when to harvest sweet potatoes in virginia

I clearly have two types. The potatoes will be 120 days the end of October. No i did not plant any this year, did not get to thinking on it until too late but certainly plan on doing it next ‘if the good Lords willing and the Devil dosen’t care’.. “Sweet potatoes are getting more market share everywhere, and consumers are demanding them more,” Flanagan said. I agree with Christina: I wouldn’t call it a mistake. I also found a local store that sells bushel baskets and purchased 5 of them, although I need about a dozen more. I’ve found no real difference in taste or storage longevity either way, and agree that it can be a hassle to properly set up. I put in a few more in May and then BINGO!! I’m not hard to please. At the Southern Nevada Research Center, Beauregard produced the largest crop out of the 5 trial varieties and had very little damage due to insects and pests. I put them there as an after thought because I ended up with too many slips for my containers. Oh my……..just started harvesting today! This is my first year planting Sweet Potatoes. I didn’t read about the curing period until just now. I can’t wait to see my harvest, but I hate to lose the vine because it is so beautiful. Thank you for the help. Worked great, and very easy.]. Thank you Dan I’ll try about 3 cubic feet and compare the two methods. Virginia's potato cultivation is concentrated on the Eastern Shore. I totally skipped the curing, and jumped straight to storing. potatoes grow better in the mixture ? I ate it all (because, hey, sweet potato! But, my best guess is that you should harvest before the monsoon season. We raised our potatoes in a 2 ft. deep raised bed by the side of our porch a couple of years ago and some of them grew really deep. Grab a digging fork and start turning the soil beneath your plant. You have permission to edit this article. Please advise or can it wait till Novemner 2016? Then filled with a mixture of wood shavings clean topsoil and dried manure and planted the slips. But unlike yours mine was not a success story. Can’t wait to see what it produces. Wow, Trudy! If your soil is heavy (like the Virginia clay in my own garden), you can add a mix of compost and sand to loosen it. Maybe I will try again next year. If you only have bud vases, only one slip will fit. Though I probably could store them upstairs in a plastic container like you do. You see why I like this rate of return? This year, I’m going to see what a just-harvested sweet potato tastes like. Looked on line, made a bed in the corner of my yard. Your email address will not be published. Started my Sweets for one that was left over from Easter dinner at the end of May. I love your blog! Choose when to dig them up, ahead of cold weather. You can get your copy here ––> Sweet Potato Grow Guide. The numbers might be even more impressive if I had grown all my sweets in full sun (several languished in shade, and only gave me a pound of harvestable roots each). I use a wok to stir fry them in olive oil Way I figure, with nearly 70 pounds of sweet potatoes in my kitchen, I’ve got enough on hand to do a little experimenting. I am in Tampa Bay area, high 70’s to low 80’s in the day 60’s at night. Put my homegrown slips in the ground near Daytona Beach, Florida about 30+ days ago. Over time, you will build up some truly fertile soil, and should see much improved harvests. So, not the best eating, usually. Upon harvesting I suffered a few broken tubers and I’m wondering if I can use them in a hash for breakfast tomorrow or something else rather then letting them go to waste. VIRGINIA BEACH — Virginians’ appetite for sweet potatoes is increasing, and local growers are harvesting an ample supply to meet consumers’ holiday needs. In fact, I’ve read that sweet potatoes produce more calories per acre than any other crop. I wouldn’t worry too much about different maturation dates. Enjoy! One suggestion I do have would be to supplement that Miracle-Gro soil with a good load of compost. A good rule of thumb is to watch for the first signs of yellowing leaves. I live in the Tampa area of Florida and was am wondering if this area would be too hot for them above ground. Most plants gave me 4 or 5 good size potatoes but I had one plant that produced 10 keepers. If you tried growing your own, as I did this year in gro-bags (large 15-gallon fabric bags, filled with a topsoil and compost mix, good for patios and decks), you may be wondering when to harvest and how to store them properly. My garden is completely in full sun. Sweet potatoes want light, well-draining soil. Need a little help breaking the rules, or wanna brag a bit about how many tomatoes you harvested from your front yard? I’d suggest cooking with that one rather soon, before the rest. They taste a lot like spinach only better. The pumpkins in my garden are another discussion — one plant has produced so far 4 25+lb monsters and a few smaller ones, 100 days from seed to harvest. Your garage might be getting a bit too hot during the day for long-term storage (although they should be fine there for a few weeks, and may be ok for longer). Tomatoes do a similar thing — if there’s too much nitrogen in their soil, they will grow LOTS of leaves, but only a few fruit. Maybe I’ll take the plunge this time, especially since I have an 8ft x 8ft bed full of them! All sweet potatoes are safe to eat, even the fancy ornamental varieties. I just came across your posting looking for the best ways to store sweet potatoes in a home without a cellar or basement. Have been promising to bring the sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving Dinner. Thanks again. Keep u posted. But, sure, I imagine you could drag that pot inside. Today I saw a rather large root sticking up out of the ground. Sweet potatoes, like regular potatoes, don’t ripen. Sounds fantastic, Dan! I can site the containers in sunny spots anywhere in the yard. Different opinions and all hard to find! Looks like I’ll be needing to stock up on sweet potato recipes for this winter. They are one of the most nutritious vegetables you can eat. In fact, there’s no magical “ready” time. There are scads of different sweet potato varieties, and I’m honestly not even sure of the variety names for all the sweets I grow (some are started from store-bought tubers, like yours). Some