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California Gardening

Starting fall potatoes in NorCal

15 years ago

I was reading in my Northern Ca. Gardening book that I can plant potato sets May-June for a fall crop. Would this also apply to sweet potatoes? If not, when is the best time to plant sp's?

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Comments (8)

kristincarol
15 years ago
Don't sweet potatoes need a really warm climate? Unless you live inland you probably wouldn't have much luck.

I have two beds of regular potatoes in already--one went in 3/21 which was a bit too early and they got frozen back two or three times, but are doing just fine now and put another one in 4/22 which is just beginning to sprout. I would expect these potatoes to be finished long before fall.
momma_s
Original Author
15 years ago
We live in East Bay/Central Valley/Tri-Valley area (still trying to figure out this area's jargon), so it'll get pretty warm here... Think it'd be ok to do the sp's now? It'll take me ~2months to get the slips ready to plant in the ground...
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Boy, the start of this thread is an ancient post, resurrected from ten years ago! To answer the latest question: Well, yes--the overwintering tubers are not what I harvested but were essentially my seed potatoes providing the energy for the new growth. I harvested the resulting new potatoes as usual in late summer. I will post a couple of photos later this morning on Flickr to show what last spring's bed of overwintering volunteers looked like, first when they were by themselves and a bit later after I had planted corn in that bed. Planting corn there was my intention all along--but I had not anticipated the potatoes. I thought I had been really diligent the previous fall in getting every last potato out of there! So much for good intentions...and I had not the heart to pull as weeds those perfectly healthy young potato plants, so there they stayed. To my amazement, I got some very decent corn (at least from the stalks that were not overwhelmed by the potato foliage) and the potatoes did better than my planned bed of spuds I had planted on St. Patrick's Day! Check back for my links to the Flicker photos. CK
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Reason I got the idea is that after I dumped a bag in late August there were some potatoes with sprouts, and I had stopped watering them in August. I stuck them lazily in the ground and they had started making new potatoes when I pulled them up later before a few weeks before freezes. Now if I did that intentionally and gave them better care, there would be at least a 2 and a half month growing period and I could leave them until freezes in late October. I would use the same soil, so basically all could be done with very little effort. I could put some "seed" potatoes in the fridge unbagged in the bottom crisper and see if they are usable or just wither away.
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sautesmom Sacramento
15 years ago
A seller at our local Farmer's Market sells 4 kinds of sweet potatoes, so they definitely can be grown here. But I also know there are severe import restrictions, and most online sellers can't ship sweet potatoes to California. Where do you plan on getting your slips from?
They also need rich, fluffy soil (NOT California adobe clay!) so I would plant them in the ground in a hole filled with straight planting mix if I were you.

Carla in Sac
momma_s
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi, Carla. Well, I'm gonna try making slips from a beauregard sp I bought at the store... Others have mentioned success doing this, so I figured, "Why not?".

Have you found any sellers who CAN ship to CA? I'd like to find a couple reputable places for when I'm ready to stock up on seeds/plants again.

Also, I'm using homemade "Mel's mix" from square foot gardening (1/3ea of compost, vermiculite, peat moss--though mine is closer to 1/2 compost). I just finished my raised bed, and have extra mix. It's pretty fluffy stuff. No kidding on the clay! I went from VA red clay to CA dry, hard clay! hehe

The previous tenants left a really big, deep clay pot, so I'm planning on using that and trellising the sp vines since I read the sp's can take over a LOT of dirt space.
momma_s
Original Author
15 years ago
Also, Carla, when does your market typically have the sp's for sale?
sautesmom Sacramento
15 years ago
Actually I just found out that Sandhill can now ship to California.

Carla in Sac

Here is a link that might be useful: Sandhill nursery
mustardseed
15 years ago
I live in Livermore (which is in the previously mentioned Trivalley, zone 14 anyway) and did sweet potatoes last summer. Ordered some slips from a place in the southeastern states, though I do remember a number of shops wouldn't send them to CA, they did. Also started a few from a Costco boxed sweet potato. All of them grew about the same, though the ordered taters did taste a little sweeter. Anyway, I got some food but not enough that I'm doing them again this year. Also: I amended the hell out of some soil and only mildly in other soil and grew some others in huge pots. Not much of a difference. Anyway, I put the slips in the ground about the end of May which seemed about right.

The one bit of wisdom that I found true: they like lots of space and water and the vines will grow like crazy (though I might have gotten maybe only 100 taters from a dozen healthy plants). (The only plants that I got no useable food from had a drip go out for a couple of weeks. Plant fine, but taters cracked to hell.)

Mail me if I can give any advice, though I'm mostly a newbie with plants in general. I wish I spent more time on these groups, they seem good.
momma_s
Original Author
15 years ago
mustardseed~Thanks for sharing your knowledge! I love hearing about people's experiments with growing things differently.

100 sp's from 12 plants is a lot, IMO... I'm breaking my family down to eating sp's, but for now, I'm the only one who eats them in any way/shape/form (must be the southern blood in me).

I bought two potatoes. One has been in water in a sunny window for a week, and I noticed it's first root this morning. I've decided to put the second potato directly into the dirt to see what happens, and compare how long it takes each to grow. I have a pretty large pot, and although I'd love to trellis, I may just let them roam on the dry clay and see what happens...

Gonna go fill my pot now, actually! weee

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