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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Sweet Potato harvest
  • Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:01:14 -0500

When I do it, I plant 4-6 seed potatoes in a tire, depending on the size
of the tire. You could probably put more in there, but that's what I
do. Add a bit of soil, and hay/mulch/straw/compost. When the potato
shoot emerges from the soil and grows up about 6 inches, add another
tire, and fill it with hay/mulch etc. like before, leaving 2-4 inches of
the potato vine to grow uncovered. As the vines grow, add tires and
mulch. I make them 5 or 6 tires tall, but depending on your height, you
may want to use fewer. You can easily get maybe 25-30 pounds of spuds
out of 4-5 tires. I had a 6 tire stack once of red pontiacs that
yielded 50 pounds....lots of taters! You can add a shovel or so of soil
to the hay-inoculate it with bacteria from the soil to get it decomposing.

As to the sweet potatoes, I was always a William Faulkner fan, and my
favorite Faulkner book was/is As I Lay Dying..of course, my favorite
character was "My Mother is a Fish", Vardaman. So that's why I chose
that variety...lol
I grew a sweet potato in my mulch bed this year that was larger than a
football. I thought it might be mushy or pithy, but it wasn't-it was
excellent! We made French fries. I just stuck a slip in the hay mulch
last April and then 'forgot' it..I had looked around, but did not see
the sweet potatoes
I went to pull up the vine out of the bed so that I could top off that
bed with additional hay, when it felt like I had hooked a huge fish.
Digging down, there was the monster sweet potato along with a smaller
one that I still have. It's the size of a quart mason jar or a Texas
sized baking potato. I don't have to tell you that things are always
bigger out there..lol

Bev

eureka AT hctc.net wrote:
So you think the potato problem was more about soil texture than the
alkalinity of the water? Using the tire stacking method, how many
plants per tire, and what kind of harvest can I expect?

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:29:04 -0500 EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
wrote:
I tried Vardaman the first year I grew them. Mine weren't very
sweet either. Nowadays, I just save and grow slips from year to
year. I have no idea of what variety-just something I bought from
from the store about 4 years ago.

Sage, grow potatoes in tires with hay or straw and compost. If you
do that, you don't have to worry about the soil.

eureka AT hctc.net wrote:
We harvested our first sweet potatoes the other day, and ate a
few. They were good in texture but very bland, as in lacking any
sweet potato flavor. The variety was Vardaman, which was
recommended. I understand they like alkaline soil so they should
be happy here. I'm wondering if it was something we did wrong or
the variety. Any comments or recommendations? I'm thinking next
year we will try a different kind.

I may not have mentioned our regular potato harvest was a huge
dissappointment. Two rows yeilded about five spuds the size of my
thumb! Even with lots of compost I don't think we were able to
overcome the high alkaline pH from the water. My husband says he
can't live without potatoes, but I really don't want to waste any
more time or room in the garden trying again. Has anyone overcome
alkalinity and successfully grown potatoes? The only people I
know in Texas with success are in the east Texas pine forest with
acidic soils and they are growing new, or red, potatoes.

--Sage Way Out in Texas _______________________________________________ Homestead list
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http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.9.0/1774 -
Release Date: 11/7/2008 7:58 PM


--
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to
hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda




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