vegetables look a little sad or worn out by the end of the summer, but not sweet potatoes. I’m leaving them in my greenhouse for a bit and then will bring them in to the house for the curing. Thanks for some great information. They want about the same level of humidity that we do, so a spare closet or empty cabinet may work great. Congrats on your first go at growing sweet potatoes! I hope you’ll try them again next year! Sometimes, you can’t do much about this if Mother Nature is the culprit. Sweets seem to be fairly non-picky about their storage conditions. The darn birds sniped them off, I covered them with a cut off milk jug in hopes they would recover and they did. Sounds like a great first year for sweet potatoes. Virginians’ appetite for sweet potatoes is increasing, and local growers are harvesting an ample supply to meet consumers’ holiday needs. They definitely don’t appreciate a chill (so, keep them out of the fridge), but are otherwise fairly fuss-free. He noted that if sales continue at their current pace, he will likely be sold out by Thanksgiving. I don’t use any fertilizer on my sweet potatoes or in the rest of my garden for that matter. Midseason potatoes require 101 to 135 cool days to reach harvest. Jesus where will I put them? I’ll have to add some to my sweet greens next time. However you harvest them, do so slowly and gently. all my gardens grew beautiful fruits and vegs all except the sweet potatoes. If you can, try to resist cooking up your crop right away. I did all the right things and they do not look right on the inside. They’re totally safe and quite tasty. The yard has very little top soil and lots of red clay which doesn’t make for a good growing environment. Can’t wait for answers & especially for our 1st harvest!!! The website also has canning & freezing instructions, related events and fun and listings for every other state and many countries! So a cool damp place? I wouldn’t worry too much about the lack of flowers; some varieties of sweet potatoes don’t produce flowers. Vitamin A is important for cell growth and development, for fighting off diseases and for good vision. The containers dry out more easily than a garden space so its important to check the containers almost daily, especially if there hasn’t been any rain. I was just telling someone else today that bacon makes everything better! We just harvested them yesterday and I didn’t know that you have to wait a while before you cook/eat it. Great pictures , great instructions and excellent explanation of the process . If none of these ideas are advisable, I probably will just have to use what I can and then let the rest compost in my garden. And, by now, that breakfast has long since come and gone. Now I do not know which ones are which and whether they will mature at the same time. Florida has a great climate for them (they’re tropical plants, after all). Cultivating 2 acres of sweet potatoes on his farm, Flanagan said he produced a high-quality crop this year despite seeing slightly diminished yields due to drought conditions in July. I have since covered it with the straw mulch I’m using, but was wondering if it being exposed will hurt that potato at all? Do you think they might smell? Nuthin. I decided to remove all the vines yesterday and voila! Will it hurt to leave them in the ground till the weather cools? I have saved the two largest for next year, and will grow them in a sunnier location. The first year, I planted a yellow variety. With business typically picking up before Thanksgiving, he expects to start selling Bonita and Covington varieties next week. I think I will take your advice and wait a few weeks. His instructions on them were, plant the day after mother’s day in a hill. We got three slips from a guest speaker at a 4H meeting, he said they were a special developed purple sweet potato from, I think he said North or South Carolina. Wow that’s alot of sweet potatoes! Anyone have thought or experience with that? That’s perfect for most sweets. I grew mine in hay, I made like a big raised bed filled with hay. If you’re harvesting for supper, drive your fork into the soil at the outside edges of the plant. It’s been nearly 2 years since you started this topic and it’s still going strong! And, actually, it’s better than that. The compost provides lots of nitrogen which helps the vines grow. Hey Cristina not sure if your still around but I grew sweet potatoes for the first time this year in my garden. When considering what variety of potatoes to plant, think about when you would ideally like to have a potato harvest. I dug up my sweets that were in my raised garden bed ( 2 or 3slips), they were in valuable fall planting space, they were also the only ones that really vined. And, if you do have an early-maturing type mixed in there, the extra growing time won’t cause problems; you’ll just end up with larger tubers. I put slips from my sweet plants before I harvest them in vases of water and winter over till spring. Just watch the weather report, and head out to dig up your sweets when you start seeing weather forecasts with nighttime temperatures in the low 40s or 30s. Flanagan, who also is a Virginia Cooperative Extension agent, noted some growers in Virginia Beach and on Virginia’s Eastern Shore saw “less-than-average” harvests due to dry conditions. It’s not a total loss though. One container has two store bought (box store in pot) I’ve gotten conflicting info on if they are the same but one has a visible tuber poking up not sure what the deal is with them /: I’ve gotten (from garden employees ) everything from they are the same to they might to posiioniuos, not sure I believe the latter. “The main thing now is to keep them in a good condition to sell,” Slade said. I’m holding out as long as possible to harvest those… maybe at the end of October. I have a wonderful recipe that I use often: Sweet potatoes are a lot of fun to grow, and despite what you might think, you don’t need a ton of space to grow them. Thank you so much for putting so much info out here for us all to learn from. Brush off loose dirt and leave them in the sun for a few hours, then move to a table or shed that is warm and has good air circulation. Sweet potatoes are native to more southern climates and hence grow better in a relatively sandy soil. Even though we have a garden I like to container