thinking of growing sweet potatoes, could use some input

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i happen to be watching an episode of Chopped and saw they were using an Okinawan sweet potato and that got me looking for some to grow! i happen to come across Sandhill Preservation and saw their HUGE list of varieties and was wondering if anyone else has bought any of their sweet potatoes and had luck in northern areas getting them to grow? i've heard Beauregard is supposed to do well up here in the Nawth, but now i'm seeing they have a lot of types that are earlier than that one.

my big question is what varieties did you buy and how did they do for you? how did they taste too?

here's their list for 2014 for anyone interested.
http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/catalog/sweet_potatoes.html

 

[Ridgerunner]

WOW! That's a ridiculous number of varieties. I’m not going to talk about varieties specifically. You are in a totally different climate for sweet potatoes, which are a warm weather crop. My experience would mean nothing to you. I just suggest a short-season variety.


Read their individual descriptions because there will be variations, but in general the red or orange fleshed ones are waxier and moister. They can be used any way. The white fleshed ones tend to be less waxy or drier, which means they might dry out if you just poke a few holes in them and bake them, but they make lighter fluffier casseroles. In my opinion, any of them are good but you might have to adjust how you cook them a little.


Someone recently had a link to growing potatoes up north. That involved making a greenhouse over them. You may benefit from something like putting down black plastic to warm the soil from solar heating but hopefully you won’t need to do anything more drastic than that.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

before i went to their variety page i came across another page that gave some hints and tips on growing them in cooler regions and they suggested doing the A frame which i've been thinking of doing some small ones for other veggies.

i'm thinking the early varieties will be the best to try for my area. i'll probably get one of their early packs to try.

 

[catjac1975]

I buy mine from Steele. Northern sweets are a little fussy. Last year I had a fair year the year before a fantastic year. In NH you will be a little more iffy than I am. They seem to like quite a bit of water. Make sure you get the ones recommended for Northern gardens. They tell you to warm the soil for 2 weeks before planting the slips with a black plastic mulch. I later mulch with grass clippings to keep the weeds down. As they crawl like crazy the are difficult to weed. Once they fill in it becomes easier if they are mulched.I have yet to find a way to keep them through the winter. There are great instructions in some of the old threads that you can find but they have not worked well for me. It is probably more a lack of time for me to fuss with them. There are also good threads to grow your own slips. I think they are inexpensive enough to not bother growing my own.

 

[so lucky]

While we are talking about growing sweet potatoes, what is the difference between them and yams? Does anyone grow yams? I heard that they are a lot healthier for you than sweet potatoes.

Chickie, warming the soil with black plastic for a couple of weeks sounds like a really good idea, as well as the tent protection.

Regarding mulching, couldn't a person put down newspapers and straw around the newly set out plants, then pull it away and compost it when you are ready to dig the potatoes?

 

[thistlebloom]

While we are talking about growing sweet potatoes, what is the difference between them and yams? Does anyone grow yams? I heard that they are a lot healthier for you than sweet potatoes.

Chickie, warming the soil with black plastic for a couple of weeks sounds like a really good idea, as well as the tent protection.

Regarding mulching, couldn't a person put down newspapers and straw around the newly set out plants, then pull it away and compost it when you are ready to dig the potatoes?

So Lucky, the way I understand it is that yams are not grown in the U.S., and they are actually a huge starchy root (?).
Maybe I should look it up first...

Chickie, the year I was most successful with sweet potatoes I grew them in a low tunnel. Mulching with black plastic would have definitely helped warm things up for them.
This year I'm going to be experimenting a bit with growing melons and squash in a manure hot bed, to achieve a warm soil before my soil would naturally heat up on it's own.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yams and sweet potatoes are two totally different plants. Let me go look it up so I'm "official".


Although yams and sweet potatoes are both angiosperms (flowering plants), they are not related botanically. Yams are a monocot (a plant having one embryonic seed leaf) and from the Dioscoreaceae or Yam family. Sweet Potatoes, often called ‘yams’, are a dicot (a plant having two embryonic seed leaves) and are from the Convolvulacea or morning glory family.


Yams
Yams are closely related to lilies and grasses. Native to Africa and Asia, yams vary in size from that of a small potato to a record 130 pounds (as of 1999). There are over 600 varieties of yams and 95% of these crops are grown in Africa. Compared to sweet potatoes, yams are starchier and drier.

Sweet Potatoes
The many varieties of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are members of the morning glory family, Convolvulacea. The skin color can range from white to yellow, red, purple or brown. The flesh also ranges in color from white to yellow, orange, or orange-red. Sweet potato varieties are classified as either ‘firm’ or ‘soft’. When cooked, those in the ‘firm’ category remain firm, while ‘soft’ varieties become soft and moist. It is the ‘soft’ varieties that are often labeled as yams in the United States.

 

[Ridgerunner]

So Lucky I did that last year, used newspaper and straw around the plants and in the space between my two rows. But I left it when I dug the sweet potatoes. I'll just dig it in the garden this spring. It was pretty well dug in when I dug the potatoes and composted in place in the garden.

 

[baymule]

WOW! Sweet potato BONANZA!! I had no idea.......I planted slips the last two years from store bought sweets that I sprouted. This year I got fancy and ordered slips. I am amazed at the variety of sweet potatoes listed. Thanks for posting this site. Now I want one or ten of everything!!

 

[greengenes]

I go to the grocery store. I chop off the top, put it in water on my window sill, and eat the rest.
I guess that isn't the way I am supposed to do it.

I plant the slips in the summer, they like sand around here. I worked so hard to give them lovely loamy earth, and they do better in sand.
I also keep them in pots with hardware cloth lining the drain holes because nothing is more disappointing than to see this lovely large sweet potato just to find it has been hollowed out from underneath, and family of mice has moved into your sweet potato.