Mine are.doing amazing considering they were so ignored. Some of my plants suffered like yours with bunnies. I just turned my girls loose to chase them out but then the darn dogs dug up one area trying to tear out a bunny nest. Smart rabbit build the nest under the vines. I have about 30 or 40 doing really well and 10 stragglers so we will see. Excited to see what we dig up since I have no idea about the slips I grew. They were from last year's harvest that we couldn't eat, too small, so I let them make slips. It worked so well it really surprised me how easy it was

The small roots are the best for growing slips, or at least that is what I was told as a youngster by my Grandfather. My Grandfather taught me to grow sweet potatoes when I was young. When ever I see a sweet potato I think of him. I enjoy just talking about sweet potato's as well as growing them. Water melon vines grew into my sweet potato vines and I can't tell where one starts and the other stops. I think the sweet potatoes I am growing are Beauregard, I bought them at the grocery store. I didn't plant until June 17 so I have a ways to go yet.

We bought a dozen Red Wine Velvet plants from Geroge (Macmex). So far haven't checked them. Will keep them watered and dig in about a month or so.

I don't know when I planted so I am not sure when to dig. This is only my third year to grow sweet potatoes so I am definitely still learning. I hope at least one plant is white.

It usually takes at least 100 days from planting for the roots to reach eating size but some sweet potato's take a little longer. Plus weather can also affect their growing time. I try to write when I plant mine on the calendar so I can keep up with it or I loose track of when I planted. My soil is sandy so some times the gophers find them and eat every thing in the row and I'm lucky to get anything, that is why I started with slips from a grocery store sweet potato instead of ordering special slips and loosing them to a gopher. I've never had as much rabbit trouble as this year. I expect it will be at least another 30 days before I do any digging. I let them grow as long as possible and hope there isn't an early frost.

luvncannin, I don't advise this but it will work if you have to do it. If you don't remember when you planted your Sweet Potato's you can leave them until the weather starts calling for frost then dig them if you can't dig them right then you can cut the vines off at ground level and cover the stub with a little soil and then dig the next day. If the vines get froze it will go into the roots but if there is no vine they will be all right for a little while but they would need to be dug pretty quick. But it is a long time yet for frost. You can usually tell if you have any roots by the ground cracking under the stem where it comes out of the ground. Take your finger and dig around in the cracked soil and you should be able to feel the tops of the potatoes.

Macmex , Those are a pretty bunch of sweet potato vines. Do you water your sweet potatoes and if so how often? On occasion I will water mine but this year it was so hot I didn't feel like getting out in the heat, I feel bad about being so lazy, but it seems like I can't handle the heat as well as I used to. My mother used to dig a place at the end of her garden and cover a couple of sweet potatoes so they would make slips, which she would plant in the middle of where she had her Irish Potatoes after they were dug, usually about 6 rows of Irish Potatoes. one year she tried to plant her sweet potatoes where they would get a good watering from the irrigation gun when we watered peanuts. I helped her plant the slips that day and ask her about why she didn't use all of the sweet potato slips as there were enough slips for another row. She said that those left were just to small and that she only used the bigger and best looking slips and that she would throw the small ones away. Her garden ran a long side a fence next to the dirt road that past in front of our house and she would set back about 10-15 ft. from the fence because the traffic stirred up to much dust and it would settle on that side of the garden and she didn't like the dust choking out what ever she planted over there. I ask her if I could plant the short sweet potato slips in a row over there and she said that it would be a waste of time and that the dust would keep the all ready small slips from growing. A day or so later my Grand Pa, her father, came by and went out to look at her garden and noticed the small slips and ask why she had not used them and was told the same thing she had told me earlier. I went to visit my Grand Pa and he brought up the sweet potato slips. We discussed the road and dust and he ask me if I would like to teach my mother a lesson, which I was all for it, he told me to take the small slips and plant them over in the area next to the fence, as my mother kept it clean of grass & weeds and would be ready to plant. He told me to water them until I could see that they had started to grow and to keep them hoed clean of weeds & grass. He said that the small slips would make just as good sweet potatoes as the larger better looking slips. That summer it didn't rain except for a couple of light showers. My mother kept scolding me that I was wasting my time with trying to grow those small slips in all that dust. My mothers sweet potato row got watered several times by the irrigation and the vines were huge to my small vines only grew about 3 ft. or so. But I watched over them all summer and then later that fall when it started to get cool my mother dug her row and it was a disaster she had many 2-3 ft. roots covered with what looked like hair, more like a tree root, all about the size of a hoe or shovel handle. She was very disappointed, I ask her if she had checked my row, which I knew there were potatoes there because of the cracked soil and had felt them under the soil but didn't know just what size they would be. She told me that if she didn't have anything worth while under her's that there sure wasn't anything under my little small vines as they had not gotten any water all summer, except what I had carried and poured over them. Well I preceded out to the garden and pulled up a vine that had 3 small baking size sweet potatoes on it then pulled a couple more and took them to show my mother. Was she ever surprised and thought I was telling a story until she went and looked for her self, every plant had from 3-4 nice size little sweet potatoes on them and she kept saying she couldn't believe it. So it's not always the prettiest slips that will make the Sweet potatoes.

