Vince loves sweet potatoes but I believe he’s getting a bit frustrated with them popping up everywhere. Yesterday I pulled all the sweet potatoes out of the second big bin and I dumped one grow bag.
The dark ones were growing in a 5 gallon grow bag and the light ones were growing in the bin. I planted two slips in that bin in mid-June. There was no dirt in that bin . . it was only mulched leaves and those sweet potatoes grew like crazy. I could have left them another three or four weeks and they would have gotten larger but they were crowded and I wanted to be able to put more mulched leaves in there as soon as the leaves start falling. Vince is going to come up with a plexi-glass or some kind of clear plastic lid for the two big bins and I’m going to try to grow things in there like I would a cold frame.
I love the little fingerling potatoes. I can scrub them with a brush, cut them into fairly thin slices, cook them in a bit of butter, then add a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon. They’re a bit crunchy/candied on the outside and tender in the middle.
I noticed that sweet potatoes are popping up all over the back yard. I told Vince . . this isn’t going to make you happy but the sweet potatoes have escaped the raised beds and are now in the ground. He said “I know. I saw them!”
I went out to take the picture and saw two sweet potatoes in the ground so I dug those up.
And this one . .
They’ve both already sprouted.
Any time I’ve found one with sprouts, I snapped them off and planted them in cups. The potatoes have all been firm and in good shape so I snapped off the sprouts and will cook these two as soon as they’ve cured.
Hopefully these won’t grow out of control and I can plant them in the spring for next year’s crop.
I still have four big grow bags of sweet potatoes.
These were planted in early July so they really need another month of growing but I’ll harvest them before the night temps drop below 50 degrees. As of now, Accuweather says our low on October 9 will be 50. If that stands, I’ll harvest the sweet potatoes that day. Since these are in grow bags above the ground, I’m not going to risk leaving them any longer. If they were growing in the ground, I wouldn’t be concerned because a 50 degree night is not going to mean the ground temp is 50 degrees but these grow bags are a different story.