Very appetite appealing. I think what you have shown are a bit young, as one can judge from the skin coming off. It is ok for immediate eating but perhaps not perfect for keeping/

I just dug up one plant that I stuck in a pot last spring because I didn't have room for it anywhere else. It's my first year growing them, and I just couldn't wait and wanted to see if it worked! I have a nice pile of small but nicely formed tubers from this small pot, so I am excited like a kid on Christmas morning to harvest the main crop later this month and serve my own sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving. Does anyone have tips for curing them on a small scale? I've been reading about giving them heat and humidity to form sugars. If I put them in my detached garage that gets very warm in the daytime (the sun beats in the windows and onto the roof) under a sheet with a pan of water nearby will it work even if the temps go down into the 50s at night? Thanks!

.. I planted several batches throughout the month of September.... ......................... Hard to say if the harvest will be significant .. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ As I mentioned in my first comments, potatoes need AVERAGE 100 days(from sprout to harvest) I would say anywhere from 85 days to 110 days , depending on the variety, So say if you planted in mid September, It would be 60 days at mid November: NOT ENOUGH. I think SD area weather is good for two crops : spring and fall. For the fall you could plant them early August. For Spring , plant them in February.

Hi kentstar. I received a 'Hot Papaya' through mail order, over a month ago & potted it up (4"), upon arrival. I don't know about your specific cultivars, but I have an idea the one I bought was from tissue culture. Not only that, but I'm also fairly certain, a hybrid. Since it is a hybrid,(& possibly some of yours are too) producing any viable seeds, may actually be more of a problem, in particular if you wanted to sow some seed. I'm not cutting off the leaves on mine, since they are still green & not only that, but I doubt this offers any real 'protection' from winter, anyway. Actually, come to think of it, I might recall from this past spring, quite a few posts from people complaining about a terrible lack of hardiness, on some of the newer Echinacea cultivars. Some of of the very same ones, which you happen to name. I would imagine they used mulch, probably being in a slightly colder zone than I, expecting protection, but to no avail. I have my doubts, that it was loss due to 'inexperience' with gardening, but rather the cultivars being not so hardy. Now that I think about it... I'd sure hate to find out mine isn't very winter hardy either & would regret having to get a replacement (another small one at that & starting all over again) in a matter of only just a few months. So I may just end up putting it in the garage in a larger pot for some period of time, during the winter. Especially if it there is a sudden cold spell predicted. I'm not going to trust its survival (were it planted in the ground & mulched, or not) to a sudden severe cold snap, even if a catalog does state most Echinacea are winter hardy to zone five temperatures. Not after what I've read here this past spring, with people wondering when their new Echinacea cultivars were ever going to appear again...