Archive for January, 2010

In an effort to save a little money, a lot of gardeners save their own seeds.  Sometimes this works, sometimes not.  The trick is to know the difference between “open pollinated” varieties and “hybrids.” 

There’s a popular misconception about hybrids.  A lot of folks think there’s something “unnatural” about them and steer clear, opting instead for more old-fashioned varieties. That’s too bad, because naturally hybridized plants help gardeners grow bigger, better fruits and flowers with less fertilizers and pesticides.  They are the organic gardener’s best friends.  Read the rest of this entry »

If you garden in Zone 5 or warmer, you can grow your own sweet potatoes and—once you get started—you can have a bigger and better patch every year without spending a dime!

Home-grown sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are members of the Morning Glory family.  They are sometimes incorrectly called yams, but yams are another vegetable altogether (Dioscorea batatas), although the two can sometimes be used interchangeably.

To start your never-ending sweet potato patch, you’ve got two choices: either buy sweet potatoes at your grocery store sometime between November and January and start your own plants, or wait until spring and buy plants at a nursery.  I think starting your own plants is more fun (and cheaper!), so that’s what we’ll cover here.

1.  Look for firm, clean sweet potatoes at the local grocery store. It’s not common, but sometimes vegetables are irradiated to prevent them from sprouting, so you might want to ask.  Size doesn’t matter.

2. At home, fill a container with good quality, sterile, moist potting soil. Depending on how many plants you want to start, use either individual small pots or one really big pot.  A windowbox type planter works well too.

The tiny dark red or brown "eyes" will sprout.

3. Each sweet has a “sprouting” end that has very tiny little bumps or “eyes.”  Cut off about 2 inches of this end. (You can plant very small sweets whole.) Set the cut ends on a piece of newspaper to dry for a day. This prevents them from rotting.   Cook up what’s left for supper!

4. Plant the cut ends by setting them cut side down on a few inches of potting soil. Cover with more soil, so that the tips are about a 1/4 inch below the surface.  Water lightly.  Keep the soil just barely moist until the sweets sprout; never let it dry out completely, but make sure the starts don’t sit in wet soil or they will rot.

5. Cover the planted pots with clear plastic and set them in a warm, lighted place.  The kitchen table will do just fine.  If you see a lot of condensation on the plastic, lift it every few days to let the soil dry out a bit. 

6. Wait patiently.  It can take several months for supermarket sweets to sprout.    Check on them every so often, to make sure the soil is still nice and moist and that the planted pieces are still firm.  If any seem soft, rotten, or smelly, toss them.  The first sign of sprouting is a  swelling of the tiny reddish eyes. The earliest leaves are deep red or reddish green. 

Treat sprouted sweet potato starts as you would any houseplant.

 7. Once leaves appear, take off the plastic wrap and treat your sweet starts as you would any houseplant.  Once they’re growing well, cut back on water and allow the soil to dry out a bit between watering. They’ll do best in a brightly lit window, away from cold and drafts.  Keep an eye out for the usual houseplant bugs, like whitefly or aphids, and spray with soapy water if you spot any pests.

8. Once all danger of frost has past, and as early as you can,  plant your starts into the garden. Set them 2 to 3 feet apart, in full sun.  Water them for the first week or two if you don’t get adequate rainfall, but don’t overdo it; sweets thrive on hot, dry summer weather.  Weed until the vines spread to form a thick mat—and they will spread, so don’t situate your sweet potato patch close to small, delicate veggies like carrots or lettuce.  I plant mine near sweet corn or pole beans. 

9. Sweets require a long growing season; here in southcentral Pennsylvania (zone 6)  I usually wait until mid to late October to harvest. They can tolerate a light frost, but its best to cover them when the nights get really cold, but there’s still promise of warm Indian summer weather ahead. You want to keep them in the ground and growing for as long as possible.  The biggest and best tubers will form as the days shorten in August and September.

10.  Harvest your sweets.  As you dig them up, you’ll find long skinny orange roots and small sweets, with bits of green vine and little roots attached.   These are next year’s starts. I usually keep pots with a mix of compost and garden soil right there with me as I harvest.  As you find these little “skinnies,” pot them up.

"Skinnies" are small sweets and underdeveloped roots that will provide next year's starts.

11. Haul in your harvest and next year’s starts.  Store sweet potatoes in a dark, fairly warm spot, like an unheated basement or root cellar.  The potted-up skinnies go upstairs,  where they’ll resume growth almost immediately.  Treat them as you would houseplants, overwintering them in a warm, well-lit spot. 

12.  In the spring, plant your starts in the garden—and there you have it: a never-ending sweet potato patch, one that can get bigger and better every year.