The fruit was smaller on it than on the Brinkley White but a lot more of them. Total weight was 4lb 4oz. Think another week or so may give them a little more size. Also found two small mounds 2ft away from the main plant. I sunk my spade in about 20 inches away and got into the one you'll notice in the picture. Will dig the rest probably next weekend. Jay

I found a lot of grub worms when I dug my potatoes, there was a lot of tunnels that looked like gopher tunnels, but there were no mounds around the flower bed. There were 3 large crawdad mounds in the bed. The soil has been amended to a depth of about 3.5 inches and mulched with shreded leaves, below that, very sorry and there in no way to drain it other than raised bed.

Larry

This is a picture of what I had missed. The first time I dug mostly close to the hills. I later came back and spade forked the whole area where the potatoes were planted. I had already given my DIL about 5# out of the pile before I took the picture. Now I will try to post a picture.{{gwi:1131142}}

Are there any good tasting sweet potatoes with the really dark foliage, or with the really yellowy green foliage? Or do all the good-eats potatoes have the medium green foliage?

With the talk of cooler weather coming I dug one 8633 plant tonight. Plan on digging the rest over the next two nights. Had one that was really two connected that went 3 lbs and 12 oz. The total weight off this plant was 7 lbs and 10 oz. Happy so far with the harvest. Jay

Jay,
Five pounds is a good harvest from one plant. It's just you got most of it in one root. I have found that different varieties perform better some years than others. Brinkley White and Red Wine Velvet, for instance, often trade off on their performance; and I'm not sure why.

I plant my slips, on top of hills, and only water a little. Sometimes, if it's in the 90s, I'll go back once or twice and water a little, at the base of each stem. But these plants are really tough. I've seem them survive when yanked out of the ground and thrown on top of the soil, in temps in the 100s (they rooted again)! Still, it's quite normal, in my experience, to lose a slip or two, when planting. I can never figure out why those few die.

I dug my 10' row of Red Wine Velvet on Sunday. Hopefully my others will do better. The harvest was okay. But roots were all smaller than usual. This was the top row, closest to the road and the fence, so I'm suspecting they got less water than the others.

Larry, looks like you got a great harvest!
Merrybookwyrm, I hope someone else can answer your question. I do know that Red Wine Velvet has maroon toned leaves. But I wouldn't call them dark.

George

Merrybookwyrm, If anyone here knows of an edible sweet potato that has distinctively purple foliage, it will be Gary. I am growing several varieties of sweet potatoes that have some maroonish-purplish color on the stems or even have a purplish tint to the green leaves. However, it is only a hint of purple on the green plants, not dark foliage like you see on the ornamental sweet potatoes like 'Blackie' or 'Illusion Midnight Lace'.

Jay, As George said, that's a good yield from a sweet potato plant. Some years you get bigger and better yields than others, and some varieties yield more heavily than others. Some of the varieties that give smaller yields have marvelous flavor though, so I just think of them as being higher-quality even if they produce lower quantities.

With sweet potatoes, I think the yield is all about the amount of rainfall they get and when they get it. You know they are like Goldilocks and need for rainfall/irrigation to be "just right" and not too much and not too little. And, of course, they love heat. A lack of heat is never a problem here in our part of the country, but in some zones it is hard for the sweet potatoes to get as much heat as they'd like for as long as they'd like.

Sometimes slips or even established plants die. In my garden, that tends to happen if May and June stay very, very wet, so my best guess in those conditions is that it is a fungal issue of some sort.

Dawn

Guys,

The reason this thread has grown too big
for it's britches is because the photos
Larry posted are too big for the screen.
Photos should be no bigger than 800 pixels
wide by 600 pixels high. When a photo is
posted bigger than that it will cause you
to have to slide the slide bar at the
bottom back and forth to read the text.