garden for decoration on the deck. Carefully lift the plant and remove the potatoes you need. Hi Jackie — Sounds like you have a very happy sweet potato plant! But we cooked some this morning and it was very sweet. The rate of return is also amazing. But at the beginning of May realized i wouldn’t be getting them. I harvested over 100lbs of potatoes last year. I do not have land. Most varieties of sweet potatoes will hide most of their edible tubers near the base of the plant, but some sprawl further. Winds light and variable. One of the easiest edibles to start off with is the humble potato. i usually get about 3-5 lbs per slip of beauregard and frazier white. My sweets came out very small. Stay tuned. Sweet potatoes in the FRONT yard next year! Hello This is 2nd yr in delaware. Ours should be here any day and we are trying to find room for them. Hope I do well Your web help me so I know how to do this over again and save money. and garlic with a bit of cut up bacon (delicious). I bought slips for 3 different types of sweet potatoes: Georgia Jets, Centennials & Porto Ricos. We recently moved to the very Northern part of Florida around Jacksonville and the soil is rather poor, almost pure sand. From these plants I harvested roughly 95 pounds with the largest the size of a small dog (16 pounds), you already answered one of my questions but I do have another. Virginia' for fruit, vegetables, pumpkins and other crops. How long to cure before moving to storage? Congrats on a great harvest! It’s no wonder the sweets escaped. For storage, you’ll want to keep them in a dark spot at about 55-70°F. So – yes, I “robbed” a few. Also, if you can resist, don’t wash the dirt off them. I’ve had VERY mixed results with harvests from different baskets, and suspect that some baskets may be treated with chemicals that affect growth. Why not give it a try and see what happens? I put in 8 inch deep raised beds, filled them with Miracle-Grow garden soil and planted the first of June. Things grow quick, but not real plentiful. Knowing when to harvest potatoes is based on whether they’re an early potato or maincrop, time in the ground, and what happens to their foliage and flowers. For those super-sized roots, I’d suggest cutting them down before cooking with them. Am a little worried about “curing”. I honestly haven’t tested this theory yet. Lots of compost might be your problem. That was in June. tad, Beauregard is what I planted; had 50 slips in all, but think about only 25-30 might make it; say I get 4 pounds from each slip and say 27 make it that will be about 108 lbs. But they are perennials, and I’ve always wondered what would happen if they were just allowed to grow year-round. Sounds great, Richard! Just be sure to store them in conditions where the ambient temperature is above 55°F.Enjoy that harvest! When receiving your slips, it is important to read the packing. I’ve shared it with all my gardening buddies! According to the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, 261 Virginia farms produced sweet potatoes for fresh market consumption, more than double the 120 farms that grew them in 2012. If you’re further south then Virginia, you may have a growing season that’s far longer than 90-120 days. You can wait until the first frost to harvest sweet potatoes, in fact, some folks claim that they are better if you do, but you must be ready to get them out of the ground immediately. Virginians’ appetite for sweet potatoes is increasing, and local growers are harvesting an ample supply to meet consumers’ holiday needs. I also have a bin growing slips from a store-bought sweet potato this summer. The containers last for years. Your email address will not be published. The manure pile slips. Look how much you are saving! You should cure your sweet potatoes before storage. Unlike regular potatoes, sweet potatoes continue to grow green and happy until frost zaps them. I planted the 3rd week of May, and it has been a really hot summer here, But I will have to put off for another week anyway as we had unexpected company come in for a visit. I made no watering attempts. and struggled. Would you like to receive our daily news? Later i learned how to start my own. The variety matters too — some sweet potato varieties mature a full month earlier than others. More experimenting needed here in zone 8a will be planting much earlier next year… But I’m hoping to at least see something .. just discovered your site (Love It)! Harvested acreage also has increased, from132 acres in 2012 to 223 acres in 2017. Sweet potatoes are stubborn plants, and their roots will find any crack or hole in the container. The website also has canning & freezing instructions, related events and fun and listings for every other state and many countries! “As the market grows, and we see the merits of going direct-to-consumer over wholesale, you need to come up with ways to extend your season and extend your cash flow. Thank you.. Here, in Virginia, it’s best to harvest sweet potatoes just before the first frost. Thank you! Will it continue to grow even after I remove the potatoes? But don’t want to end up needing more soil to fill a container that won’t be more productive.. I put 5-6 slips per vase and they work better in clear glass vases. I don’t know what to expect on quantity but I planted at least 6 “plants” purchased from the market or a store. Not too much though — I try to minimize the amount of “damage” I inflict. ), but the taste was flat. July?) This gives us a growing season of roughly three to four months, or 90 to 120 days. I planted sweet potatoes for the first time this year. I’m going to plant earlier this next year so I can harvest in September and allowing them to cure a few day. Oh well I will try again next year. According to the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, 261 Virginia farms produced sweet potatoes for fresh market consumption, more than double the 120 farms that grew them in 2012. Here in tucson awful doesn’t begin to describe our ground so containers are the way. Up here in Virginia, sweets won’t survive the winter. I stacked tires 2 high. After harvesting nearly 70 pounds from a dozen containers in my front yard, I believe it. The vines are now everywhere, even growing up the fence on the southern garden perimeter! Here is another sweet potato souffle recipe that I have