Sweet potatoes

[Tracydr]

So funny to be thinking of winter gardens all ready. I'm thinking of ordering my dwarf seed.

[Tracydr]

Just got my sweet potato slips yesterday. Going out this morning to finish tilling and will plant the slips.
Should I provide some shade for a few days? Anything special, such as bone meal or manure that I should be tilling in? I have a bunch of aged horse manure, poultry manure. Some old alfalfa hay.
I'm going to mulch with newspaper/straw to retain moisture and prevent the Bermuda from overwhelming the sweets, as this raised bed has become infested with Bermuda grass.

[macmex]

Tracy,
I wouldn't add much to the soil, except maybe some very well rotted compost. Sounds like "the other George" has used manure, which I have not tried. You can't go wrong with mulch, especially in you climate. It will gradually improve the soil while maintaining moisture. I would, however, recommend that you dig out all the Bermuda that you can.

George

[kath]

Any kind of shade you can provide newly transplanted sweet potato slips will be greatly appreciated. Of all the plants I've ever transplanted, they're the wimpiest. It's important to give them a drink anytime the soil gets dry quickly, too. Once they take hold they grow like crazy without any fussing but in the beginning they can look pretty bad.

Your mulch should be something that will prevent the vines from rooting along their length as they grow. If allowed to root you'll wind up with loads of tiny tubers that won't size up. Once they reach a length of 3-4', I try to remember to lift the vines up every week to make sure nothing got a good hold in the mulch.

[RebelRidin]

I agree with "the other George" (by the way, Hi George!). No need to go overboard on the manure either. Any reasonably fertile, well draining soil will do.

I've never provided shade but that would be great. As kath says those little slips will sure appreciate it, especially in your area. She is right that they often look all but dead for awhile after planting out. You need to make sure they are well watered for the first week. They need a little extra help to get their roots up to par. If you can do that they should do well by you.

Good luck Tracy.

[Tracydr]

Thanks, guys!
I just got in from trying to till the garden. I'm so tired and overheated. I've been pulling those darn bermuda roots, ugh! They got a little crazy around the edges last summer. This bed didn't get lined with cardboard like my others and now it's too late. Not even half done but had to take a cool-down break.
I didn't know that about not letting them put down roots along the vines, good to know!
I think the newspaper/straw should work well for moisture and preventing the vines from taking root. I know that I hardly ever water my tomatoes this year, other than the flood irrigation every two weeks.
Unfortunately, this bed doesn't get flood irrigation, so I'll have to water it. It's my hottest, sunniest bed, not much will grow in it except for long beans or okra. Armenian cucumbers.
I have 30 slips. Planting in a 16x8 area. Should I make a raised mound for the slips? I'm thinking two rows of 15 each should work about right?
I can cover the bed with sheets for a week or two, the poles are there from last summer's shade. It's going to be 100 degrees or hotter all week.

[kath]

I make 12" high mounds and cover with dark landscape fabric but I thought that was to help trap extra heat so that we can grow them up North- they love the heat and you obviously have no shortage of that! I'm not sure if the mounds also help to keep the soil looser so that roots can develop or not. Two rows of 15 would work. I've planted slips closer than 12" apart and still got huge tubers with Beauregard- they push each other out of the way! Not sure what variety you're growing but unless you got a bush type the vines can be VERY long- just so you're not surprised.

[Tracydr]

I'm growing:
Sumor
Nemagold
Grand Asia ( a substitute)
Purple Delight
Papota
Liberty

Really looking forward to trying the dry, bland types to make baked chips with. I'm hoping to convert my husband, a non-sweet potato lover, to the wonderful vegetable.
The planting instructions say to use 2 pounds of fertilizer, 8-8-8 per 25 feet. How would that convert to manure?
What about minerals? Any need to add iron, zinc or other trace minerals?
The sweet ones, I'll probably eat for easy lunches, myself. I just love baked sweet potato with cinnamon.
I also have a wonderful cinnamon roll recipe and pie recipes.
Anyway, would it be a good idea to make a trellis for the vines?
Finally, I'm needing a ground cover in my " tropical" garden, around the pool. Can I take little cuttings off the vines to put in my garden? How do you root them? I'm assumining I just put them in some damp potting soil or perlite?

[RebelRidin]

I was taught to hill them and always have. If you are in a raised bed you probably don't need to form a ridge or hills so long as the soil is decent and worked to a depth of 10 to 12 inches. If not you probably should hill up a bit. I think the shade will do wonders for starting your slips.

Had you seen this site Tracy? http://azediblegarden.com/?tag=sweet-potatoes It has a couple posts about growing sweet potatoes in AZ. As for rooting cuttings... I think that would work well. When you pull slips from sweet potatoes they often break off with no root whatsoever. You just drop them into water and they will root like crazy.

I know SFG folks grow on trellises. They have to. I found this fellow in KY who grew on a trellis. He said he got 96 lbs from 8 slips and he posted pictures to prove it! http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/...otato-question Pictures start abot 7 posts down...


You know.... I think I am almost as excited to see how you make out as you are to be growing them!

[kath]

I've never added fertilizer for sweet potatoes but put compost/manure in the soil each year and there are grass clippings/shredded leaves/straw/hay, etc. that get worked as the year goes by. Unless the manure is well composted, I'm not sure adding it now would be a good idea.

I trellised them one year- let me just say that it's very labor intensive. The vines have lots of crazy side shoots from the base and and all along and they do not want to climb, so there's lots of upkeep.

[Tracydr]

I'll add some of my very composted horse manure. I'm also going to add a bit of peat moss to lighten up the soil. This bed is made of some soil I had delivered and is much heavier clay than I like.
Thanks, Goerge and Kath! I'll keep you updated. Hopefully, our hot summers will be a positive thing for them.

[kath]

Wishing you luck- they are really a fun crop to grow and fairly pest/disease resistant here anyway- we store ours and they are edible through most of April and will do fine in any place that is 55-65 degrees wrapped in a piece of newspaper.

[RebelRidin]

Tracy, your enthusiasm has gotten me off the fence. I am going to put in a small plot. We have a strawberry bed that's been going down hill. It needs relocating/renovating so I am going to plant some sweets in there for the summer. Its not a very big bed so I am going with a couple dozen of the Puerto Rico bush. They were my fathers favorite so it is nostalgic as well.
Hopefully my slips will be in by the end of next week.

Crossing my fingers for both of us....

[Tracydr]

I'm going to put my slips in a bucket of potting soil, as I'm not going to have the garden ready until tomorrow night, earliest.
Too many other things going on this weekend. They were starting to look a little bad in the water vase.
Goerge-let me know what kind you ordered. This is going to be fun!

[Tracydr]

Uh oh! Apparently, my horse manure wasn't as composted as I thought and the hot weather (106 yesterday), plus water, reactivated it. Luckily, I only planted 5 slips. I'm pretty sure I killed them as the soil was burning up this am.
I've put the rest of the slips in moist potting soil in a bucket.
Any hints to speed up this composting process so that I can get my slips planted? I'm going to soak the garden when I get home tonight and try to keep it wet this week. This is the first time I've ever had my manure heat up like this, but I've never added it when it was so hot out, either.
How long do you think the slips can hang out in the bucket? Should I spread them out in a bigger bucket or two, rather than having them all clumped up?