The 2017 Harvest - part 1

We had the first frost of the winter a couple of days ago which was an excellent reminder that I really ought to dig the sweet potatoes up now! I've usually dug them up by about the third week of October in the past but a busy few weeks have meant I just haven't had the time, plus luckily until last Sunday we've had really warm weather for autumn so the plants have been quite happy in their little polytunnels.

This coming weekend is also showing a couple of very cold nights with temperatures hovering just above freezing so this week is the week they are getting harvested.

I've been weeding the sweet potatoes recently anyway so had a inkling there might be a few tubers just under the surface. In fact, they really are clustered below the main head of the plant and are peeping through and pushing the ground up at that point.

The first row I dug up were Orleans. This was a new to me variety last year and it was quite productive with a yield of 3kg from five plants. This year I decided to limit the number of plants I had of each variety to three but even so, the yield this year is 2.1kg from those three plants and the biggest tuber weighs 450g.

Orleans

I'm quite happy with that harvest.

I dug up two further rows this afternoon but both were disappointing. I knew the first one, Evangeline, wasn't going to amount to much as the plants never really got going with very little vine growth. A measly 220g from three small plants.

Evangeline

And what's more, look at those two bigger tubers; something has been eating at them! I guess they must be sweeter?

The next row, Beauregard, was little better; 600g from two plants.

Beauregard

At least there are some potential tubers here that I can use to grow next year's slips. I have a feeling that I'll struggle to use any of those Evangeline tubers for next year.

So, it would appear that my experiments so far are running true to form; that the white tubers are the highest yielding for me rather than the darker fleshed ones. I have yet to harvest the Bonita and Murasaki but they both had so much vine growth again, I'm sure there are plenty of decent sized tubers down there. I have struggled with Evangeline each year so it may be time to say goodbye to this variety.

And lastly, a couple of little anomalies; firstly a couple of the vines have rooted themselves.

Not quite sure what that means. Will them form separate plants? Would tubers form underneath them amongst the roots? Can I cut the vines and treat them as new plants?

And finally....why are some of my tubers so twisted and contorted? Just the ground conditions? I can grow straight carrots, so why not sweet potatoes?!

I'm hoping to dig up the last three rows before the next frosts are due at the weekend so will do a final update then.

Joanna

The 2017 growing season

Just a quick update on how the sweet potatoes are fairing this year.

I tried growing slips as usual from tubers I grew last year. All produced a good number of slips with the exception of Burgundy. The tuber I'd saved just stubbornly refused to grow any shoots. It made a half-hearted attempt to put out some roots but even these were pretty feeble. As I've done previously, I wondered if I'd got the wrong end of the tuber in the water. So I turned it upside down and tried again, with no joy. So I'm afraid it's farewell to growing Burgundy sweet potatoes. They just don't like it here.

This year I put my mini polytunnels out on the allotment before I was ready to plant out each set of slips. Thought it might help to warm the soil for them. They were planted out during May.

The photo below was taken at the end of August.

From the bottom of the image up, the first row is Evangeline. These slips weren't particularly big when I planted them out and there isn't a huge amount of vine growth yet. Likewise with the next row up, which is Beauregard. Next comes Belle Vue followed by the very healthy rows of Bonita and Murasaki. Just about in view at the top of the image is Orleans.

So it looks again that the white tubered plants of Bonita and Murasaki are going to produced the best crop. I'll find out in a couple of months!

Already I'm thinking I might try and source a couple of new varieties to replace the poor performers. I don't know why, especially as they taste pretty much the same, but I still prefer the 'usual' coloured tubers....

The 2015 Harvest

I had planted out my first Beauregard slips in the first week of May 2015, having assumed the risk of frost had passed. They were planted in open ground on my allotment. 

I was wrong. 

We had a patchy air frost the first week of June which obviously set the plants back a bit. I did think I was going to lose the plants for a time, but thankfully they survived.

At the end of June I planted out my remaining Beauregard slips together with the Evangeline plant from my friend, Jenny. The Murasaki, Bonita and Burgundy slips were planted out in the first week of July that year. They were all quite late going in the ground as Jenny had received them very late. All were planted in open ground on my allotment. 

It was a difficult growing year in 2015, with that late frost setting things back plus it was never particularly warm apart from one short period. So I had a feeling the sweet potato harvest wasn't going to be the best. As late summer turned to early autumn, it was clear the plants were still behind schedule so I covered them with plastic to make a polytunnel of sorts to give them a bit of warmth for longer

I dug the plants up towards the end of October 2015. The harvest wasn't the best, but it wasn't a complete disaster as I had tubers of each variety that could be used to grow slips for the following year. 

So here goes....the 2015 harvest!

Beauregard. The first plants yielded a few decent sized tubers but only about a kilo in total. 

The ones I planted a bit later were all skinny

The remaining plants from Jenny had little chance of success really as they arrived so late from Suttons Seeds.

Evangeline

Bonita

Murasaki 

And finally Burgundy which was a failure 

So what did I learn this year?

For starters sweet potatoes need their long growing season and they need warmth if the summer isn't a scorcher like 2014. So I think going forwards l'll cover them early on. Covering them will also protect them from a rogue late frost!

Joanna

More Varieties!

In 2015 I swapped some of my homegrown Beauregard tubers with my friend, Jenny on twitter. She had ordered a few different varieties from another seed company, Suttons Seeds. She very kindly sent me one each of Evangeline, Murasaki, Bonita and Burgundy in exchange.

Each variety is slightly different.

Beauregard - this is a more traditional variety with regular red skin and orange flesh.

Evangeline - this has red skin and deep orange flesh

Murasaki - a purple skin with white flesh

Bonita - light tan skin with white flesh

Burgundy - deep red skin and deep orange flesh

Joanna

How to Grow Your Own Slips

Having discovered you could grow your own sweet potato slips, I watched some 'how to' videos on YouTube and at the end of January 2015 I placed a couple of my homegrown tubers into two jars of water. These were Beauregard tubers I harvested from the plants I had grown in 2014.  

A couple of weeks later the first few signs of growth sprouting 

And gradually more and more growth, mainly shots but also a few roots 

When the growth is ideally about 6" long you simply break off the slip 

Placing the slip in water again encourages root growth 

The slips then need to be potted up before being planted out after the risk of frost has passed

I probably grew about 18 slips from those two tubers but what was noticeable was the slips were gradually smaller and less strong, so maybe a note to myself in the future to take a maximum of four or five slips per tuber. 

It must be noted however, that it is not usually possible to grow slips from sweet potatoes you have bought in the supermarket (not even organic ones) as they have usually been treated with a chemical called budnip, which as the name suggests prevents the tubers from sprouting; something that is essential in growing slips!

Joanna

2014 - My First Year

Whilst they are called potatoes, sweet potatoes are from a different plant family than your regular spud; they are part of the ipomoea family. They have a vine like quality with foliage that spreads over the ground while the roots form tubers below the surface. And as they are from a different family, you don't grow them from a seed potato but rather from slips. Slips are new plants that are grown from a tuber

My first foray into growing sweet potatoes was by buying some slips from Marshalls Seeds in 2014. Most seeds companies only have one or two varieties and I purchased the most common variety, Beauregard.

I bought 5 slips for £10, so at £2 each they were fairly pricey.

I have to say though the resulting harvest was delicious! The tubers were mellow, smooth and sweet to the taste. I may only have harvested about 3kg from those five plants, but I was hooked!

And then my mind was blown by finding out you could grow your own slips!

And so my adventures began.....

Joanna