I realize you are looking for an outlet for bulk sweet potatoes. An interesting side-note, however, is that looking up the PLU sticker # of supermarket sweet potatoes gives you its specific variety, e.g. #94816 = Beauregard.
I’ve tried growing sweet potatoes in a very marginal zone. Temps here rarely exceed 80 afor few days each summer. This is my report from last fall:
Sep '23
This is my second year trying to coax growth from sweet potatoes in the maritime PNW. With a lot of tweaking, I’m finally starting to get some productivity.
The first challenge was whether to order slips or grow my own. My experience with ordering slips (Sandhill Preservation, Johnny’s Selected Seeds) has been that the slips arrive late and suffer from transit. This year I decided to start my own from supermarket varieties. There are at least 3 unnamed varieties carried by my local supermarket. By researching the PLU database, I found the following: Beauregard #94816, Japanese #94817, and Garnet #94074.
I placed the potatoes lengthwise in a covered bin of damp peatmoss/perlite on top of a heating pad. Within 3 weeks the potatoes had started to sprout. I continued growing them under lights until the sprouts were 5-6" tall. Then I cut off the sprouts and placed them in water.
After 1 week the sprouts had grown roots and I transplanted them to pots to wait for my soil to warm up to 65F. I grew 3 plants of 4 varieties under cover in two 4x4x2 black plastic totes with black weed cloth on top. I watered them about once every 2 weeks. Next year I will need to increase the watering.
The results probably looks pretty pitiful to those who have long hot summers! …i.e. a lot of long skinny tubers! Perhaps with more consistent water I can get some beefier ones. Of the 4 varieties planted, Beauregard produced tubers with the most mass. Will be trying Beauregard
again next year.
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