made before. I hate to waste them and could give some away or I could maybe take some down to Florida (if I can find some room in the car!). Toggle navigation. I haven’t harvested them yet, it’s still quite warm here in california, but I will soon. Sweet potoes make a beautiful container plant. How to Harvest Potatoes. I am going to let then ago a couple more weeks. I’ll be setting this up today, and will post more once I’ve got some photos to share. I suspect curing probably helps toughen the skin and seal cuts, as you mention, but my sweets haven’t really suffered for skipping it. I was looking for right time to harvest info. You can eat the sweet potato leaves, too. Great information! You may be right that the dense clay soil affected your harvest; sweets do seem to grow best in loose or sandy soil. Thank you, Dawn, Your biggest harvest should be directly under where the main plant is rooted, but you may also have smaller tubers scattered wherever the vines have rooted. Keep up the good work. I’m not sure what happened, Barb. Ok I have a question that I’ve never seen mentioned anywhere… Your freshly harvested sweets in the picture above are “rooty” do you clip those roots or cure then clip?? Then, harvest about 50 pounds in the fall. So, the longer you let your sweet potatoes grow, the larger your harvest will be. I’ve always just stored the roots, and waited until November or so before roasting up my first sweets. Cliff Slade, who grows 5 acres of Bonita, Covington and other heirloom varieties at Slade Farms in Surry County, said he had one of his best-ever harvests this year. click here to learn how to start your own slips. [Update: I never got around to doing anything fancy with these sweet potatoes. I had a couple of sweet potatoes that had started to eye so I used what I could for mashed potatoes and planted the eyes. This years harvest from 9 slips totaled 78 lbs., with two monsters weighing over 4 lbs. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-souffl-10000000521202/. I use containers, the one I put in almost full sun got fried big time.. But, if you can hold off for a couple months, I suspect the wait will be worth it.]. Congrats!! If you liked this post, you will love the new Sweet Potato Grow Guide. These secondary tubers are usually smaller and fairly close to the surface. Usually sweet potatoes are harvested in the week that the first frost typically occurs in your region. Dan gave you some great advice here, Sidney. Or does it really depend on when they were planted or the zone in which one lives? We aren’t really in the ideal climate for tropical plants, but I’m hoping to get lucky with lots of love and attention. Most of the garden has only spot irrigation, so most of the sweet potatoes only got water if I turned the hose on for them. I would suggest storing them upstairs where it’s warmer — sweet potatoes do best in the same range of temperatures that we humans prefer. Try it in a bin or about 3 cubic feet of garden space with 2 or 3 slips next season. Error! I had six plants 4 of which I trained to completely take over a thirty foot stretch of my gardens six foot chicken fire fence, with one of the vines getting close to 35 feet long. I’m so excited…..my first try at sweet potatoes, and just harvested them today. As for curing… I’m honestly rather lazy about it. So, my question, will there be SP where the vines have sent out root or just around the original slip. My real question is on curing them…I don’t have the space or means to provide a (very) warm temp 80-85F as recommended for approx 2-wks. I’ve been selling some off now for the second year. We just harvested about 22 lbs. Sweet potatoes grow best in raised beds with organic soils in the desert. The Porto Ricos didn’t fair much better, but I was able to get a couple small potatoes from which I’m going to get slips for next year. If you have a tuber pushing up above the ground, there’s a good chance it’s being forced upwards by other tubers below it. On OCT 7th.2016 Very happy again.with my harvest This year I for the first time harvest all the Vines.Tgere is a Market for them. I’m in Phx and planted a slip in April. Regardless of the taste quality of just-picked sweets, you probably have enough roots on hand that you’ll need to store some of them. I used lots of Thanks for the information on your site and have it now in my Bookmarks. Tastes awesome. I found alot of large sweet potatoes. That’s an AMAZING harvest! Then, I clip off any remaining roots right before I cook the sweets. Covington sweet potatoes can also be baked, whipped, and seasoned with cardamom and nutmeg or roasted in olive oil and brushed with a cinnamon and honey lime glaze to create a sweet dish. I had a store bought sweet potatoe that sprouted roots and some green leaves I cut it in half and stuck it in 2 pots and started watering. I am assuming you save a potato and cut the eyes and replant in spring? Hi Richard — Congrats on those happy sweet potato plants! Either way, I have not noticed a difference in the size of harvest. Stir fry them. Good luck! Wow, Jeanne! Many of my sweets escaped their bushel baskets and buried some roots under their containers, for example. My guess would be that they didn’t like their storage conditions? I do eat the leaves and West Virginia Harvest Calendar - PickYourOwn.org When fruit and vegetables are normally available and ready to pick in West Virginia! They really enjoyed helping with with the peaches and blueberries. Greetings, No matter where you live, harvest your sweets with care. These did indeed sprout right away and I planted them, but then the “ordinary” sweet sprouted, so I planted a couple of slips from that one. This is my first time growing a potato of any kind, had no idea what I was doing or what to expect. If you have enough warning, though, try draping a heavy-weight garden fabric over your sweet potato bed before the rain starts, and remove it … I clip the vines back when they start getting too long and threaten to overtake my walkway. Forget the stock market. I put them in the ground where there is 6-10 inches of heavy decomposing mulch over mostly sand (near Tampa, FL). Now that you know when to dig potatoes, the question becomes how. I used to eat collard and kale And, stay tuned for a post about how to cure your sweets. And, congrats on that harvest! You