I love that. It's true with many plants. Often the biggest prettiest aren't the best. My best sweet potatoes the first year I grew them kept getting chewed off by rabbits. Finally they left it alone and it made the best looking and tasting potatoes. Not many but I got a few. Enough to encourage me to do it again and again.

I can't wait to taste those potatoes.

What's your favorite way to eat them ?

When the roots are hairy, I think they somehow received too much nitrogen.

I planted mine under plastic and put in a drip tape. However we had so much precipitation this summer that I only ran the drip for maybe three or four times, and that, only for about an hour.

If I had the time I probably would have thrown the vines back on themselves, a couple of times, to keep them from rooting. But I frankly didn't have time. So we'll see.

My favorite way to cook sweet potatoes is to bake them. I've learned that they develop the very best flavor if I bake them longer than one might think they should. I have a sweet potato for my morning snack at work most days. I arrive at 6 AM and generally, by 6:30 I put my sweet potato in the convection oven. Most people don't arrive til 8 AM, so I'm not bothering anyone. I time it for 80 minutes at 325 F. That sweet potato comes out of the oven so soft and sweet as candy! I let it cool until 9 AM, when I have my break.

My wife cuts them into stews. They are quite good that way too!

I learned to do that too, cook them longer in the oven. Since I don't use that much I usually fry thick slices in tallow or coconut oil. I put a lid on until they are soft and then take the lid off and carmelize the outside. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Or salt. They are really good and pretty fast like that.

I like a baked sweet potato, too, but for convenience, I cube them, spritz with olive oil and roast on a baking sheet seasoned either with salt and pepper or a little cinnamon and sugar.

I never throw my vines back on themselves, they just sprawl all over where ever they want. I guess I am the most unhealthiest eater in the place I smear real butter all over my sweet potato and bake it in the oven, no set time just let it stay in there until the skin puffs up loose from the potato then it's done. I peel off the skin and put a pat of butter on the potato and let it melt and eat. I also love what I call fried sweet potatoes. I peel the sweet potato and slice it into thin wheels, then melt butter in a skillet and mix in the sweet potato wheels until they all have some melted butter on them and turn the fire to low and put a lid over the skillet and kind of let them steam after they get to where they are soft and done take the lid off and add a little sorghum or white corn syrup and sort of let them fry for a few minutes until all of them have some syrup on them. I guess this would really be candied sweet potatoes but we always called it fried sweet potatoes when I was young.

Those sound good too. I am not quite sure when to harvest bit one site said when leaves start yellowing a bit. Mine haven't yellowed at all so I will wait.

Some will never yellow. Once the plants have produced an acceptable size root crop, it's fine to harvest. Sweet potatoes never have to "mature." I normally wait until nights are getting pretty cool and start digging. But this year I'm starting early. It is also normal for me, that before I can finish, some of the roots have gotten hit by a cold soaking rain and are damaged. They're still good to eat. But they won't keep so well. So, Lord willing, I will start digging in a week. It'll take me a couple weeks to finish.

