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Author Topic: Sweet Potatoes  (Read 8258 times)

Offline paus

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #20 on: November 15, 2016, 12:06:14 am »
From the home of the "YAMBOREE" Gilmer Texas.  I have raised SP most of my life.  Bed out SP in late winter about 6-8 weeks before the guaranteed last frost. Sweet taters love warm days and nights, and sandy soil. When the "slips" or rooted SP sprouts, get about 8" tall they should have a root system that will start to grow immediately.  Plant them on a bed or raised bed or even in pots.  This is foreign to me as a small patch is 5 acres.  They do not like wet feet, the beauregard is a great variety, paus

Offline divemaster1963

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #21 on: November 15, 2016, 12:21:29 pm »
the way my family has grown any potato has been towers. we used tractor tires and strted from groud up. let them grow till tops where up the placed another tire and filled till just tops showing. get them to about 5 tires high then when ready to harvest just knock them over always got the bigest harvest from doing this. you can even use wire compost towers. have even planted tomatos out the sides of them and let them hang down cucnbers even grow great down the sides. when season ends just add more compost to top for next year.

john

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #22 on: November 16, 2016, 12:35:44 pm »
John,
When you added another tire, did you add sprouts? How many plants did you put in each stack?
Do new potatoes grow in each layer from the same plant?
Jim
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Offline divemaster1963

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #23 on: November 16, 2016, 12:51:46 pm »
John,
When you added another tire, did you add sprouts? How many plants did you put in each stack?
Do new potatoes grow in each layer from the same plant?
Jim
hey jim just added dirt to cover folage till top third. just likeplanting tomatoes. roots and spuds will develop from the stems covered by dirt. you will triple your yeild per plant. if the soil is rich enough one plant  for 20 inch tires. tractor tires maybe two or three. (farm tractor) tractor trailer ( one maybe two)

john

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #24 on: November 16, 2016, 11:59:44 pm »
Thanks John,
That sounds like a good trick. I will have to try it.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline Eric Bosworth

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #25 on: November 29, 2016, 09:23:36 am »
I haven't read all the posts in this thread but my results with sweet potatoes were not real good. One thing that I think would have helped would be something for the vines to climb. What happened to me was that the vines started growing roots in the grass next to the grow bed and the tubers never got real big. The plants looked really healthy but I just didn't get any crop. I also think that the deeper the bed the better. I have a raised cold frame that I think I could start them in early with the top closed and then open it up when the weather gets warmer and the plants get bigger. Then I could put lattice up the side of my wood shed and it could climb over the summer. The problem with that is my wife usually plants something else in the cold frame like beets and Swiss chard that will grow when we still get hard freezes.

I grow in straight up aged manure. The lady that lives down the street from my parents has her own personal petting zoo and needs someplace to put the fertilizer so I go collect it with my tractor. I just wish I had a dumping trailer. Loading is easy with the bucket of the tractor. Unloading is a pain.
All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns; that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party. ---Mao Tse Tung

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. ---Benjamin Franklin

Offline Acebird

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #26 on: November 29, 2016, 10:23:19 am »
You can't get the ground warm enough for long enough for sweet potatoes in NY.

lay metal roofing in your trailer or truck before you load it with manure.  You may have to screw a bar on the end of the panels so you can chain it off to a tree and slowly drive away leaving the majority of the pile sliding on the ground with the panel.  Once it is on the ground you can scrap it off the panel with the bucket.  If it is in a pick up bed don't pull it all the way out just far enough so the free end of the panel tips down to the ground.  It should act like a dump trailer.
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #27 on: November 29, 2016, 12:44:30 pm »
You can't get the ground warm enough for long enough for sweet potatoes in NY.

lay metal roofing in your trailer or truck before you load it with manure.  You may have to screw a bar on the end of the panels so you can chain it off to a tree and slowly drive away leaving the majority of the pile sliding on the ground with the panel.  Once it is on the ground you can scrap it off the panel with the bucket.  If it is in a pick up bed don't pull it all the way out just far enough so the free end of the panel tips down to the ground.  It should act like a dump trailer.
I like that Idea. Thanks for sharing. I am going to try to connect several panels with the ones on the sides angled up to keep the material from remaining on the sides of the truck.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline Acebird

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #28 on: November 29, 2016, 02:17:42 pm »
Just watch out for too much material that it bends and kinks the unsupported panel  or tears out the connecting bar.  You can put plastic under the panel to make it slide better.
Brian Cardinal
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Offline Eric Bosworth

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Re: Sweet Potatoes
« Reply #29 on: November 29, 2016, 02:58:42 pm »
You can't get the ground warm enough for long enough for sweet potatoes in NY.

lay metal roofing in your trailer or truck before you load it with manure.  You may have to screw a bar on the end of the panels so you can chain it off to a tree and slowly drive away leaving the majority of the pile sliding on the ground with the panel.  Once it is on the ground you can scrap it off the panel with the bucket.  If it is in a pick up bed don't pull it all the way out just far enough so the free end of the panel tips down to the ground.  It should act like a dump trailer.
Why didn't I think of that? If I do that with the big trailer next spring I should be able to do one trip and be done. I do need to get some plywood to make the sides taller but that should work great. I took a welding class once and it was mentioned how nobody ever overloads trailers. :happy: Certainly not my Dad. I think he has totally rebuilt his wood trailer 3 or 4 times and yet he refuses to give up on it.
All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns; that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party. ---Mao Tse Tung

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. ---Benjamin Franklin