thinking of growing sweet potatoes, could use some input

[Ridgerunner]

I have no knowledge about that, but I don't see how increasing nutrient intake will reduce yield. But then I don't see how having too many roots when you set it out can be injurious unless they are wrapped around each other so it is rootbound and they choke each other off. There is a whole lot I don't understand about what I read on the internet.

 

[buckabucka]

I don't understand the too-many-roots theory, either. The claim I read about the vines setting down other roots said it took away energy from tuber production (although I imagine It would help vine production, which as you said, should help nourish the plant).

I suppose there are other crops that have similar counterintuitive treatment. I chop the entire top off my brussel sprout plants on September 1st, because it forces the plant to put energy into growing the sprouts, not the leaves.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Topping a plant so it puts its production where you want it to is a standard practice. Growing up, Burley tobacco was our cash crop. When the flowers started forming you cut them off so the nutrition goes into the leaves. Then when the plant starts sending out suckers to try to form flowers, thus seeds, you take those out. Nothing quite so memorable as going through a tobacco patch higher than your head in the heat of an August afternoon with no breeze and that sticky tobacco tar sticking to you all over. Certainly brings back memories. Did I mention it was a hot August afternoon with the sun shining down. We were also looking for tobacco hornworms when we did that.

Maybe in Maine you need to do something like that to get the sweet potatoes top produce, but down here, it is certainly not required.

 

[buckabucka]

Yes, up here I need all the help I can get.

I've never seen a tobacco plant. It sounds like it is just as well!

 

[bobbi-j]

Our growing season is iffy. Depends on the summer - some are hot, some are not. Sometimes we have frost in early Sept. and sometimes it holds off until Oct. This year we skipped spring. Well, not really. We had a nice day in April. Otherwise it was wet and cold. And now it's in the 90's all week...

 

[JimWWhite]

Teresa was cleaning out the garage the other day and she came upon a milk crate of sweet potatoes we'd put out there last fall to keep them in a cool dry place. We'd forgotten about them because we were eating on another crate all winter and spring that we had in the pantry. The ones in the garage were over by the small window and they were growing slips like crazy. Did you know they grow slip primarily from the upper end of the tuber, on the opposite end from the tap root? Anyway, I lopped off about an inch of so of each tuber and put them cut-side down in a shallow pan and let them sit for a couple of days. In my sweet potato box I cleaned it out and drug a v-shaped hoe down the middle of the 4'x8'x12" box and then repeated it about a foot away on either side. Each of the trenches were about 6 inches deep. I just dropped the chunks with the slips one at a time in the trenches about a foot apart and then watered them in and gently covered them up. Some of the slips were peeking out from the soil and some were buried. Right now it looks like every single one of the has popped up after about a week and they've already put on their first leaves. Within a couple of weeks the box will be covered in sweet potato leaves. Incidentally, these were Beauregard sweet potatoes. I think they're the best variety because they are a really deep orange and are very sweet.

And to top it off the sweet potatoes in the crate were still edible. We baked two of the biggest ones that night and had them drizzled with butter and honey. The others I took into work and my co-workers, also known as cubicle rats came out from everywhere looking for free food. I also gave the left over slips I'd put in zip lock baggies with a moist paper towel to those who have gardens of their own. I told them we were going to have a sweet potato pie bake-off and I was going to be the sole judge and that anyone who took sweet potatoes would need to bring in a pie this coming week for judging. Mama White didn't raise no fool who'd miss a great opportunity for a sweet potato pie, you know...

 

[baymule]

What a wonderful way to get fresh slips! I had some little skinny roots left in the leaf pile from last year and they were sprouting up through the new potatoes. I dug the potatoes, then broke off sweet potato slips and sprigged them. But the sweet potato pie cook off is sheer genius.