I'm not trying to be a 'meanie', just trying
to help, photos can be resized by clicking
edit at your photo hosting site, in this
case Photobucket. Below is a link to the
FAQ on posting photos from the Hot Pepper
Forum. Hope this helps,

Keith

Here is a link that might be useful: How to insert photos

Sorry, guys, I will edit my pictures. Do I need to do something to my camers also? I know next to nothing about computers or cameras. If I were to send a picture to someone via emal would the same thing happen?

Larry

this is a dual purpose post. First, is this the right size of picture? And Is this the type of potato Merrybookwyrm is talking about? I bought it as a "Blackie".---{{gwi:1131148}}------

Larry,

Yes that is the correct size however you need to type your text then hit enter to drop down to the next line, then embed your photo. Should look like this...

this is a dual purpose post. First, is this the right size of picture? And Is this the type of potato Merrybookwyrm is talking about? I bought it as a "Blackie".---

{{gwi:1131148}}

Keith

Thanks, Keith, If I something else that screws up the forum
please let me know.

Thanks again, Larry

All true sweet potatoes, even the ones we grow as ornamentals will make edible roots. However, most are not of great quality. I am trialing one called Vilca Romero that was originally collected in Peru. It has purple leaves and supposed to have white roots with purple streaks in the flesh. I haven't harvested any roots yet so don't know yet. Ironically the purple leaved varieties seem to all have white roots.. I have a variety called Evangeline which is a new patented variety from Louisiana that everyone commented on how beautiful the vines were. The new growth is purple. Some of the vines have beautiful ivy leaves, but are not colorful.

I dug my last 4 plants this evening. All Diane's. They produced 4 1/2 to 5 lbs per plant. Smaller fruit than the other 2 varieties. More uniform. And lots of small to mid sized fruit. Now will have to see which tastes the best. I got just over 36 lbs from 7 plants. So way more than we will eat. Will be giving some away I imagine. Will see if I can find any good suggestions for uses or preserving them. Jay

I need help again. I may have been lying to everyone. I have been telling people that I dug about 200# of sweet potaties from 15 slipe. I will try to post a picture of all but 12 to 15 pounds of the total that I have dug. Please give me you honest opinion of what you think they weigh. I am really uncomfortable about telling a lie.

The first picture is a 5.5 cu. ft. wagon above full. The second is a group on the ground which I quessed at 18 pounds. The group not shown is a group in 2 walmart bags that I guessed at 12 pounds. Please tell me how bad I have been lying to the neighbors.

{{gwi:1131151}}

{{gwi:1131152}}

There should be about 12 more lbs not shown. If there is only 150 pbs, that would be 10 ponuds of potatoes per slip. Maybe I have the big eye on everything.

Larry

Larry,
You had a great harvest. I will say like I tell everyone without weighing them you don't really know. And a guess is just an estimate. I can usually guess things fairly close in my garden. But like the first one I dug over 3 pounds although I knew it was big and heavy I under guessed it and checked it on 4 scales before I believed it. You got lots of taters for sure. Congratulations. Jay

Larry, we did weigh the potatoes in the photo I sent you. That large construction wheelbarrow held 194 lbs. That gave us an average of just over 7 lbs per hill. Our largest hill had over 9 lbs and our largest tater was 4&1/2 lbs. And this was from vines that were eaten heavily by deer in midsummer, so your estimate is possible, although as Jay says, the only way to be sure is to weigh.

If you like, feel free to post the pic I sent you for comparison.

Mulberryknob sent me a beautiful picture of their sweet potato harvest to date, but so far I have not figured out how to post if. I will try again. Well I tried many times, I am just not "computer smart" enough to do it. I do hope you can see the picture, its a gardeners dream.

