feet which is their definition of semi-bush. I’m not sure why they had these 2 cultivars written like this when they standardized it for all the others.
Leaf type is straight forward - although Camote Rosita is “deep cut ivy leaf” which isn’t listed anywhere else. I have this cultivar along with a cut leaf ‘Japanese’ and I have no idea how to tell them apart. It would be nice if they had defined leaf shape like they do with vine length along with pictures.
Leaf color is only listed for a few and I have no idea what they mean by “dark red purple, deep green” for ‘Arkansas Gold’
The descriptions for skin color are a cluster F and widely subjective. I would have suggested they come up with a few defined categories and leave it at that. Flesh color uses fewer types but is still a mess. I tried my best to make it easier to sort based on flesh color by listing the primary color first despite the order Sandhill used.
Yield is mostly standard which is nice although there are more than a few that are missing this information. I would have preferred a quantitative measure here though. maybe average pounds per plant.
I would have appreciated if they added moisture content as a factor as well as average brix after curing.
Their pictures also leave a lot to be desired and you can’t make them bigger. some show the inside of the potato while others don’t. I really like the way Tatorman has pictures with a lengthwise slice, but all sweet potatoes should have a picture of the leaf too IMHO.
I want to start by saying that I don’t know them personally, so this isn’t about defending a friend. I’m just genuinely excited about and supportive of the work they’re doing. Some of the descriptions might be a bit vague and a few photos are missing, but considering this is primarily a two person operation, I think they’re doing an excellent job.
In addition to raising and shipping a wide variety of poultry, growing vegetables and harvesting the seeds for sale, and growing out all the varieties of sweet potatoes, Mr. Downs also works full time as a teacher off the farm. Their focus is not on profit. They clearly state that on their website. This is very different from an operation like Tatorman’s, which seems to be more commercially driven. Both approaches have value, but they come from different intentions. Sand Hill’s goals and mission (from their website):
Their goal is preservation, and it seems clear to me that they hope their customers will take an active role in the process. That includes saving seeds, making their own slips, hatching their own eggs, and doing their own research. If someone needs detailed photos and perfectly polished descriptions for every single item, this probably isn’t the right source for them.
That said, if you have the time and a strong interest in preservation, you might consider reaching out to them and offering to volunteer to help analyze and reformat the information on their website.
I’m not bashing them, only stating the fact that their data is inconsistent and it drives me a little bonkers. we all have things that rub us the wrong way and this rubs me the wrong way, much like how my comment seemed to rub you the wrong way.
I don’t think anything I said about their data is inaccurate. if it is, you are welcome to correct me.
my wife drives me a little bonkers sometimes and I love her to death.
I do my very best not to put anything in this world on a pedestal so that it is beyond reproach. doing great work for great reasons doesn’t mean something or someone can’t work to make improvements.
if they make improvements to their website and are able to reach more people with their great work, isn’t that a good thing? I would certainly like to see more people utilizing this excellent source.
I’ll gladly send them what I have and notate the gaps in the data I found.
I wouldn’t describe your comment as rubbing me the wrong way. I just wanted to point out the facts about what type of organization they are running and their limitations.
I am pretty sure that I acknowledged the fact that information is lacking sometimes on their website, so, nope wasn’t trying to correct you there.
If they had time to make improvements, maybe they would. Or maybe they wouldn’t. Maybe they expect others to do their own research and make take their own notes.
They have stated limitations on their website and mentioned that if a person is expecting more than they can offer they may want to choose a different source for plant/seed/poultry. I was just reiterating that in case others reading this thread didn’t understand the nature of their business.