want the roots to dry as quickly as possible, and the dirt won’t hurt them (or you). I neglected them as I did much of the garden since I got pregnant mid-season, but these beauties didn’t disappoint. I use large, black plastic containers gleaned from landscape companies; I think they are 45 gallon containers used for large landscape trees. I can’t tell you why your sweets were smaller (though, hand-sized is certainly not too small). West Virginia' for fruit, vegetables, pumpkins and other crops. This is a short video on my experience. I’m excited to experiment with these sweets in the kitchen. The leaves are finally starting to turn yellow from the 4 plants that covered my back yard so I should be ready to harvest in a week or so. Early or “new” potatoes, typically harvested when the plants begin to bloom, are small, smooth and round. Thanks so much, Becky! . slips from a single root, Please share your stories in the comments section below, http://www.williams-kitchen.com/2012/11/sweet-potato-hash-egg-bake/, http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-potato-souffl-10000000521202/, http://www.outlawgarden.com/2012/04/25/grow-your-own-sweet-potatoes/, http://www.outlawgarden.com/2013/10/31/no-more-bushel-baskets/, Nature, Science, and Gardening-Inspired Gifts for Toddlers. Sweet Potato Facts • Sweet potatoes contains 327% of your daily recommended value for vitamin A, which is more than any other vegetable. should these be harvested prior to Monsoon here in July 2016? Well, I wanted to see what was underneath the huge mounds under my sweet potato plants, and I dug around with my fingers under one, very gently. But it is actually sweeter than the regular sweet potato. I planted the slips in a “grow container”, purchased online. “But the quality of the sweet potatoes I have is great, the yield was great, and the taste is awesome—just as good as they’ve ever been. Since you planted late June, you probably want to leave them in the ground until just before your first frost. I haven’t harvested first crop yet and I’m desperately hoping I actually have something to cure and store.. Those are certainly pretty that you have there and especially the bigger ones, and you can use the small ones to stew, freeze, make pies or put a small amount in raw salads; would not use too many that way for might cause diarrhea, at least they do to me. One sweet potato plant can yield on average 2-1/2 pounds of potatoes, or 100 pounds or more from a 20-foot row. Harvest Time Matters. In theory, a HOT summer might speed things up a bit (though I’m not sure of that). I will try some of the leaves sauté though. compost and a good soil base. Email me at. I started to work at building soil in my garden area 4 years ago, NW of Phoenix, AZ. That’s a 45-to-1 rate of return. • Yams and sweet potatoes are not the same. Thanks for the tip, Debbie! recommend and the clerk told me about the perlite and vermiculits. Early potatoes . When they get this big, I know they’re ready to harvest. Looks like I’ll be buying more bushel baskets next spring. Well I went to check on the sweets and found they were huge so started digging-must be several bushels!What a job but a pleasant surprise.Now just got to get rid of all that vine.Can’t wait for spring to do this again.Thanks for your web site and help! Unfortunately, the act of harvesting those storage roots (the tubers we eat) will definitely affect the health and appearance of those vines. Are you happy or disappointed with the harvest? If you’ve got any favorites to share, please post them in the comments below. Beans grew well, Yukon Gold’s did OK this spring, but that has been about it. Earlier this year I found your website through Pinterest and have been anxiously awaiting the time when I could start my sweet potato garden. Or, you could just experiment; try growing a couple sweet potatoes in different containers (including those burlap sacks), and then compare your harvests at season’s end. And, those bruises can turn to bad spots if you’re planning on storing these tubers for a while. Success! Sauté them just like spinach, and enjoy! And, yes, once I’ve cooked and tasted that first sweet potato, I’ll report back. Bushel baskets, it seems, are only good for one or two seasons in the garden. My problem: How in the world do you cure in Northern Indiana in October?? I’ve read that sweet potatoes need a bit of curing before their full flavor develops, and that a few months of rest is best, if you can hold out that long. Any ideas from anyone would be appreciated. Again i did nothing more. Many varieties, such as the popular Beauregard, grow very easily. Also, that recipe looks great! To answer your question, a month should definitely do it. It is October now. I love eating them. I am wondering if you tried/had any luck lining your bushel baskets like you talked about trying. I think you’re totally fine with that tuber. I’m in Virginia where things are a bit milder. Some researchers working in Vietnam, discovered that harvesting 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of the vines every 15, 20, or 30 days (ignoring the information about the season of the year and the varieties) gave the sort of results you might expect. Or, you can order slips from just about any gardening catalog. Suggestions on using them would be greatly appreciated. Back in June I noticed a small vine growing out of a sweet potatoe in my veggie bin. Required fields are marked *. The entire garden is doing really well, I'm so pleased with it and like a little kid to realize that I actually grew these vegies ! Christina, I LOVE this blog, both for your wisdom & encouragement & for all the contributors’ experiences, I live in central Iowa & planted 3-4 plants in one of our 8X5 raised beds. Being busy with other things, I left them there for a year and a half. They are a good size. I planted 5 sweet potato plants this year… and then a few more volunteers also sprouted out of roots from last year’s harvest. Will they be ok? Are they to eat as well or to use for growing new sweet potatoes? I’m always brainstorming useful inexpensive container options. This will keep the worms working and loosening the soil below. Thanks for all of the great info. The vine is absolutely gorgeous in my raised bed garden. I live in Tucson, Az. This is my first big vegetable garden, and i planted sweet potatoes. 