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  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Sweet potato transplant problem
  • Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:34:53 -0400 (EDT)

Wow, thanks for all that.  Looking back, I made my first attempt at sweet potatoes during a cool, wet year, and I wonder now if that's what the problem was.  We have a relatively long growing season for being so far north, but our spring/summer stays cool until after the first of July in general.  That particular year was even cooler than usual.  I planted them on time but they never really 'went'.  Given the below, I'll have to try again.  Not this year from the sounds of it, but maybe next year.  The perennial song of the hopeful grower......
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html
 
In a message dated 6/11/2012 10:08:18 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, organic87 AT frontiernet.net writes:
1) Use short season varieties.

2) Grow them in black plastic mulch; lay the mulch a few days ahead of time to let it warm the soil.

3) Get the slips in the ground by June 10. 

4)  Single row in the plastic, one foot spacing in row, row centers about ten feet apart. Drip tape irrigation when dry; though once well started they are somewhat drought resistant. Plant all the root and any bare stem under the ground; if some of the leaves wind up underground, that's OK too, as long as at least some of the plant is out of the soil.

5) Hope for a fair amount of sun and a reasonably warm summer. If the year is cool and wet, production is likely to be poor. 

6) Start checking for harvestable size in early September; but leave most of the crop in the ground till the soil starts to cool down too much unless they're as large as you want them already.

7) Finish harvesting before soil temperatures drop below 50ยบ F. If frost occurs before then, harvest as soon after frost as possible (the leaves will be killed by even light frost.) 

8) Cure and store like winter squash -- don't store them like regular potatoes!

 -- Georgia Jet has done best for me; Beauregard and Japanese Yam have also produced something. Mapple Farms, the best source of organically grown sweet potato slips suitable for the north, is unfortunately no longer shipping sweet potatoes to the USA. I can usually grow my own slips for two or three years, but generally need to buy new ones eventually.

-- If the soil gets and stays really sodden for too long, the roots may rot in the ground; the leaves may proceed to start growing new roots after the soil dries out some (sweet potatoes are amazing survivors), but unless this happens very early in the season they won't have time to size up.

-- I like to harden the slips off to full sun before planting. When they arrive, stick them in some water (old freezer containers work well, but beware, the smell will never quite come out of the plastic if they've been in there very long.) Don't worry if the slips arrive looking half dead, or if the leaves look awful for several days after planting. I have planted slips with no roots and had them grow. I have planted rooted slips and had the leaves burn off and the plant come back.

Speaking of irrigation: I have to get back to it now --


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 6A now I think
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale




On Jun 11, 2012, at 12:20 PM, KAKerby AT aol.com wrote:

Rivka, I'd be curious to know how you grow sweet potatoes in your 6a zone.  I have tried sweet potatoes here once or twice, and we're supposedly hovering between 7/8 in terms of USDA climate zoning. But we never seem to have a long enough season for sweet potatoes.  How do you do it there, with an even shorter season than we have?  I'd just about given up on them in general but now I'm intrigued that perhaps I was just doing something wrong.  Fix those mistakes and we could grow them here.  Perhaps?
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html

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