Sweet potato surprise

[lew92]

I found sweet potato starts at the local Walmart in the spring of 2014. They did okay in one of my raised beds, but it was a cool summer and we maybe got an ice cream pail of potatoes from 9 plants.

We ate the larger ones and I thought I would try growing new plants from the smaller ones. I put them in damp vermiculite and kept them in my little "greenhouse" - a plastic covered shelving unit that I keep in my basement and usually just use for seed starting. I never saw any growth and was mildly disappointed, but then I forgot about it.

In October when I brought in a few tender perennials to try overwinter in the little greenhouse set-up, I noticed that one of the sweet potatoes was still plump and on closer inspection, I saw about 6 tiny sprouts on it. That really excited me! I dampened the vermiculite and kept an eye on it, but the sprouts never grew any more.

Then it dawned on me that they probably weren't warm enough, as our basement is typically about 58 degrees until we need to burn wood. So I put an off-kilter top on the container and put it on top of one of our freezers.

After a couple of weeks, the sprouts had grown enough that the tallest ones had just a bit of blackening on their top leaves from contact with the lid. I removed the lid and put the container back in the greenhouse, then set up a light underneath the container to help keep it warm.

The sprouts are continuing to grow, there are roots all along the 8 inch potato, and more sprouts are developing. I think I'm going to be growing sweet potatoes again in 2016!

One question: Can I grow them in black plastic? Thinking it will help keep the weeds down, warm the soil, and avoid the extra rooting that discourages potato development.

[eljay]

I grew them in black plastic once and they did great!

[Applelonia]

We used to have neighbors who had an organic farm and I believe they grew them in black plastic...not sure how their crop turned out.

I tried growing sweet potatoes last year (I did not use plastic). I started the slips inside the house about eight weeks before planting them outside ~ they had nice roots on each slip and really grew well in the garden. The foliage was lovely and I had high hopes for the harvest....dug them up and discovered some rodent ate the ends and tops off of almost all the sweet potatoes!! Rather disheartening...saving the least damaged ones to start slips from them to try again this summer. Might try growing them in large pots or raised garden beds to prevent rodent damage.

[treatlisa]

I haven't grown them myself, but at our local community garden (at 6500 ft) they planted sweet potatoes in raised beds made of tires. That added enough extra warmth and they did well. Good luck!

[lew92]

Oooooh! We have about 8 tires that I've made DH save for gardening purposes. I was thinking of making a strawberry tower with them, but growing sweet potatoes in them sounds more attractive!

eljay, if they get going well, I may have some extra plants to share with you.

[justonecow]

We grew ours in black plastic last year and they did great. We start our own slips too, but often buy some because we don't have enough by the time we are ready to plant. We put our potatoes in jars of water to start them, but we have done them in dirt too.

We had a good crop of sweet potatoes this past year so Betsie gets some at each milking. We kept the small fingerling size or ugly ones for her, sold some at auction, and kept the rest for ourselves. Betsie LOVES her sweet potatoes.

[lew92]

Thanks for the feedback, justonecow. I'm thinking I need to make it even warmer in my little greenhouse to get the sprouts growing faster. I will definitely protect my slightly thicker fingerling sized sweet potatoes better in the future to use for sprouting new starts.

Buttercup loves just about all fresh veggies, but especially the orange ones. She doesn't get many sweet potatoes, though.

I have plans for three different varieties of winter squash for this summer's garden, just to make sure I've got enough to feed the cows throughout the winter.

[Applelonia]

lew92, How did you get your cow to first start eating veggies? I've offered ours things from the garden. I thought they'd like the treats and planted extra for them (like squash, carrots, beets, kale, corn) but they refuse to eat garden treats. Thought for sure they might try some sweet corn - even cut it off the cob for them - nope! They shake their horns at the veggies and back up and eye them carefully until I remove them from their sight.  I thought, especially during the winter months, it would be nice/healthy for them to have some produce. They don't get grain - just a handful of oats for treats on the rare occasion. So, I tried mixing several varieties of pealed, diced carrots into a little oats - they seemed highly offended and just snorted at the contamination to the oats and once again refused to try the veggies. Any ideas to get them to at least try some veggies?

[justonecow]

Applelonia That was funny.  I can just see the look you must have gotten.  I'm not Karen but I thought I would share what we did w/Betsie.  It's not very scientific either.  We just put the veggie in question in her feed trough and left it.  She would eventually come back and try it, I guess she didn't want us watching or something.  Betsie has eaten pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and I'm not sure what else.  She is not so fond of watermelon though.

Hope you don't mind me answering lew92.

[lew92]

Anyone is free to answer! We all have different methods.

I do feed grain because my cow needs it...but I don't have grazing, which complicates things a bit.