Larry

That's fine Larry, I'm not 'computer smart' at all. I know how to email photos but haven't taken the time to sign up for Photobucket and learn to post from there. It's on my list of "things to do this winter." Right after "build a greenhouse." Oh and I was walking through the garden today and saw several tips of sweetpotatoes sticking up away from the hills DH dug. I dug almost 5 more lbs of nicely shaped small potatoes. With the few I dug a couple weeks ago, our harvest went over 200 lbs on that one row. And in the grocery store today I saw sweetpotatoes for $.99/lb. The sweet potato harvest alone paid for the extra water we put on the garden this year.

Went to pick up sweet potatoes from our Trial in Poteau. This is a three year trial and next year is when we really get into variety trials. But we had several this year that really look promising

We had some interesting results. Very good producing varieties were

Hernandez
Cordner's Red
Oklahoma Heirloom
Dianne
Sumor

these were planted on ground that I would consider poor sweet potato soil, so the yield was lower than It should have been, but acceptable.

one of the varieties that had poor harvest included Okinawa Purple which was very disappointing as this is really a popular variety..

Larry (a.k.a. slowpoke gardener), I'm on break, at work. But I think, when I get time, I can find you a free program for resizing photos. Don't feel badly about this. Everyone has to start somewhere, and you have been making great progress.

George

George

Thanks, Keith has helped a great deal. I think I know how to resize the Photobucket pictures, but there is tons of stuff I still need to know. Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

I feel so obsolete.

I enjoy this forum so much and do not want to offend anyone.

Thanks again, Larry

Dorothy or Larry,
If either of you want to send me the picture, I will post it for you.

Keith, I was getting ready to comment on the picture size issue, so I'm glad I didn't have to be the "meanie". LOL

Carol,

As George said,
Everyone has to start somewhere, and you have been making great progress.

These computer tags are confusing at first,
many of the forums have safeguards to prevent
this from happening, or allow you to edit your post
(after posting),to correct your mistake. Just like if
I hadn't used the proper tag to end the quote put in
italics, then the rest of this thread would be in
italics also.

I believe we're all here to learn, share and Have
Fun.

My favorite Great Uncle had a sayin', "Have fun
cause that's what counts!

Keith

Just FYI
Kim Will be harvesting sweet potatoes on Oklahoms Gardening this weekend

I am posting Dorothy's sweet potato harvest. The first picture is 194 pounds and the 2nd picture grew on another planet, I think. One looks like it is ready to strike. LOL

{{gwi:1131153}}

{{gwi:1131158}}

I need to take lessons. My harvest was in one pot and was about enough for one dinner. Dorothy these are great.

And I still have 4 plants that George gave me late in the garden. I'm holding off till the last minute on digging them.

for posting the photos for me. (GW made me change the subject. Go figure.)

Dorothy, It is hard to figure out why that happens but I think if you already have a message by that name and you are not the original poster, it will ask you to give it a new subject. It happens to me a lot because I highjack threads, then post and post. LOL

It could also have something to do with how soon you are posting the 2nd message, because it is trying to stop duplicate messages.

WOW! How many plants did you have, Dorothy? I think what I had is close to that, but ours had LOTS of spliting on the Goliath...and the gophers really feasted on the rest. I know we had over 30 plants. And yes, thanks - Carol for posting the pics.

Gary - thanks for posting that heads-up on Oklahoma Gardening! We recorded it and watched it last nite. Most of what she said about the sweet potatoes I already knew...but I'd NEVER thought about just cutting the okra stalks at ground level!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Now I'm not going to water the stalks just to pull them up!

Paula

Paula, we had 27 Beuregard plants. And this year we were lucky. No gopher or vole or mice ate on ours, only a few small holes that I think must have been made by grub worms or wire worms.

I think the reason that we had so many misshapen tubers was because these plants were bought in 9 packs and the little roots got twisted around in the little pockets. I don't remember having this problem when I bought pulled slips in 25-plant bundles. The roots were straight and the rooted stems longer. And I noticed that the taters Kim pulled up on OK Gardening yesterday were also misshapen. I will have something to compare when I dig the plants that George gave me, because he started them himself and gave me bare slips.