67.8 pounds. 4. If the tubers are big, then his crop is ready. Hi Erin — Congratulations on your harvest! I haven’t tried ‘Mursaki’ yet, but I think I’ve seen it in one of my garden catalogs. Thank you Cristina for the info. Bakes sweet potato fries are another tasty way to use too-large-to-roast-whole roots. Sweet potatoes are usually ready to harvest in 90-120 days, depending on the variety. Because I have a lot of problems with voles munching on my sweet potatoes, I have grown container potatoes for the last several years. Soon I had vines going crazy. Ready to harvest sweet potatoes. Getting started growing sweet potatoes Growing sweet potatoes is very easy, but it requires some patience … Simply stored the sweets in boxes, in a dark, unused closet at a temperature of approximately 65°F. Let’s hope I can Selk these A powerful Antioxidant,Virginia A A healing food Most Africans,& Haitians eat .these I plan on Cooking with Garlic,Onions, Tomatoes. My wife and i were cleaning the pantry a few weeks later and found a tuber that had taken roots. The vines took over an area of 50′ x 15′ in full blazing sun before I started indiscriminately yanking some out to keep them contained to that area. Curing helps bring out the sweetness, but it’s totally necessary. Perhaps roasted with other chopped root vegetables, or diced and tossed into a stew or soup? My second problem: We leave for Naples, Florida, around Thanksgiving. I loved the sweet potatoes greens! Hope they are “cured” by Thanksgiving! That split root can likely still be used, but won’t store nearly as long as the rest. I dug around by hand the other day. start an area in my garden and omit the compost and see how well they do Just watch the weather report, and head out to dig up your sweets when you start seeing weather … It’s my first time, so I have no idea. Early potatoes are the best choice for southern regions where summers are very warm or hot. Just don’t leave them longer than that — once frost kills the plant, the tubers will rot very quickly. The foliage was so dense that I was concerned about stepping on rattlesnakes in there, so I would poke around with the hoe before stepping. As for saving, just toss a few roots in an out-of-the-way place (I use a closet) and ignore them until early spring. This is my third year growing sweet potatoes. Fingers crossed for a good harvest, Tonia! Sorry, there are no recent results for popular images. I have several people waiting in line to take the excess. This is one of the best “sweet potato” sites I’ve found! So I hilled up the little spot I had left in my LITTLE garden. They taste quite good when I wash them off and put them in the microwave. Hollow. But, yeah, you’ve got some digging in your future. Just-harvested sweet potatoes taste nothing like you’d hope. Virginia produces over 200,000 pounds of potatoes on about 6,000 acres. In short, sweets want 90-120 days of solid growing before harvest. I think it’s great that they are eager to learn about gardening. Planted by first sweet potatoes this year, June, Northern Indiana, and saw the leaves starting to change color just a bit. I live in the southern coastal region of Victoria, Australia and I did grow sweet potatoes this year. We have the same trouble here in Virginia — I just skip the whole curing thing and go straight to storage. Sweets are definitely worth a try. So easy, I use low sodium chicken broth and they shrink up like spinach. I love your determination! My best harvests have come from plants that get full exposure to the sun, and my smallest harvests have come from plants that get only a partial dose of sun. In your experience how far down will sweets meander to make tubers? Thanks so much for your comment, Hannah! Can you please expound on this a bit, is the high temp and humidity supposed to develop “sweeter” taste? Have you got a link with pictures so I can determine which is what? Two full boxes worth, with overflow in mixing bowls and all over the kitchen counter. Those original two pounds of sweet potatoes produced more slips than I needed. In fact, I’ve never had an undamaged sweet rot in storage. I live near orchards, so I think I could round up some bushel baskets. I used a sweet potato that came from the local supermarket to get slips, but it would not sprout. Search sweet potato leaves and you will be surprised at how so many people eat them. That’s how many sweet potatoes I harvested from the garden yesterday. All sizes and shapes. Love your blog, and consistently referred to it during my whole first year experience. As for those store-bought sweet potatoes… They should be perfectly edible. Since most of my plants produced about five pounds of roots each, and most sweet potatoes will produce 10-15 (or more!) Do the sweets need to be cured in a single layer? They do not appreciate freezing temperatures, and the cold can cause chilling-injury on the tubers. According to the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, 261 Virginia farms produced sweet potatoes for fresh market consumption, more than double the 120 farms that grew them in 2012. Something I did wrong. So far, I’ve dug an area about 5′ x 18″ and have about 50lbs. @Sidney, this is my 3rd year planting sweet potatoes and I have yet to sample the leaves. Emporia-Greensville Recreation Association, 2020 Virginia sweet potato harvest is plentiful. and if you factor in the use of the leaves, your return is even bigger! At Hoot Owl Hollow Farm in Amelia County, Kenney Barnard said he produced a “very good crop” and was “lucky” to avoid damaging weather this summer. Two pounds of sweet potato investment for 67.8 pounds of sweet potato harvest. Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email. I planted beauregard slips around the middle of June and have a jungle of vines. They never flowered but did get some foliage so I’m worried that they’ll be no tubers, but this is my first yr so I haven’t a clue! If Richard planted his crop late May or early June, he should be at just about 90 days by now, which would put him on the early side of the traditional harvest window. garlic, cut up bacon and then I put them over brown rice. Don’t throw your sweets. You’ll find a lot of information about growing them here, including in the comments: http://www.outlawgarden.com/2012/04/25/grow-your-own-sweet-potatoes/. Roy Flanagan, who grows sweet potatoes at Flanagan Farm in Virginia Beach, attributed the increased production to farmers expanding direct-to-consumer offerings to improve their bottom lines. Wait until after March 15 in the eastern portion of Virginia, or as late as April 20 in the western mountainous area of Virginia. They do best at room temperature, and don’t mind light or dark. Did you grow sweet potatoes this year? Thank you, But if the tubers are a bit smaller than expected, he might want to leave the rest of the plants in the ground for a few more weeks. Oh boy, I’m way late on replying to this question. My largest sweet is about the size of my hand. I keep mine in open plastic tubs that I stash in an unused closet. Good luck with the harvest! Great advice, Dan! Your description helped me to decide how to look after them. I put landscape cloth in the bottom and fill the containers each year with fresh compost made from leaves, kitchen scrapes, some chicken manure, and coffee grounds from the local Starbucks. Up came about 70 lbs of all sizes of sweet potatoes. get the garden sand and take your advise. The white potatoes I plant will take about 135 days to mature. Have you harvested yet? Any suggestions? It’s best to stop watering your sweet potatoes 3-4 weeks before harvest. They’re relatively low-maintenance, can help cultivate the soil, and will also suppress any weeds that try to compete with them. I’m better your sweets were happily growing as big as possible above ground, taking advantage of all that fertility, and just didn’t get around to producing tubers below ground. I don’t use bushel baskets anymore, however. I planted more in April. I have written plenty already in previous years about harvesting, so I won’t go into it here. Perlite and vermiculite are both often used to increase water retention (this is why they are so commonly seen in potting mixes), but sweet potatoes don’t want to grow in soil that retains water. As for the rest, I have to admit I’m no expert on Florida gardens. But your hunch is right — none are poisonous. If the growing season has been good with adequate water and sunshine, harvesting sweet potatoes should begin about 100-110 days after planting depending on the variety. Fantastic, Carolyn! And, good luck with your own harvest! I don’t have a lot of hope this year I think I got them in the ground after our heat was too much here and most haven’t done much of anything, only 3 have really vined. My sweetyyys turns rubbery what did I do wrong So hopefully the week they sat in the bucket in my kitchen was warm enough to help them along thanks for your wonderful blog. Don’t wait for that first frost, or those first cold nights. I’ve got Beauregard and garnets. Plenty of vines and leaves but no sweet potatoes. Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. Jeanne, Here we have many HOA’s that won’t let you have anything non desert ie gravel and catus luckily mine is not that strict all also have plenty of back yard space. It is very delicious. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. A clear sky. Maybe a container that’s a bit less permeable, like a large pot or a half whiskey barrel? Thank you for the advise, I compost all winter and the compost I use in If you didn’t use those tubers, you totally can next time. Congrats also on that impressive pumpkin harvest. Thanks for your input. The vines grew like mad. Not a ton of them but enough for the two of us. You may be able to keep some of the vines alive by replanting them after harvesting, but they will be diminished for sure. I am from NC and know exactly what type of soil you have! They need room for the roots to branch out. I didnt grow my own slips (too impatient for that! It sounds like you have done an excellent job building up your garden soil! http://www.williams-kitchen.com/2012/11/sweet-potato-hash-egg-bake/. Your slips sound wonderfully healthy! To answer your questions, I actually find it’s easier to skip the heat+humidity style of curing, and instead just move the sweets directly into storage. waiting to see how it turns out, it’s summer here now. [Update: The theory is correct. My problem is that down here it seems most things tend to cook in the summer sun and my harvest from the garden has been really disappointing. We will see how it goes. This was the first time i attempted to grow any sweet potatoes. I only have 3 tubers and have been hunting all over about “can I cook them now instead of waiting?”. As an alternative, I’m using halved whiskey barrels (easily large enough for three slips), homemade wooden planters, and big store-bought ceramic planters. This will be my first year container gardening. Wow! Will a month “cure” the spuds? In the meantime, if you want to read about how to cure your sweets right now, check out this article in Mother Earth News: Grow Sweet Potatoes — Even in the North. Just cook them up like you might cook up some spinach. When to harvest sweet potatoes depends largely on the seasonal growing. And sweet potatoes continue to grow in popularity, period.”. Either way, I'd love to hear from you. Don’t drop them. Otherwise, just wait about 120 days for both. However, given enough time, I suspect they will grow back. I’d suggest doing a small “test” harvest on one plant to see how they look, and then go from there. The longer you wait, the bigger the potatoes, but you are gambling with the weather. Thanks for the information. Your instincts are correct — no need to harvest until you’re closer to the first frost. I had tried the yellow variety from the grocery a few years ago, but the roots were all skinny, like horizontal growing carrots… no success at all with that variety. Whatever you do, good luck with the sweet potatoes and please report back with your results! Harvest sweet potatoes when they reach your preferred size. Instead, look at your calendar, and plan to harvest your sweets about 120 days after you planted them. Sweet potatoes prefer “lean” soil, meaning soil that’s not rich with nutrients or organic matter. That are looking great. Also, try a couple different varieties of sweets. Sunny. I now have 2 beautiful big plants. Has any one every tried to grow the sweets hydroponically? God did the rest. My biggest tubers and best-producing plants were all in full or nearly full sun. Can you tell me how to save for next year. You’ll find more about my experience here: http://www.outlawgarden.com/2013/10/31/no-more-bushel-baskets/. Harvested acreage also has increased, from132 acres in 2012 to 223 acres in 2017. each! My basement is usually cooler so it probably won’t even be 60 down there. We have a nice plant now. Congrats on your sweet potatoes! We have to be careful here because most things that are typically full sun can handle our sun. The difference is that the ornamental varieties are bred for their looks and not for flavor or tuber size. That’s one of the reasons I so love the plants. I’ll take this kind of year anytime you want to give it to me.”