Note: Early varieties simply size up more quickly than do late varieties. Both will continue growing their roots until cold stops them. One pound is what most people prefer for root size. I like them any size I can get them. Some, like Grand Asia, regularly produce 4 lb roots for me. This would be an early variety. As its roots would be at the 1 lb stage long before I generally dig them.

Many times dry weather can cause the vines to yellow. I agree with Macmex size is not so much important. Sweet Potatoes will keep pretty well as long as it is not to wet or cold. Unless there is an early freeze there is no big hurry right now. Any time after the next couple of weeks will be a good time to dig the sweet potatoes. I hardly ever dig before the 1 st. of October. The best way is to check to see if the soil is cracking and pushing up around the stem of the plant if you see this and can feel some sweet potato tops then it's up to you. My Granddad always liked the ones about the same size as the baking size potatoes like the ones sold in the stores, he said they were just about right for one person to eat for a meal. Of course everyone likes to have a bunch of big ones under each vine.

I actually prefer the smaller ones when I have to purchase them because they tend to be stringy when they are big.

Do you eat the vines/leaves?

I have tasted the leaves but they don't seem to have much flavor to me. But I understand that people do eat them and also use them like greens.

The other night we cut a bunch of sweet potato vine tips and leaves. We mixed them into a stir fry. They were good! We have found a new fall vegetable! I'm going to start digging some sweet potatoes tomorrow.

George

Macmex, I am just a little envious, I wish I had some ready to dig. Do you go by how many days they have been in the ground from planting or do you just start digging up a sample to see what they look like? Mine wont be planted 100 days until Sept. 27. I have been watching them and see some major cracking under the stems where they grow up out of the ground. I don't know if another week will make any difference or not. I just hope there will be a few big enough to eat.

Once back in the late 1940's or early 1950 my Grandpa happened to find a single small sweet potato slip in the corner of the yard where my Grandma would dump out the kitchen scraps for the chickens. He dug up the little slip and took it to the barn where he had a pig pen about maybe 12'X12', just for one pig to fatten. He cleaned off the grass & weeds and dug a hole in the center of the pen about the size of a 16" truck tire. This hole he filled with straw and manure from the milk cow stall to the top of the ground then pulled all the dirt back up on to the mound to make a hill. Then punched a hole in the middle of the hill with a crowbar and planted his sweet potato slip and kept it watered and hoed clean of weeds all summer. Late in the fall after it got cool he decided to dig his "sweet potato's" he just knew there would maybe be a bushel of sweet potatoes under the vine as it had covered to hole pen. He started to pull back the dirt and all he could find was one great big giant sweet potato about the size of a gallon jug. The town bank had a large picture window where they would display vegetables that customers would bring in with a card with their name on it. Grandpa carried his potato to town in a sack and went to see the banker and ask if he could put a sweet potato in the window, which the banker said he could. Grandpa pulled his giant sweet potato out of the sack and the banker, who was an old man, jaw dropped open and said he had never seen a sweet potato that big. He went and moved all the other stuff in the window to the side and set this giant sweet potato in the center of the window and put a card with my Grandpa's name on it in front of it. It stayed there until the sweet potato dried completely up and mummified. My Grandpa enjoyed telling about his giant sweet potato for many years after that. I thought I would share it with anyone interested.

Cute story Authere. Everyone is making me wish I had planted sweet potatoes. Guess I just have to enjoy my mountain of winter squash instead. LOL I picked either 11 or 12 this morning, but haven't even managed to get them in the house and weighed yet, but probably 40-50 pounds.

As long as the weather is warm and nights aren't very cool the sweet potato plants will continue growing at a good pace. Once things cool down, it won't make much difference, leaving them in the ground much longer. Days to maturity aren't as important as how many HOT days one has.

I'm going to start digging today, just because it takes me a while to dig them. And, the rats are encroaching. I keep killing them. But they keep coming.

I think I've posted this old picture before. This sweet potato came out of our 2000 garden when we lived in Hidalgo, Mexico. The variety was indistinguishable from Grand Asia, which I presently grow.

