Gardeners: sweet potato slips
Mar. 22nd, 2009 11:11![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI have an orange-fleshed (Garnet) sweet potato in a pot here, and it's going to produce many more slips than the ten I need. Is there anybody in the East Bay who wants rooted slips to plant sweet potatoes this year?
They're easy: plant at the same time as tomatoes, and lighten any particularly heavy clay with leaves or compost, then water until established. After the vines take off, they just want occasional water, enough to keep from wilting (drip works quite well)... dig them when we start getting the first really soaking rains in late October/early November, so that the tubers don't split. The hardest thing tends to be curing them after harvest -- if you want them to keep more than a month, you'll need to put them in 95% humidity at 95°F for 10-14 days (I wrap them in damp towels and put them in a bucket over a heating pad). Then the roots will keep for nine months to a year in a cupboard.
They need more potassium than nitrogen, really, and Bay Area soil is generally quite adequate by itself. Lighter soil or a raised bed makes them easier to dig (chiseling them out of clay is no fun, believe me.) The vines are also quite attractive, looking much like their morning glory relatives; the flowers for this variety are white edged with purple.
They're easy: plant at the same time as tomatoes, and lighten any particularly heavy clay with leaves or compost, then water until established. After the vines take off, they just want occasional water, enough to keep from wilting (drip works quite well)... dig them when we start getting the first really soaking rains in late October/early November, so that the tubers don't split. The hardest thing tends to be curing them after harvest -- if you want them to keep more than a month, you'll need to put them in 95% humidity at 95°F for 10-14 days (I wrap them in damp towels and put them in a bucket over a heating pad). Then the roots will keep for nine months to a year in a cupboard.
They need more potassium than nitrogen, really, and Bay Area soil is generally quite adequate by itself. Lighter soil or a raised bed makes them easier to dig (chiseling them out of clay is no fun, believe me.) The vines are also quite attractive, looking much like their morning glory relatives; the flowers for this variety are white edged with purple.