. Last year’s tubers were stored in a cardboard box on the floor of my pantry and were still edible when this year’s crop started to come in. It’s going to be a tasty winter! There are many many variables with sweets (as with every vegetable). in ground or planter. This particular variety must have enough sugars in it that it’s not necessary to wait. I pulled all our from the tires. Last year, I planted chunks (just like planting regular potatoes) in March. Congratulations on your harvest! Sidney, you could do an experiement with perlite & vermiculite. I love it! I planted 18 sweet potato slips this spring, all started from two tubers I’d saved from my 2011 harvest. According to the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, 261 Virginia farms produced sweet potatoes for fresh market consumption, more than double the 120 farms that grew them in 2012. Of course, some folks prefer smaller sweet potato tubers because they want to be able to cook smaller portions. The roots look like long vines but no sweet potatoes. I planted my slips in May and harvested them in November. Since we’re already estimating, let’s just round up to 90 pounds. So, perhaps harvest them a few weeks before the monsoon season begins? Plant those slips. Hi Amber – I haven’t tried lining my baskets yet, simply because I haven’t planted out my sweets yet. Waiting just a tiny bit longer for the heat to really settle in… But! sweets. leaves are more sought after then the tubers. I’m new this year with sweet potatoes, I purchase slips at the feed store. Congrats! That’s perfect for most sweets. And, that means you’ll need to provide your sweets with a warm (nearly hot) and moist environment for about a week. I’m going to risk it and let them keep growing. Enjoyed your website. The Georgia Jets worked the best, though I was still disappointed with the small harvest. From edible landscapes and front yard vegetable gardens, to incorporating native plants and attracting pollinators, if you've ever questioned the "rules" of vegetable gardening, this site is for you! I presumed that it had been sprayed with something to keep it from sprouting so I visited a local upscale supermarket and bought organic sweets. How to Harvest. Stored in a single layer, or w paper between layers? Thanks! When cutting slips, make sure you get some good root nodules. This is my first try with sweet potatoes that too in a gunny bag in India. This should expose some of your sweets’ developing tubers, and give you an idea of their size. Fantastic! Thanks again. Would something a bit taller like a small trash can or laundry basket add grow space or just be wasted space at the bottom? Good luck with your sweets! PUBLISHED ON November 5, 2020. You may have a nice harvest there! The leaves begin to yellow, indicating that growth is slowing down. Yours should be just fine while you’re away. I wonder if I could drag the pot indoors if a particular night was questionable? The tops usually begin to turn yellow as it gets close to harvest time. Over 2 33 gallon trash cans currently still washing ^ cutting the leave from the Vine. That’s 87.8 pounds of sweet potatoes from the slips grown off about two pounds of roots. Didn’t have as many as I expected – unless they are still down there! What is a tuber? In any event, they should be harvested before frost. The “tuber” is the swollen root that you would buy at the food store for eating. My guess would be that they might dry out too quickly, but I’m not certain about that. Once frost hits, it’s best to dig them up within a day or two. A lot of those were eaten before getting to the baskets. . I freeze about ten bags of them. I don’t think the tubers would form underwater. They didn’t start to grow until late in the season (June? If you want to review a LONG list of sweet potato varieties, check out Sand Hill Preservation Center. Thanks, Melissa! If you’ve got any favorites to share, please post them in the comments below. Expect to dig up an area about the size of a hulu hoop around your plants. Sweet potatoes are usually ready to harvest about 100 days after planting, and they are not a fan of extremely wet conditions. I may plant a few slips directly in the ground this year as well. You can also harvest sweet potatoes earlier than this, when they are slightly immature. Harvesting sweet potatoes is a bit labor intensive, particularly in heavy clay soil. I’ve been feeding the stringy roots, damaged tubers and gnarly looking ones to the horses… vines, too. Like a low-quality photocopy of a beautiful photograph. We’ve got some leafy plants in there for the winter, but I’m looking forward to planting more sweets there next spring, including the Porto Ricos. Dementia Related Psychosis: Four Caregiver Facts You Need to Know, Man convicted of 2008 rape charged with murder of Prince George woman, Friends, employees gather for Sweet Emporia Bakery ribbon cutting, Board accepts bid for Confederate monument removal, Debris removal a cornerstone for City water supply, Jaycees Emporia Christmas Parade scheduled Dec. 4, Greensville Board approves supplemental payments for Co. workers, Holiday Wreath Workshop returns to local extension office Dec. 12, Emporia-Greensville testing event a “big improvement”. Peaches and blueberries fancy ornamental varieties ideally like to have a very plants. With organic soils in the comments below I only have a jungle of vines biggest tubers gnarly... Roots, and they seem to be a good growing environment did 1/4! Be harvesting them in a pan until thoroughly cooked done this fall you... About 55-70°F nearly as long as the popular Beauregard, grow very easily wilt got,... 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