I may have a problem

[Ridgerunner]

I can store sweet potatoes much better than the whites. The storage requirements are different. Sweets do best in warmer storage, somewhere around 60 degrees if memory serves me right, plus they like low humidity when stored. White potatoes like it cooler and more humid. I dont have any place like that but I can keep sweets in my garage until well into spring.

I tried washing them off but that dark stuff just wont come off. Looking at it, its more brown than black. I dont remember seeing that before, at least not to this degree. I dont know if that will affect storage or not. If it does, Ill can some and cook some more up and freeze them in serving sizes. Its pretty handy to be able to open a jar or thaw some for a quick meal, plus they store a lot longer that way.

 

[sumi]

RR, thanks for the tips and encouragement. I actually don't know what type these are, but I will see about getting a pic for you. It's a nice sweet variety with a good flavour. We are doing a small patch, just to see how it goes (grows?). And I'm hoping the moles will leave them alone! We have so many moles here. I'm actually wondering if I shouldn't try some in a 5 gallon bucket instead. Would that work?

I must remember not to overwater them. I am guilty of overwatering things. Where we used to live, inland in the southwestern part of the country, it got extremely hot and dry in Summer, so I got into the habit of watering at least twice a day. Here I've been told we'll be getting a lot of Summer rain, so I may get away with not having to water much, if at all. The soil holds water very well, I noticed. As an added bonus we also discovered the second biggest compost heap I've ever seen right next to our property, a short wheelbarrow ride away, where the neighbouring estate dumps and forgets their garden waste. They are only to happy with us carting it away for them.

Angola is one of the countries here I haven't visited yet. And when it's mentioned it's usually war related, so you won't hear much about it. I used to live up in the northwestern parts and hopped over the border now and then, into Botswana, Bophuthatswana (say that 3 times fast ) and once Zimbabwe.

 

[so lucky]

Sumi, you might want to ask around to see if anyone else in your area grows sweet potatoes. If no one does, there may be a reason that we aren't aware of yet. Have you ever seen slips for sale?

 

[sumi]

I'm not sure what vegetables people grow in this area specifically, but I found we can grow most vegetables in most parts of the country. Certain fruit and veg is better suited to certain parts though, for example where our own farm is, apricots grow very well, here it's pineapples, further north it's corn. I've never seen slips for sale here, but we can buy seed potatoes, if we choose, though they are quite expensive. Most small scale growers like us use sweet potatoes from the supermarket. We leave them on the counter and if they sprout before we eat them we start getting ideas and they end up in the garden.

 

[so lucky]

That's how lots of people here do it, too. But in late spring, some of the garden stores sell little plants (slips) that can be planted. My own starts were kind of late getting started this year, so I doubt if they will make potatoes by frost. Now that my DH has come around to liking sweet potatoes, I really want to get proficient at growing them.
Before I start envying your wonderful weather too much, how is the humidity? It gets so sticky hot here, and everywhere south of here, I'm sure, that it is really miserable getting out in the garden during hot weather. And the older I get, the wimpier I become regarding the temperature!

 

[sumi]

Our winter was surprisingly mild, I think we had a light overnight frost twice, maybe 3 times. Summer I've been told is a bit warmer and very humid :/ I can take humidity, but I'm a bit weary of the heat, after running around in temperatures of 120+ every summer for 7 years, trying to keep the veggies alive. I remember I used to have to run the hose water off somewhere safe for a few minutes first, before I could put it on the plants and I often burned myself testing the water to see if it's cool yet. Crazy! I'll take cold weather over that anytime.

We should hopefully get lots more rain over Summer though, so watering shouldn't be such a mission.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I finally got all the sweet potatoes dug today. These Beauregards are in the drying rack, waiting to go to storage.

These Beauregards were dug today. I cleaned them and am waiting to go on the drying/curing rack tomorrow. That big one on top is 13 long and 6 across at the wide part.

This is a little over half the Murasaki. The rest are already in storage.

And then the three together for perspective.

I grew the Murasaki on a whim. Beauregards are my every year standard, mainly because they are the ones my wife likes best. They are also the ones you are most likely to see in a grocery store. The Murasaki were developed by LSU. They are a purple skinned- white fleshed sweet potato. They are drier and less waxy than the Beauregard. They make a killer sweet potato casserole but if you just bake them, they are extremely dry. Not really that good baked. You have to add a lot of butter or some kind of moisture to them.

I did not like the way the Murasaki grew either. The Beauregards were mostly right under where I planted the slip. If youve grown sweet potatoes before, you probably know they can send a large root out away from the slip area and grow a sweet potato there. The Murasaki did that a lot. A lot of the potatoes were a couple of feet away and some were as much as 4. That makes digging hard. You have to carefully trace that root out and I still wound up cutting a lot of them.

Each variety were in their own row about 20 long with the slips about 10 apart in those rows. The two rows were 3-1/2 feet apart and I had about 5-1/2 to 6 clear on the outside of each row. I mulched the hills and in between the rows but not on the outside.

This is the sixth year Ive grown sweet potatoes here since we moved. Ive had production like the Beauregards only once before and those were Georgia Jets. Usually the Beauregards look more like the Murasaki did this year.

 

[baymule]

That is a beautiful harvest! I see lots of yummies in your near future.