I do believe i have hit the sweet potato jackpot of info and answers from all of your informative sweetie posts! Thank u.....thank u.....and thank u!
I had sooo many questions in regards to sweet taters as i had never planted them before. After googling how to harvest i commenced yesterday to dig up 9 flats of them from only 2 plants of Cordner's Red (thank u Gary), an exciting find since critters devoured just about everything else in my veggie plot.

I do have one pressing question left....are the fingerlings good to eat or a waste of time curing?

excited that folks r becoming more aware of healthy, vitamin packed, fresh foods!

All roots of any size are good to eat. They may not store a long period of time, but can be used soon after harvest. People forget how wonderful they are eaten raw. just peel like a carrot and eat, or add to fresh salads.... wonderful sweet taste.

For those who might want to know, today I threw out the last "nubbins" of sweet potatoes, stored since a year ago. Most were unusable. But Oklahoma Red was still okay. I wish it weren't so long and skinny. But they certainly KEEP!

George

George. My Oklahoma Red didn't fare too well this season. The roots didn't size up at all. I am still listing it in the SSE yearbook, but not on my website. My red wine velvet did very well this year.
gary

I've grown Oklahoma Red for 2 1/2 seasons (I count the first as half, since they didn't get into the ground until July 18.). So far, I've only dug one hill, this year. But they do seem slow to size up. I figure I need to work with it another year yet. Still, this long keeping quality is noteworthy. I also got one Oklahoma Red which didn't come out so skinny. So, I will save that one to see if it produces more of the same.

George

That is a very important reminder to everyone that wants to save their own "Seed" sweetpotatoes for producing their own slips. ALWAYS save the best, most uniform roots from the top producing plants for seed. Sweet potatoes are funny in that they can change over time. breeders call this "Running Out" If you don't save the best of the best you can end up with an inferior strain down the road. I think my Redgold is like that. The farmer that I received my start from knows how to save seed stock, but he had a few years that he lost his crops to flooding, so saved what he could. I think my strain does not have the "true" red skin that it is supposed to have. I remember growing redgold in the early 80's and it seemed to have a redder skin than the strain I have now. Redgold is nowhere else to be found, so I may be stuck with what I have.

I am positive there are old timer farmers out there somewhere that has varieties that I am searching for, but finding them is next to impossible.

Please (everyone) go to your local farmer's market and if you see an old variety being offered, please let me know. I am really looking for earligold, Oklamex red and tanhoma, but other varieties are important too. Make it a mission to help me find at lease two or three "lost" varieties so we can get them back out into the public domain.
gary
duckcreekfarms(AT)aol.com

Is anybody involved with the Slow Food movement and their RAFT program(Renewing America's Food Traditions? I looked at there lists of foods which are culturally at risk for "Bison Nation" and was a little disappointed that none of the specific varieties listed were from OK. Maybe we could get a sweet potatoe variety or two on the list. That could help get more gardeners growing the heirlooms.

RAFT (copied from the Slow Food site)- Managed by Slow Food USA, RAFT is an alliance of food, farming, environmental and culinary advocates who work to identify, restore and celebrate America’s biologically and culturally diverse food traditions through conservation, education, promotion and regional networking

Follow the resources link at the site below to see the foods for "Bison Nation."

Here is a link that might be useful: renewing americas foot traditions

Gary,
Thanks for the info about eating them raw. I tried it and like them so I will carry them to snack on instead of carrots. Jay

"Sweet potatoes are funny in that they can change over time."

When I maintained my Mexican sweet potato collection, about every other year, the most common type (purple skin with white flesh) would throw some roots with yellow flesh & skin. These would propagate more of the same!

Geoge

This was my first year growing sweet potatoes. Do you HAVE to cure them? I read to store them in high humidity for 5-10 days then 55-60 degrees. Are they any good if you don't do the high humidity deal?

