Nice work, We have had 5 straight days of rain with the rest of the week predicted. I planted a late night covercrop the day before and its germinating wonderfully. Idaho doesn't see rain like this very often

We don't either. Most locations in Kansas have gotten more rain in the last 3 weeks than we have got in the last 3 months! Heavy rain called for tonight. Sweet potato slips are suppose to be delivered tomorrow.

We have gotten more rain then we will get all summer combined and its supposed to keep coming crazy

Here is my sweet potato prep. I have had it with not having proper equipment. I have a little cultivator only and it takes forever. So for the back and side I had the neighbor disc. They did a bad job so I had my landlord disc. It was still all chunky! I can't stress that enough. I run my little tiller through there and raked and then laid plastic and hoped for the best. I think the slips aren't due to arrive until like 6/1. My body can't handle this anymore without a decent tractor or big tiller.

I got mine planted today. It was 45 degrees out, but tomorrow is suppose
to be sunny and 65-70, then it will be in the mid 70-80 over the
weekend with rain. So I felt it was better to get them in, than to
wait. Also, I have school tomorrow (last day) and markets on Saturday.

A little update on my sweet potato production this year. I got in about 750 plus slips, about 500 Covington slips in and another 250 purple sweet potatoes, that we grew ourselves. Probably way more than I need, but after last years awful year, I didn't want to miss out.

Here is a a pic from June 19th, about a month after planting. I had just finished weeding the actual rows. We had been gone for close to a week prior to this.

Here is a sweet potato that I found after a little digging. I found larger ones, but this one was the easiest to get a picture of.

We have at least two more months of growth possible. I think this year it is going to be a bumper crop. I have even found some larger purple ones. They usually are much slower to size up.

It has been a challenge to keep them weeded down. I have made the effort to stay ahead and force myself to go out there and pull, pull, pull. I am to the point now I walk a row a day and pull any weeds above the canopy and pull any grass I find. A little every day makes it more manageable.

For the first month I never watered them. We were getting over an inch a week in rain, so I saw no need. However, after the June 19th picture, I put the drip out on them. I did an interesting thing with that. I just sat the drip tape on top of the plants in the center of the rows and turned it on and left it. In a few weeks, the drip tape worked its way down and the leaves covered it. When it comes to digging time, I won't have to worry about working around the drip tape buried in the ground, that will be nice.

A few observations. The ground is now cracking down the rows as the potatoes get larger. It is plenty moist and loose. The ground is really loose due to the incorporation of the oats cover crop. As the oats break down, it allowed for the soil to be looser and allow the potatoes to move and grow. I will try the oats cover crop again next year. It was a big success.

Jay