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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] holding sweet potato slips

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  • From: "Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>
  • To: <rob AT songberry.ca>, "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] holding sweet potato slips
  • Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 18:15:01 -0400

I find that if I use drip tape right by the plants, I get a wonderfully easy to harvest "hand" of sweet potatoes. Basically, the stem is the wrist and there are 4 to 8 good size sweet poatoes pointing down like fingers.  If they are running off sideways, they are probably looking for water.  Last year I put them under plastic and thought with the very ample rain we had that there was plenty of moisture so didn't turn the drip on them.  I had long thin potatoes running horizontally along the edge of the plastic.
 
Beth Spaugh
Rehoboth Homestead, Peru, NY
Farm Fresh Food Club CSA - http://rhomestead.com 
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Garden fresh vegetables, organically grown, and pastured chicken, duck, and geese
 
"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." - Wendell Berry
 
"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe
 


From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Rob Wallbridge
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 9:17 AM
To: 'Market Farming'
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] holding sweet potato slips

Hi again,

 

I do plant them out in the field after risk of frost has passed (usually late May). I plant them into black plastic to provide additional heat, and I’ve harvested some respectably large roots after our first mid-September frost. I’ve had the best luck with the Georgia Jet variety from Mapple Farm in New Brunswick.

Having said all that, I’ve never grown them on a “commercial” scale (always less than 100 slips) – they’ve been primarily for personal use, although we’ve had positive response to the amount we have brought to market. The biggest challenge I’ve encountered is harvest – they don’t grow in a clump like regular potatoes, the “tubers” are actually true enlargements of the actual roots, so they can occur at any point along the roots. Usually, that happens fairly close to the plant, but I’ve found big tubers out at the edge of the bed, a couple of feet from the plant stem. Which means a lot of digging! Maybe if they were grown on hills or ridges the “set” would be more concentrated – I’m not sure – the large-scale growers must have some system figured out.  

 

Cheers,

Rob

 

Rob Wallbridge

Songberry Organic Farm

24 Sixth Line, Bristol, QC J0X 1G0

email: rob AT songberry.ca

web: www.songberry.ca

facebook: become a fan of "Songberry Organic Farm"

 


From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of KAKerby AT aol.com
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 1:20 AM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] holding sweet potato slips

 

Just to be clear, are you keeping them in the greenhouse all growing season long, or do you eventually plant them out?  If it's the latter, I'm impressed!!  I figured even if I started them indoors here, I'd never have enough season length to harvest anything. I also wasn't sure whether that was really a good use of greenhouse space, since I have other crops that would seem to give me better return on that space.  I'd love to hear more about your experiences, both with how to grow them and whether you've got a good market for them.  Maybe I'll reconsider those assumptions........
Kathryn Kerby

frogchorusfarm.com

Snohomish, WA

 

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