North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Pat Scott <quandong@iinet.net.au>]

I suggest you don't coddle and feed it excessive nitrogen - or it  
will be all glossy leaves and no sweet potatoes.

Cheers,
Pat
On 02/08/2005, at 4:11 AM, Charles Paradise wrote:

> Decided to coddle one of the sweet potato vines, put a circular  
> hardware cloth around it, fertilized it with foliar and watered  
> with Mir-Acid soluble fertilizer and dug in granular fertilizer.   
> After this special attention, and rain, the plant after only 5 days  
> has doubled in size while others in its row has dwindled while they  
> have continued to be eaten by the rabbit.
>
> I'll  coddle this one vine through this August and September New  
> England season - if it can produce then next year I will grow sweet  
> potato again in a manner like pole beans are raised in New England,  
> which is with as described above [hardware cloth + pole].  I'll let  
> you know Oct. 1 how its doing.  I'm encouraged by its revival and  
> lusterous appearance but if I'd coddled it earlier it would be much  
> further along now.  Thanks for your thoughts on sweet potoatoes on  
> the north and proposal to grow them on a pole.
> Charlie Paradise  'too experimental' in z5 Massachusetts