The 2018 Season

Oops...I appear to have forgotten to publish this post from last year....

This year has been such a difficult year with snow in March which set everything back and then the heatwave we had over the summer months. We've even had a relatively early frost in these parts in early October. Technically, the heat of the summer should have been ideal for growing sweet potatoes, and I think it would have been, had I been able to get my slips planted out early enough.

My main problem this year has been that because we went several months without much rain, I hadn't had the chance to fully dig over the bed where I was planting my slips this year with the result that most of them didn't get planted out until it was way too late to expect any kind of harvest.

In fact the first slips I planted out were a new variety I was trying this year, Carolina Ruby. I'd bought the slips from a company in Scotland  called Highland Horticulture rather than one of the big seed companies. Five lovely looking slips arrived at the end of April whereupon I put them in water to revive them a little before putting them in pots.

Interestingly, their care instructions said not to keep the slips in pots for too long as this can result in twisted tubers; something I suffer from so I think going forwards I'll try and plant my slips out earlier and hope to avoid keeping them potted up for too long.

I decided to plant three plants per polytunnel again and planted out the first three Carolina Ruby plants in early June. Bonita, Muraski and one Belle Vue were planted out shortly afterwards. Three Beauregard were planted out mid June but by then the ground was already getting hard to dig over. The last Caroline Ruby plants and a Belle Vue were planted out mid July  and two Orleans a week later. The last week of July really was way too late to plant them out but I crossed my fingers and hoped.

All the plants were covered by the mini polytunnels again which has kept them nice and warm. However, the plastic was getting to the end of its life and was becoming brittle. A strong wind in early autumn devastated the tunnels so the plants have been covered by fleece for the last couple of months of their growing season.

Being busy with work meant I wasn't able to dig up the tubers until the first week of November. I hoped against hope that maybe that little bit of extra time might make a difference. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. Who knows?!

So how was this year's harvest? Pretty disappointing as I guessed it would be but on the plus side I've got a decent tuber from each variety that I'm setting aside to grow slips from for next year. I think I'll start them after Christmas.

The best performing plants were unsurprisingly the Carolina Ruby ones that were planted out first. Even then I only got about a kilo of tubers from those three plants.

Next best was Bonita (500g), followed by Belle Vue (380g), Orleans (355g), Murasaki (330g) and Beauregard a measley 195g.

Quite surprised by the Orleans harvest. Although I've got a slight feeling I've mixed the rows up from my notes of what was planted where as the Beauregard have quite dark skins and I'm surprised I got any harvest from the Orleans slips as not only were they planted out late, but they were also very small slips.

Plan for next year? I'm going to cover them with fleece going forwards. Trying to pick up little bits of plastic polytunnel that disintegrate as you touch them hasn't been much fun. Also, I'm wondering about putting black plastic/weed suppressant down and planting through that to see if that makes a difference.

As ever, watch this space.

Thanks for reading.

Joanna

Conclusion aka What I Learnt this Year

So, another year of growing sweet potatoes under my belt. And what have I learnt this year?

I think the main conclusions to draw this year is the confirmation that some varieties are more suited to my soil and weather conditions. The darker fleshed varieties probably like somewhere a bit warmer as both Burgundy last year and now Evangeline have struggled to produce a decent harvest.

My top three last year were:

Orleans (3kg)

Murasaki (2.5kg)

Bonita (2.25kg)

This was from five plants of each variety don't forget.

This year my top three were:

Bonita (2.5kg)

Orleans (2.1kg)

Belle Vue (1.3kg)

The actual harvests were less but I then only had three plants of each variety. Looking at the overall yield (calculating the total weight of the tubers harvested divided by the area of ground the crop took up on the plot) was less too; 2.23kg/sqm vs 1.6kg/sqm. But again this may purely have been because I had less plants in effectively the same area i.e. three plants per tunnel instead of five so a better comparison may be made next year if I only have three plants per variety again, which I think I will as even 7kg of sweet potatoes is enough for me!

So I think I can safely assume I should get about 2kg of tubers per row going forwards. Is it worth the effort and amount of space they take up on the plot? Possibly not, but I do enjoy growing them. They provide a talking point and now that I have a full plot, it's not like I'm struggling for space anymore!

