Sounds Great Wayne! Similar harvest here, one row of this year = x2 of last year. Moisture levels have been almost perfect, few lunkers here. I still will harvest the "coached" 2ndary vines that I buried in early July before 1st frost, not sure what to expect.....dinner time.....

Congrats on the great harvest! Mine haven't quite been in the ground for 100 days yet so I'm going to hold off harvesting them for a couple more weeks. This is my first time growing sweets so I'm not sure what to expect. Vardaman, Bush Porto Rico, and Betty's.

LoneJack, Did you have to wait and get yours from Sand Hill Farm?

I got some from there years ago. I think Ivis was the name. It produced small very uniform white ones, but hey, why raise white sweetpotates? I raise regular ones for that....white does not have the flavor like colored veggies do.

Wayne - yes I bought the slips from Sand Hill and they didn't arrive until June 10th. I think the cold spring delayed producing slips since they grow them outside now.

I found that raising slips from potatoes in jars can produce some early enough. When I started them outside, it helps to start them under clotches, but they really don't get covered with slips with great roots about June 7th here ...kinda late.

First time growing sweet potatoes and having a hard time getting them out of my hard sandy soil.

Most have broken off using various methods. Have tried pitchfork, two foot trench shovel, and potato digger with the same poor results. Any ideas on how I can get these out in tact? Are they okay to eat if they are snapped off? Considering using the end loader if I can make some repairs first.

I first locate the original plant/hill and start digging deep on one side to carefully expose the bulk of the potatoes under the plant. Then down on hands and knees to hand dig them out with trowel to avoid breakage, it can be a painstakingly slow process. Do the same working down the length of the row. As for the SPs rooted along the random runner vines it's trickier, like playing a game of Battleship.

I make a 'great big ridge'. That is half of the battle. My soil is so amended loose that I dug them by hand.

It will be interesting to see what my soil is like after I pull back the black plastic that I planted them through. I amended the raised bed well with compost pre-planting and put a soaker hose under the plastic. I am surprised that the plants didn't vine out too far from the bed frame but I planted short vining bush varieties for that reason.

they are fine if broken. a broadfork works well.

How do you store them and how long?

After some initial drying....which advice runs the gauntlet, they need to be stored in reduced light at 55° and not disturbed. I find they keep well until the end of the year, but more perfect temps and humidity likely would keep good flavor longer.

Randy- Thanks, I'll try the broadfork tomorrow if it's not raining!

We were finally hit with a light spotty frost early this morning but it was just enough to wipe out the SP vines a bit over 50%. So dug up 1/3 of them today, These are the 2nd gen SP "rows" that were started in late June, purposely buried vines in a line on both sides of the original "mother" row. Harvest is good, many baker sizes and no lunkers, zero, the rains from Flo & Michael didn't hurt.

Several 2-finger sizes that are destined to casarolI dishes. I estimate that these 2nd rows produced a roughly equal amount compared to the mother plants. Those may have become lunkers (disfigured) if I hadn't dug those up around Labor Day. I'll wrap up the others this week, digging up them suckers ain't as easy as it used to be, and x-ray vision would be helpful.

Where's the photos of the sweet potatoes? :-)

Here is a photo of about 1/2 of my harvest. Nothing to write home about but I'll take what I can get!

Garden pictures · More Info

Nice photo - that's a very good amount of sweet potatoes and some of them are good size. You are in zone 6a as am I, does that shorten the growing season to produce larger potatoes, or is it simply variety dependent?

I don't grow sweet potatoes. Recently, I bought some at two local organic farm stands. One had gorgeous plump sweet potatoes with very clean skin and rich deep color and the other was definitely not as attractive. So, I am encouraged that someone can grow such good looking sweet potatoes in my area. I'm going to have to find out what variety they use.

We only eat sweet potatoes not white.

The growing season is plenty long in my area. You need about 110 days from planting slips to harvest. I didn't plant my slips until June 10 and harvested in early October. Of the 3 types I grew (Betty's, Bush Porto Rico, and Vardaman) I was most impressed with the consistent shape, size, and skin of Vardaman. Porto Rico had some of the largest roots but a lot of them were irregular shapes. Betty's were all pretty small. If I grow some next year I think I will just stick with Vardaman.

That being said, I haven't eaten any yet so that may change my thoughts. I'm trying to finish off my Irish potato harvest before they go bad.

So June 10th to Oct 7th is about 119 days. So long enough, right? Do you feel they could go in earlier in the season?

I'd love to try sweet potatoes, but my neighbors trees have grown tall enough to shade my vegetable garden a fair part of the day. I can get some peppers by the end of the season and a few cherry tomatoes out back - string beans - a few times I've gotten cucumbers - squash has a hard time. I might get a couple of squash out of a planting and not worth the room they take. I tried white potatoes in a container in the full sun front yard and that worked out fairly well. I just don't think you get the same nutrition in a pot that you can in the ground.

Enjoy your potato harvest! :-). They sound delicious. And would be interested to hear how you like the Vardaman sweet potatoes after you try them.

Yes, they could go in at least a couple weeks earlier here. I ordered my slips from Sandhill preservation and they don't start shipping before June 1. I'm not sure they would do well in a very shady area as they are a heat lover.

I'll try to remember to report back on how I like each variety for taste and texture.

I grew sweet potatoes for the first time this year and it just about killed me digging them out of our hard sandy soil. Many broke off and many had rodent damage. I was thinking that I would never grow them again, but my customers have been very excited about them and they have been selling out every week. I finally got them dug out with my broadfork which Randy had recommended.

I have had some trouble in recent years with mouse/vole damage on sweetpotatoes. What I do is lay a black plastic 'mulch' [5 feet wide and 6 mil ] on a high ridge and seal the sides and ends well with dirt. I have very small 1¼ inch holes for the plant that pretty well seals up later with the vines. I set a mouse trap at each end of the row and service it regularlly. I caught 16 or 17 mice and voles this season and had no damage.

It is easy to plant the slips in a small hole. Just take a broom handle stick and punch a hole 6 inches deep and plant the slip...adjusting the height as needed. Then add plenty of dirt and water well for a week.

Wow, that's ingenious, Wayne. Good job. I'll have to remember that if I ever have vole/mouse damage.

We dug ours today. I grow all of my stuff in raised beds which makes digging them pretty easy. I planted these the first of May. These came from 4 plants that took over a 4x8 ft raised bed. We got some Frankenpotatoes