I am going to try the vines stir fry. I need some greens. Our nights have dropped to 58 and lower. Our days are still warming up to high 70s. I will probably try to dig some this week.

We used some greens in a stir fry. They were very good! The next evening we cooked some up and served them like spinach. Again, they were VERY good!

Sunday afternoon I dug just two plants of Red Wine Velvet. The soil was bone dry, which makes me think that my drip irrigation didn't reach to the end of the line. The harvest from those two plants was not impressive. But the roots were acceptable in size and they had no rodent damage. When I cut the vines from those two plants I took my time, trimming and saving growing tips and a fair amount of leaves. Later, I rinsed, blanched and froze enough greens for two very hearty meals in the winter.

I'm glad to hear you had some good roots. It is interesting that you like the greens. I have never tasted them cooked but might try it.

Macmex, Is there a difference in taste of Red Wine Velvet, Oklahoma Red & Porte Rican sweet potatoes? Just wondering.

There is a difference, though it is very hard to describe. They're all good. Essentially, all I can confidently assert is that the Red Wine Velvet tend to be more moist when cooked. Oklahoma Red and Porto Rico sweet potatoes are more standard in their texture. I probably couldn't distinguish them in a blind taste test.

An interesting aside on Oklahoma Red, is that the variety was developed for growing in heavy clay soil. When I first grew it, I found it produced a lot of really skinny, long roots. Later I found it produced some very good crops of regular size/shape roots. Then, eventually I realized that the skinny long roots are what you get when the ground is so hard that the plant has difficulty penetrating deeply. The regular roots are what you get when they have little or no difficulty sending the roots down deep.

I evaluate a lot of vegetable varieties by asking myself, "Could I live with just this one? Would I be able to be content with it?" If I can say, "yes," then that puts it up there as one of the best. All three of these varieties pass that test.

Another way to fix sweet potatoes is to let them bake until good and soft and mash it up and mix it in regular muffin mix and it makes some real good tasting muffins. It's also good mixed in pancake mix.

I moved a little soil from a few plants to see if anything was there and found the white sweets are doing great. I have no clue what's what but I like them all. I would have to say I do prefer purple or white.

One of the best things about sweet potatoes is how they can surprise you when you aren't really expecting much and you start digging and find some real nice size sweet potatoes, it is suddenly a great day.

That is so true. No one gets excited with me about the gardens stuff. Most people think I am nuts to plant so much. But I seriously like sweet potatoes, every day.

Coming Soon!

Old Fashion Sweet Potato Pie,

2 Cups baked sweet potato pulp, (mash until very soft)

1/2 Stick Melted butter

1/2 Cup milk

1/4 Tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 Tsp. salt

2 eggs (beaten)

1 Tsp. vanilla extract (or 2 Tbsps. Whiskey)

2 Tbsps. brown sugar * (optional)

1/4 Tsp. ground clove

Any kind of pie crust in 8" baking dish/aluminum pan

Mix beaten sweet potato pulp, butter, eggs, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon, salt, sugar in mixing bowl. Then pour into pie crust dish/pan and sprinkle ground clove over the top and place pie in 350 degree oven. Let bake 45/60 min. until done.

This is a very old recipe that my Grandfather used. After my Grandmother died he would bake it around Thanks Giving or Christmas. He always stressed that a sweet potato pie ought to taste like sweet potato not like a pumpkin pie.

I am going to use this recipe for my family this year thank you it sounds delicious

Dug my first plant today. After paying too much for sweet potatoes again I must grow more sweets next year. There are 16. I am thrilled

Save a couple and start slips in March. That should save a lot of money.

Also, last year I had a terrible crop due to rats eating them in the field. I waited until about three days after Thanksgiving and then purchased 70 lb of sweet potatoes, at Walmart. They went from over a dollar a pound to only 33 cents a pound. Silly people! Sweet potatoes are everyday good food, not just at Thanksgiving!

Since I have A LOT of dietary restrictions I use sweet potatoes to keep my blood sugar up and stable. It works much better than fruit. I usually eat one a day! I also have to eat organic since I have chemical sensitivity. I can't always afford it but I do try. That's why growing my own food is so important to me.