Last year I had problems with a soil borne fungus called scurf that affected the skin of some of the tubers. The flesh of the potatoes underneath was ok, they just didn't look very nice as the skin was all dry and black. I chose healthy looking tubers to grow my slips for this year and luckily all the tubers I've harvested are ok.

This year's problems have been something eating at a couple of the varieties while still in the ground, probably slugs and possibly because I left them in the ground too long.

 

Indeed, I found most of the skin of one huge Murasaki tuber that had been eaten away!

And the other thing to note is some of the vines rooted themselves.

When I dug them up it looked like these new plants had been trying to produce tubers.

I think in trying to do so, this took away a lot of strength from the main plant so its tubers were smaller. These were from Murasaki which didn't produce as good a harvest as I was expecting. A possible solution, if it happens again, might be to cut these rooted plants off from the main plant and see if these new plants produce any decent tubers.

I'm going to see if I can source another variety to try for 2018, there's a couple more I have seen from seed companies here; Carolina Ruby and the delightfully named T65 are a couple.

In fact the 2018 growing season is already underway as one of the tubers decided to produce a slip whilst still in the ground!

So I have broken this off and put it in a water to encourage it to grow a few roots before potting it on.

And the cycle continues......

Joanna

The 2017 Harvest - part 2

With rain forecast for the first part of the weekend followed by about five cold looking days and nights, I decided to dig up the remainder of my sweet potatoes whilst the sun was shining this afternoon.

Mixed results again with the last three varieties. The big surprise was Murasaki which was one of the better performers last year. Only a kilo of tubers, several had been eaten and a couple, for reasons only known to them, had started sprouting!

Murasaki

So that slip has been broken off and put into water to start next year's plants...

Next up was Belle Vue. I like this variety as I like the colour of the skin; it's quite a bright orange. It's a steady performer this one; not outstanding but plenty of good sized tubers and a decent yield of 1.3kg.

Belle Vue

And last but not least, consistently the best performer, Bonita. I wish I could love it but with it's pale tan skin and white flesh, to me, it's just not a sweet potato!

Bonita

A couple of these tubers had been eaten too so my next job is to google (aka ask an expert on Twitter) what's likely to have been doing that and why. I suspect it's slugs and probably because I've left them in the ground later than usual.

So a total harvest of 7.7kg which is quite a bit down on last year's of about 12kg but factoring in 40% less plants, I think that's a similar yield.

Next up in a day or so, what I've learnt from this year!

Joanna

2016 - And a New Plan

I had a new plan for growing my sweet potatoes this year; if I started growing the slips earlier then surely the plants would be bigger and stronger when it came to planting them out! If they were bigger and stronger then they would fend off frost attack better and just generally be ahead of where they were in 2015?

So instead of waiting until early 2016 before starting off my slip growing, I started them off towards the end of 2015, in November/December. I followed the same method as before, selecting a decent sized tuber and putting into a jar of water to encourage it to start growing roots and slips.

I had managed to save tubers from all of the varieties I grew in 2015 with the exception of Burgundy. The tubers I harvested from that variety were just too small to produce any growth.

The remaining tubers produced slips as expected and I potted on the first ones towards the end of December 2015.

I started planting out the plants towards the end of May this year. All the plants were bigger and more healthy looking than the previous years.

My other part of this year's plan was to cover the plants in plastic for the whole time they were planted out. Sweet potatoes need a long warm growing season. I can give them a long season but the warmth is something that can't be guaranteed in the UK so I bought a bunch of mini polytunnels from Marshalls Seeds, figuring that should keep them nice and warm all year and would also extend the growing season each end.

This year I've also been lucky enough to trial a few more varieties, one was Burgundy and the others were Orleans and Belle Vue. These all came from a wholesale grower in Ireland, Fiztgerald Nurseries, these were all planted out in June.

The new to me varieties:

Orleans - a light rose skin with orange flesh

Belle Vue - a light orange skin with orange flesh.

I was quite excited to try these new ones as well as have another chance to grow Burgundy which is supposed to have the best taste.

Joanna

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

Welcome!

Hello and welcome!

Seeing as I seem to have specialised in growing sweet potatoes, I thought I'd create a dedicated blog to my experiences, rather than having them lost amongst my other (albeit sporadic) posts about my allotment and quilting.

So follow me here to find out about my successes and failures.

Joanna