This is a variety I was able to get from the USDA this spring. Cultivar name was listed as “Wennotz II”. Not much info about it other than it was was collected from Peru. (PI 538298)
It’s turned out to be the most compact sweet potato I’ve grown so far. It has a healthy amount of leaves cascading out from the center of the plant. The leaf shape is cordate with 1 to 3 points. This might be an excellent variety for summer greens.
This is a shot of it in-row which shows how well it’s staying in place compared to the vining varieties around it. I guess you would call that a mounded habit.
Voles in my sweet potato garden. This happened 2 years ago, and we got nothing. Kids cried. It was “the great sweet potato tragedy of 2024.” Everything was looking amazing before I left for vacation, greens overflowing densely everywhere and climbing. We were killing voles in a different garden. They made the move while I was on vacation. Greens look horrible now. I don’t know if there’s much left/how fast they eat. 2 years ago we didn’t figure it out until a month in and nothing left but one 2’ long with many bites.
I rebuilt this garden this spring and entirely forgot to line everything with mesh. Though, I strongly suspect they also come in from the top given the top holes, so I think I need to empty it next spring, line and then cover the top as well and let the greens grow through the hardware mesh.
I’m concerned with the cool weather and no rain that we are getting at my 3 sites. We are not watering, nor do we have irrigation. I only have about 6 weeks, IF we don’t get an early frost.
Inside the house, covered but not sealed. I usually pull them when it starts to cool off though, less likely to sprout. If you completely seal them though they will collect mold, so its a little bit of a balancing act. Shed, garage, porch etc. its still too hot and humid to store them anywhere not climate controlled. They will either sprout constantly or rot/become moldy pretty fast.
Voles got 99% of my garden. We cleared it out over the weekend expecting the worst. They pretty much ate it all in 2 weeks. Left us only a few scrawny things and a few eaten pieces. Deconstructing and reconstructing this garden is on the March to do list (again). Putting it on serious lockdown top and bottom!
On the off years they haven’t eaten it, I cure them inside in a box with the top mostly open. Temp is 70-74. I’ve read they need humidity to cure, but I don’t have that indoors and they always turn out fine.
only a few flowers but i kept the vines growing up up out of the pots, and had to check. there are decent sized tubers in two pots! i only checked 2 of the 6
This is my first year but I planted 4 15-gallon bags at my house and gave my father-in-law 2 15-gallon grow bags. He stopped watering in mid-July and his plants died, so I harvested his potatoes in mid-August. I cured them in my parent’s enclosed back porch which had a window AC blowing into it and one of the windows opened a crack. I just brushed off most of the dirt and left them in the middle of there, and came back about 3 weeks later. I gave him one bag of Carogold and another of Lilac Beauty. Both were great but I liked Lilac Beauty much better. Creamy, didn’t have the classic sweet potato taste that I’m not fond of, and added purple color to the plate. His were of course tiny because they died mid-summer. I’m still looking forward to harvesting mine. My bags are still looking very healthy.
one is getting ragged, two other are still green and lush. going to harvest today on the one, then i plan to cure them with a heat mat under a box i think. in the greenhouse
Yeah… I’ve been growing from seed for several years and have seed production fairly consistent at this point. When I was getting started I collected seeds from Yanna Fishman’s garden with 100+ sweet potato varieties (they are outcrossers), and also received several years back seeds from Michael Jennings in California.
Wonderful! Always good to get more genetic diversity.
I was hoping I would see some flowers and be able to collect some seeds off of my sweet potatoes this year. Thus far I have only seen two developing flowers and haven’t seen any blooming.
This happened 2 years ago, and we got nothing. Kids cried. It was “the great sweet potato tragedy of 2024.” Everything was looking amazing before I left for vacation, greens overflowing densely everywhere and climbing. We were killing voles in a different garden. They made the move while I was on vacation. Greens look horrible now. I don’t know if there’s much left/how fast they eat. 2 years ago we didn’t figure it out until a month in and nothing left but one 2’ long with many bites.