Rodkc,

Of course you don't "have to", but you should. Proper curing at warm temps and high humidities does at least three things I can think of for your sweet potato crop: (1) it allows any cuts or wounds in the potatoes to heal so the potatoes will last longer in storage (any damaged potatoes that don't heal well should be eaten first because they won't store well); (2) the high humidity allows them to maintain good mioisture levels without drying out too much while curing; and (3) proper curing assists in the conversions of starches to sugars which affects your sweet potatoes' flavor. That's why sweet potatoe taste better 2 or 3 weeks after you dig them than they do when first dug.

Well-cured sweet potatoes taste better and last longer in storage, but even if you don't cure them, they'll be edible and probably even taste just fine. It is just that curing is necessary to maximize flavor and long-keeping.

Hope this helps,

Dawn

That helps but how about some ideas on how or where to get that high heat/humidity. Do you use a certain room or area or do you make a special box or container of some sort?
Any ideas will help.

Rod, What I do depends on how early I harvest them and on what the temperatures are like during the curing period.

For outside curing, if I harvest while the temps are still high, I place them in flat cardboard boxes (the type cases of bottled water or Gatorade come in ) on tables on my covered patio. Because a lily pond is right there beside the patio, it usually is pretty humid there and is completely shaded from direct sun but has good wind flow.

If I need to create higher humidity, I just place 5-gallon buckets of water on the ground near the tables. If humidity is very low, like it might be during a severe drought year, I wet down burlap or some other form of cloth and place it over the potatoes for a few days. I remove the wet cloth at night when humidity naturally rises because I don't want them to stay too wet. If I had to havest them during a fairly wet, rainy period I avoid covering them with cloth because they are already somewhat wet when dug and the air is humid at that time any way. And, I don't wash them off but merely brush off the dirt gently every few days as they cure. Usually, by the time they're cured, there's not any soil left clinging to them.

If curing them inside, I place them in cardboard or plastic flats and line them up on a table or on a tiled floor and close off that room. I use a southwest-facing room that stays pretty warm naturally and add humidity, if needed, with a couple of buckets of water or even a dehumidifier.

I have even cured them in the tornado shelter where they'll be stored ultimately, but that's more iffy. When I do that, I open the door during the day to allow better air flow and close it at night to hold in the heat and keep out the snakes and other varmints common in rural areas.

I just try to cure them in the warmest, most humid area I can provide and sometimes that means curing them on the screened-in porch which also is mostly shady except very late in the day. I don't necessarily provide them with either heat or humidity as high as what is recommended, but apparently they cure well enough because they rarely go bad in storage and always taste very good.

Dawn

Dawn, Are yours still in the ground, or did I just miss the report?

Carol, I'm almost though digging them all. I've done the preliminary digging, but haven't done all the supplemental deeper and wider digging to find any I missed the first time. The ones I've already dug are curing indoors since our nights are already so cold here.

I should get all the digging finished in another day or so, and then I'll jot down notes and give a preliminary report on yields. Some produced a lot, some produced little to none, and some were in the mid-range. It has been interesting to dig them since I didn't have much info on any of the varieties and each time I dug, it was a surpise, like "oh, they're red" or "look how round that one is" or "look at these long, skinny roots".

Then, as time goes on and they cure and we start eating them I'll try to come back and report on the flavor and texture of each variety.

My digging started early last week, I think, and then stalled because we've been having an ongoing skunk problem and had to shoot a dangerous skunk near the garden. This resulted in an unbearably bad 'aroma' for a few days and made gardening (and even being outside) very unpleasant. Every day the 'aroma' is a little less intense and the garden is becoming a more pleasant place to work so I think it likely I can dig a lot tomorrow and maybe even finish the digging.

I'm racing to beat the freeze now with seed collection, digging up pepper plants to overwinter and putting them in pots, moving the pots into the garage, and doing whatever seed saving I find time to do. Friday morning I expect a killing freeze, so anything I'm going to save or overwinter or move needs to be dealt with asap.