I Saved mytiny tubers last year and that's how I got my slips this year. It was amazingly easy. I had more slips than I could plant. My ex boss told me how he did it and it worked.

The only trouble is I have no idea which is which plant until I dig. The first 3 were white which I like when I am craving a regular potato.

luvncannin, Looks like you hit the jackpot ! Digging potato's of any kind is an adventure. I always get excited to see how turn out. Have you ever read about George Washington's work with Sweet potatoes ? It is interesting.

It thrills me to no end when I dig sweets. And if I get 1 good one I am saying thank you thank you. I love it. I could not get over 16 tubers on one plant. Next year, next year they are going in earlier

I'm in full swing with the sweet potato harvest now. The back 1/3 of my 90' row didn't get irrigation. So "pickins" were slim. But after I hit water the harvest appears to be looking up. To save time I'm going to link to my post in Green Country Seed Savers. I need to get out and do chores now!

George

2016 Sweet Potato Observations

Thanks for report George. Looking at those pictures made me so hungry for sweet potatoes and not the dry stringy things I have been getting locally.

Next year I am going to ... (famous words right)...

Use black plastic and drip line. My weed problem caused a lot of my crops to fail or be low in production. Also I AM going to get those slips in early.

Inspiring, George!

Both Molokai and Grand Asia tend to produce super size roots. I love it. But most consumers prefer smaller roots. You'll notice, when the grocery store is trying to sell the leftovers, after a holiday, they are usually the larger roots.

That they produce really large roots means, that in reality, these are really early varieties. Sweet potato roots just keep growing as long as they are on the plant and it is growing. So, if I was pressed to produce a crop, and I waited until, say, the third week of July to plant slips, one of these would probably be a good choice.

Here's a picture of the largest root, so far, this year. I suspect this is it. No other variety will outdo this on. I'm about 2/3 through digging now.

Wow George that is some strange huge sweet potato. I can't wait to get back and finish digging mine.

Molokai always has that strange shape. But it is hugely productive. Even though I am not a big fan of the purple fleshed types, I still eat them. They're very healthy. And my wife asks for them. One of her favorite things to do when we have company, is to bake sweet potatoes with differently colored flesh and then cut pieces, placing them with cut end up, on a plate. This produces a beautiful edible mosaic on the plate. Purple really makes it striking!

Soils that are high in organic matter may not produce quality sweet potatoes. Sweet Potatoes tolerate acidic soils and soil PH 5.0 - 6.5 for successful growth. Sweet Potato slips wont tolerate weeds so need to be kept clean until the vines are big enough to cover the ground.

luvncannin,

What are the white sweet potatoes in your picture?

George,

Mine didn't make it. The dog ate the slips when I tried to harden them off. I was really looking forward to the Molokai, too. She didn't eat the store-bought potato slips. I planted those and the rabbits went to town. Such a pathetic year.

Authereray

I ordered slips last year and these are offspring. So they could be Japanese white ?Nancy something aw shoot now I will have to find that invoice

Bon it will get better. I had a very rough start at one point sitting in garden like baby crying because I had no help, and littleman comes over from playing and says it's OK granny I can help you. Jersey the slack out of me. And we keep going

chickencoupe,

I started out with a row of 18 slips, gophers tunneled around them a rabbit nibbled them all summer and then grasshoppers tried to eat all the leaves off. I wound up with 14 plants with only 4 or 5 vines with any sweet potatoes under them the rest had their roots cut off by gophers, I was surprised that they were still living, I guess it was because I watered them by hand every once in a while through the summer. But I plan to plant some more next year if I am able. I was as proud of my 2 gal. water bucket full of sweet potatoes as if it had been a good big harvest.

Maybe next year things will be better for you. We never know if we don't try.

Good Luck.

I dug the bulk of my sweet potatoes today. 29 plants yielded 122 edible tubers and 95 pounds total. That's counting edible and tiny tubers. The biggest show off plant was a white on white weighing 11 pounds and 24 tubers. The biggest single is a pretty red skin white flesh over 2 pounds. I only dug whiteflesh and orange flesh. Still hoping there are some purples and reds. This is the biggest producer.