Sweet Potatoes in a bag - now with pic :D

[wifezilla]

Since we got a frost warning I went ahead and harvested. IT WORKED!!!
I had 3 plants in feed bags and 3 plants in a converted Little Tykes toy box. The plants and potatoes were the same size for both.

Ended up with a colander full of small sweet potatoes. A few were as big as a computer mouse. Some were just long and skinny like a pencil. All are turning out to be rather delicious. I threw the skinny ones in some stew last night.

Now before you people in warmer areas laugh at my little harvest, Colorado is NOT a prime sweet potato growing area so I am happy I got anything at all. Considering it only cost me 75 for the potato I grew the slips off of, I don't consider it a waste of time or money.

It was proof of concept that I can grow things in a semi-shaded area in bags along my driveway. Next year I will buy a short season potato more suited for the area.

Any recommendations for a short season variety?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Congratulations on a successful experiment.

Georgia Jets, Beauregard and O'Henry.

http://www.sweetpotatoplant.com/potatoes.html

I've grown all three and they all did well most years. Last year, none did well. It was too wet later in the growing season.

Where you are you may have to irrigate. With sweet potatoes dry is better than wet. I read somewhere, I think one of the extension websites but not sure, that if it is wet after they bloom and start to set potatoes, the potatoes are long and skinny. If it is dry, they get real thick. Last year and this year seem to go along with that, but last year when it stayed wet, I also had a lot rot in the ground. It was just too wet to dig them. I finally did anyway but it was too late for most of them.

Glad you had success. I like sweet potatoes.

 

[wifezilla]

Where you are you may have to irrigate.

There is no MAY have to water around here. We plan on it

This spring was pretty wet and even summer gave us more rain than usual. Fall was really really dry though. Being in the bags with drainage holes cut in the bottom, there was no rotting issue. The bags were on the pea gravel driveway so the drainage was excellent.

These sound interesting....
Korean Purple: (Heirloom Variety) Early. Vining, dark green colored normal leaves, purple skin, white flesh, excellent yields. Very sweet

Orange Oakleaf: (Heirloom Variety) Early. Pale copper colored roots, nice bright orange flesh, average vining, above average yields.

Shoregold: Early. Semi-bush, red skin, orange flesh, above average yields.

Violetta: (Heirloom Variety) Early. Vining, bright purple skin, white flesh, superbly sweet, above average yields.

Willowleaf: (Heirloom Variety) Early. Large, semi-bush, light orange skin, orange flesh, above average yield.
http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/catalog/sweet_potatoes.html

 

[digitS']

They weren't in a bag but my sweet potato harvest might have been about the same, Wife.

Each of the 5 plants had one tuber about the size of a computer mouse and then there were some skinny ones, too . . .

I didn't pick the variety -- it showed up, supposed to have been grown in California, and I decided it was "interesting," and tasty! It is a Japanese purple variety . . .

Dad wanted to try sweet potatoes up here about 20 years ago. I ordered some Georgia Jets for him. I thought they did fine -- I mean, by white potato standards, they were okay . . . He grew up in New Mexico and was not impressed. So, what do I know ?

This time, I thought starting them in pots in the greenhouse might be a good plan but . . ?

Steve

ETA: Leapin' Lizards, Sand Hill has lotz of sweet potato varieties! I'd better let someone else blaze the trail on these things!

 

[wifezilla]

Steve, I put mine outside at the beginning of April. I took some twigs and bent them in to a little hoop frame over the top of the toy box and the wood frame the feed bags were in, covered it in plastic and put some 1 liter bottles around the plants ala redneck wall-o-water. Our spring snow storms didn't both them a bit. I took the plastic off Mother's Day, our traditional safe planting day.

I guess I will be blazing the trail on some of the Sandhill sweet potatoes. The only thing I don't like is you can't pick individual varieties. You have to pick a package.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't mind Sandhill shipping a variety. I kind of like it. After all, I got different breeds of chickens and mixed them to make mutts partly so I will never know what will hatch out. What I did not like about Sandhill was the shipping policy. Mine have usually been in the ground a few weeks before Sandhill even thinks about shipping and they ship in the order that the orders are received, not when the customer needs to plant them. I understand that where they are they do not have them ready to ship earlier, but that crosses Sandhill off my list for sweet potato slips. Wifezilla, from what you posted on when you planted, that may be a consideration for you.

I got a Japanese and a Garnet sweet potato from our natural foods store and started my sprouts from them. When I dug them, I thought I had them mixed up. I expected the Garnet to be a lot brighter, but it was a fairly dull red. The Japanese was a really bright purple-red, at least when I polish them a little. I looked them up and they were right. Here's some Japanese, Garnet, and O'Henry's from this year. It's certainly not a problem growing sweet potatoes here. One of the Japanese slips was too long when I planted it so I cut off about half of it and just stuck the cutting in wet soil. No roots or anything. It grew and produced.

 

[wifezilla]

Good point about their shipping. Since I put stuff out so early they probably would not be a good source for me. I will just have to search for other suppliers. At least I know the different varieties now and what to look for.

The sweet potato I used for slips this time was an organic garnet I picked up at Vitamin Cottage. Some of the slips I let root and some I just pulled off the potato and stuck right in the dirt. Guess what? They grew the same sized vines and the same sized potatoes. Giving the roots an early start didn't help one bit so that is a step I can just skip next year.

Anyone have experience with this place??
http://abundantacres.net/sweetpot.htm

 

[RickF]

Not that this place offers Sweet Potato's or any other type of potato but seems similar as a seed company offering 'native' seeds -- in this case from various parts of the Mexican desert.. Just passing this along:

http://www.nativeseeds.org

I've never ordered anything from them but heard about them on the radio if I recall (NPR) a while back (several years back).

 

[wifezilla]