Dawn

I placed mine in a couple of plastic nursery flats (with tons of slits in the bottom) and stuck them in a corner of our bathroom. Showers certainly provide plenty of humidity for the room.

My concern is where to store them long term.... it's too cold at night outside, the frig is too cold in general... the house temp is too warm... no root cellar or outbuilding.

The only thing I can come up with would be to stick a thermometer in the most protected area of the garage (near a water heater closet) and see how low the temps go. Maybe that will work... unless someone has other ideas for a city dweller???

Lynn

When I was in seminary, back in Indiana, long ago, we lived in a trailer park. We didn't have much storage. I rented a garden plot two miles down the road. Of course, we grew sweet potatoes. On top of that, my wife's grandparents always grew quite a few. At Thanksgiving the whole family would try to go to their home, in Southern Illinois. They would load everyone up with a crate of sweet potatoes. So, we had A LOT of them to fit in our little trailer. We stored them in crates under the bed and behind the sofa; and, it worked. I couldn't leave them out to cure either, as we had thieves in the rented gardens.

Incidentally, I'm still digging our crop from this year. I hope to finish today. Yesterday I dug my dedicated row of Oklahoma Red and was very pleasantly surprised. They sized up much better than in the two previous growing seasons. They were very acceptable in size. In fact, they out did Red Wine Velvet this year. I still had a couple of two foot long "skinnies" and some which were too skinny to really use. But most were plump enough that they wouldn't cause the uninitiated to wonder "Why are these so skinny?" They produced heavily too.

This illustrates something I've heard Dawn say about other kinds of vegetables. To give a fair trail of a variety takes a couple three growing seasons. I was beginning to think of this one as a "preservation project," in that I was disappointed with usable yields. But it has proven this year, that it can really produce, and that, some very nice roots.

Also, there is one more thing to consider. There are so many variables, that sometimes it is virtually impossible to do a fair comparison without growing several times, in different parts of the garden. For instance, I was running late on getting our sweet potatoes in the ground, this summer. Since I was running late, I put my beloved Red Wine Velvet in the first available row. Red Wine Velvet did acceptably, but not nearly as well as in some years, and not nearly as well as the two other varieties I have dug so far. The only factors I can see as possible reasons for this are 1) They went in the "top row" nearest the North edge of the garden, where the soil is harder. & 2) Because of their location it was harder to get a soaker hose on them.

One more observation on Oklahoma Red. I will have to pay closer attention with other varieties to see if this is true also for them. The longest, skinniest roots were those which mainly grew laterally. The nicer plump roots grew vertically (down). In many hills, this year, the majority of the roots practically went straight down from the base of the plant. These were the best roots. Some which grew more laterally, though, still sized up enough to eat. These were the really long roots. These are harder to dig without breaking.

Okay, just one more observation on this variety. I didn't find a single split root. This year, because of the drought and rains, I have found a number of roots (other varieties) which split. They were still usable. But they were blemished by splitting. Oklahoma Red showed great resistance to splitting. Now, the thing to do is to observe it a few more years to see if this is always the case.

George

George

I wish I had left my Oklahoma Red in the ground a few more weeks. I had many roots, but they didn't size up like I wanted. I listed them in the SSE yearbook, but don't have enough to list on my web site. I found a grower in Alabama that has some, and I am trying to get a bushel from him. mine were all growing down like you mention and had good shape. I didn't observe any splitting either.

Georgia Jet was my worst splitter this year, but they were very prolific with large roots. I could have probably harvested them a few weeks earlier.

My Red Wine Velvet were much better this year than last year. Last year I barely got enough roots of RWV to get my seed back, but this year I harvested around 3 five gallon buckets from 25 plants, so will have plenty to list in my website for this one which seems to be very popular. I wish I could find a source for the old Texas heirloom variety called Red Velvet to compare it to. I have had requests for that variety.