When I first introduced a treat it was apples. I chopped them up fairly small and added them to her grain meal. She left them at first, licking the pellets, oats, and bits of corn out from around the apples, but eventually she started eating them.

I don't remember what the next thing was that we introduced, but she really gave me a look over it that was hilarious. Maybe carrots? I did the same thing - chopped them up small and left them until she ate them.

The cows, pigs, and chickens all love watermelon rind and I cut it up in no bigger than 1 inch squares to feed it out. I keep with that size on the harder veggies, concerned that they might choke on something bigger. Summer squash and other soft veggies just get chopped up a bit to make it easier to mix in her feed.

I've been surprised lately, though. We were given a huge box of oranges and can't eat them all, so I tried giving some to the pigs. No interest So I gave just a few small pieces to each of the cows & calves and they scarf them right up. Even the three month old heifer. I leave the peels on, too. At least they are getting their vitamin C!

[Applelonia]

Thanks ~ I'll try the veggie treats again....I would always take the veggies away right away, after the cows showed disapproval. I'll leave them and see if they are brave enough to try them after a while.

[lew92]

They don't like change, but I've always found them to be curious.

[justonecow]

When I first tried giving Betsie some squash I just put a piece in my hand and held it out to her and she would not take it for anything. But, if I dripped it on the ground she ate it fine. Pumpkin was the first veggie we ever fed her and as I said we put it in her trough so feeding her from my hand was strange to her.

Karen, a friend told us that as the sweet potato vines grow out you can break them off at the little nodes (for lack of a better word) and root those too.

[Debbie Lincoln]

I started with watermelon. Locked the cows up in the corral with feed/watermelon in their trough and hay. Eventually they tried it. Now they eat everything. But if I introduce something new, we do the lockdown all over. And I have to convince them to eat pumpkin again every fall. Go figure.

[lew92]

Buttercup will not take anything from my hand, ever. Well, if I have a huge wad of really good, fresh hay that she can snag from the side she will. But not smaller treats.

Annie will take apples from my hand, but she is very cautious. I have not had a lot of interaction with her, except for feeding time. I'm experimenting with her - mostly to see if a more hands-off approach will have her more respectful when it comes time to teach her how to milk. I'll post more about my idea when the time comes closer. I don't even know if she took from the breeding ten days ago!

justonecow, my plan is to take cuttings from the vines when they get bigger so that I can root out the vines. I'm thinking I may have to put this sweet potato into some potting mix to get them to grow faster, though...or figure out a warmer place with good light, as they are growing very slowly.

[Shawn]

ok, I'm almost embarrassed to admit this. Last spring I bought 6 Beaureguard sweet potato plants from the hardware store. I planted them in my flower bed. The mulch is very deep in there as I don't have time to pull weeds. Think 4-6" deep in places. I forgot about the plants. I noticed the vines running all over one day, didn't think anymore of it.
In October DH asked me if they were ready. I went out and dug one up. HUGE cluster of potatoes under it. By the time I dug them all out we had so many I had to give some away. I still have some though, as DH makes one for me instead of a white potato whenever we have a roast, etc.
This is one plant's bounty!

[lew92]

Wow, Shawn! Those are beautiful! So it sounds like mulch is the way to go. I'm going to try some in black plastic - because it is still down from the squash from last year - and some in tires full of compost topped with mulch. It will be a good comparison trial, I think.

So if I only plant half of my plastic in sweet potatoes, does anyone have suggestions for other plants I could put in the rest? In 2014, I had tomatoes in there; 2015 was winter squash. I like to rotate types of veggies to diminish the chance of soil borne disease.

...I don't eat okra, if that was going to be a suggestion!

[justonecow]

We plant almost everything we grow in black plastic. What about green beans? Or eggplant? Or some melons?

And why don't you like okra it's great! Have you ever eaten it fried? Yum! Or pickled is good too. I also like it boiled but I know most people don't like it because of the slime, my DH has a hard time w/that too. If it's not over cooked it's not as slimy.

[lew92]

The slime turned me off...and one bad texture experience is enough to shut me down for good.

I plant the green beans in rows. I had melons in half of that patch last year, so don't want to repeat that. Eggplant is in the same family as tomatoes, so I'd want to wait another year.

I know, I'm shutting down all of your ideas. I'm sorry!

I may just pull up half of the plastic and plant sweet corn or my green beans in that half.

[Applelonia]

I'm not sure what grows with black plastic/black landscaping cloth as I don't use it....peppers, tomatillos, and ground cherries are probably out since you want diversity in your crop rotation....hummmm....what about lettuce? Or herbs? Zucchini or cucumbers?....these two are maybe too similar to winter squash and melons....