Planted in late April |
May - in between the Purple Hull Peas (left) and the Kentucky Wonder green beans |
June - the Purple Hulls make the sweet potato vines look small |
July - the vines are starting to fill up the area I gave them |
August - still growing strong |
September - the peas are dying out and the sweet potato vines are still spreading |
When I planted these, I read about their vining characteristics. Some people tend to keep the vines cut back so the energy will go into developing the tubers under the original plant. I read that if you let them vine out, you never know where you might find potatoes. They are also apt to be smaller. As the vines spread, they root along the way forming potatoes here and yon. It's true, they do. So next year, I will keep them trimmed back. It's a lot of digging for a smaller harvest.
October - harvest time |
that happened. It is already rather late in the season to be harvesting, but sometimes that is how things happen. We don't always get everything done we would like. Sweet potatoes like to be cured in about 80 degree weather.
Ours will have to make due with about 60 to 70 degrees. So I pulled up a bunch of the vines to clear off a couple of the original hills I planted. As I pulled them up, I could see the roots from the vines breaking off. That's the area where the small potatoes were found.
I took this pile of vines to the chickens to see if they would like a snack. At first it scared them and they all ran back in the chicken house.
It took a few minutes of standing on top of the steps to decide this vine, which could look like a snake, I guess, wasn't going to hurt them.
Then the rooster led them down the steps and called everyone to come eat. They all started eating until one of them dragged a vine a little ways, then they all scattered again for a minute.
It's nice to know they will eat the vines. Next summer when I trim back the vines, I will feed them to the chickens.
So, back to work. Here is the first hill I dug and the first potato I found. I'm sure we won't find all of them. But according to what I have read, they also won't survive the
winter, but will rot. So I'm not really worried about them coming up all over the place. If some do come up I will dig them up and transplant them to the new patch.
This first hill produced this much. The smaller potatoes were found in the areas between hills. They are small and really not worth the
effort of so much more digging.
The second hill looked like it had a mouse hole in it, but I didn't see any signs of damage to the potatoes.
I started digging about a foot from the hill and found potatoes in the first spade full of dirt, so I backed up another foot to dig through this hill. I didn't expect to find any good sized potatoes that far from the hill, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Harvest from the second hill
This is the area I cleared for the first two hills.
The third and fourth hills were relatively close together so I dug them both up at once. This was going to be all for one day.
I had a pretty good pile of vines to feed the chickens and goats, but by feeding time, we were getting some steady rain.
Harvest from the third and fourth hills. I put a popsicle stick by the largest potato to give a reference for size.
Some of the potatoes have cracks in them, so we will need to eat them first. Since the small ones will not keep long, we will try canning them in a few weeks. For now they will spend some time on the west porch away from the rain, but with a chance for some warm afternoon sun as they cure the best they can in our cool, fall weather. We will have to wait for the ground to dry out some after this rainy spell before we can harvest the rest.
Remember, just because everything doesn't come out perfect or according to plan, doesn't mean it isn't worth trying. These potatoes are just one more piece of our overall food storage. The only way we will ever build it up is to keep adding to it a little at a time.
Until next time - Fern
P.S. We've had a nasty flu around here. I had it first and I was nice enough to share it with Frank, so the next radio post will be delayed for a few days.
Love all the great pictures. Thanks for the tutorial!
ReplyDeleteThank you, and you are very welcome!
DeleteFern
Our harvest was terrible. Set out 50 slips and harvested less than 50# this year. 8 weeks of rain and not enough sun stunted them here in the western part of NC. From the same number of slips last year we got almost 200#.
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad about your potatoes. You never know when the weather, bugs or critters are going to affect your harvest. I hope you have better luck next year.
DeleteFern
I live in the city and have no space for the sweet potatoes I love - so I plant them in pots in with the flowers and eat the young leaves in summer salads. You can also saute them with garlic. You might want to try them next spring. Sweet and tasty. I do love the way you show/explain your projects.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of eating sweet potato leaves. That is interesting. And it's great you grow what you can wherever you are!
DeleteThanks for reading and please keep sharing.
Fern