Pacific Northwest Garden Forum: about sweet potatoes

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CJoy
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Joined: Apr-09-2011
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posts: 100

Topic: about sweet potatoes
Posted: Jul-30-2011 at 11:06am

I like to try something new every year, and this year Territorial Seed had an ad for sweet potato slips. I got a dozen, followed instruction and when the soil finaly reached 55 degrees put the slips into the prepared soil. It was painful getting them through June, but they began to get serious about growing after the 4th of July, 5 are still alive and growing well, but it looks like they are growing more like a vine.? is that what I am to expect? I have them well covered with straw--about 8 inches after hilling up the soil. I have not yet convinced myself or the sweet potatoes that Portland is able to fake Georgia weather! Any experience or advice would be welcome.

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greenmann
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Joined: Jan-13-2006
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posts: 534

Posted: Aug-03-2011 at 1:11am

I have no experience growing the edible ones here, but I did plant them while a volunteer in Panama. And yes, Sweet Potatoes are a vine, a rather vigourous one in the tropics. I suspect for best yields here you might want to try a hoop house or something like that, what many here recommend for tomatoes and peppers. In the tropics, they often grow them at the base of a burned out tree and let the vines clamber up into the tree. For better yield, you may want to try letting the runners climb a pole or two on some and see how that affects things. Good luck with them! Hope you get a good harvest

Green Man Gardens
design and consulting with a focus on native plants and wildlife habitat

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CJoy
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Joined: Apr-09-2011
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posts: 100

Posted: Aug-03-2011 at 6:31pm

Who knew? I sure didnt know they were a vine. I have them enclosed in a temporary raised bed made of 8x16x6 cement blocks without any mechanism to provide a trunk to clime! Live and learn. or live and get real. I probably should have googled Georgia Ag--if there is one.
As long as they are growing I'll keep watering!

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greenmann
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Joined: Jan-13-2006
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posts: 534

Posted: Aug-04-2011 at 9:49am

bamboo poles or the like should work. Even a tomato cage or somethng like that... they don't need much, though the vines can get pretty appressive in the tropics. Dunno about here.. the ornamental ones I have tried in baskets and such are pretty wimpy compared to what I remember in Panama, lol, but that is partly variety too, i am sure.

Green Man Gardens
design and consulting with a focus on native plants and wildlife habitat

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CJoy
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Joined: Apr-09-2011
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posts: 100

Posted: Oct-25-2011 at 1:10pm

I just dug up the sweet potatoes because it got cold enough last night to make the vines look pretty pathetic.
As Greenmann indicated, they did grow vine like and did take advantage of the bamboo stakes, but were not agressive. They have 2 styles of roots, there were multiple small white fiberous roots, and then 5 or 6 deep pink underground stems about as thick as a zinnia which began to swell and the potato would continue to enlarge at the end of the stem. some grew horizontally, but some grew straight up and down into the heavy clay subsoil making it harder to get them out. My "crop of 5 slips produced 5 that were 9 to 17 oz. and 8 that were about 5 to 8 oz. and a bunch of baby fingerlings. If we had had a little more heat earlier this summer or a longer period of over 80 degree days,...bla,bla,bla. According to an article I found, to properly cure them they need to be in a 80 or 90 degree place, well ventilated with moist air. Doesn't sound like a PNW description of fall, does it? I don't want to discourage others from trying, but advise you learn a whole lot more than I did before you start in because 35 years of raising vegetable gardens in Oregon is not adequate.

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JeanneK
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Joined: Jul-28-2003
Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro
Posts: 2068

Posted: Oct-25-2011 at 1:33pm

Very interesting CJoy. Thanks for the info. Hmm, yes, heat loving veggies do have a tough time with the PNW, even in a "normal" year, whatever that is!

Jeanne

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Author	Message
CJoy none Joined: Apr-09-2011 Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro Posts: 100	Topic: about sweet potatoes Posted: Jul-30-2011 at 11:06am
	I like to try something new every year, and this year Territorial Seed had an ad for sweet potato slips. I got a dozen, followed instruction and when the soil finaly reached 55 degrees put the slips into the prepared soil. It was painful getting them through June, but they began to get serious about growing after the 4th of July, 5 are still alive and growing well, but it looks like they are growing more like a vine.? is that what I am to expect? I have them well covered with straw--about 8 inches after hilling up the soil. I have not yet convinced myself or the sweet potatoes that Portland is able to fake Georgia weather! Any experience or advice would be welcome.
	CJ

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greenmann none Joined: Jan-13-2006 Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor Posts: 534	Posted: Aug-03-2011 at 1:11am
	I have no experience growing the edible ones here, but I did plant them while a volunteer in Panama. And yes, Sweet Potatoes are a vine, a rather vigourous one in the tropics. I suspect for best yields here you might want to try a hoop house or something like that, what many here recommend for tomatoes and peppers. In the tropics, they often grow them at the base of a burned out tree and let the vines clamber up into the tree. For better yield, you may want to try letting the runners climb a pole or two on some and see how that affects things. Good luck with them! Hope you get a good harvest
	Green Man Gardens design and consulting with a focus on native plants and wildlife habitat
	IP Logged

CJoy none Joined: Apr-09-2011 Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro Posts: 100	Posted: Aug-03-2011 at 6:31pm
	Who knew? I sure didnt know they were a vine. I have them enclosed in a temporary raised bed made of 8x16x6 cement blocks without any mechanism to provide a trunk to clime! Live and learn. or live and get real. I probably should have googled Georgia Ag--if there is one. As long as they are growing I'll keep watering!
	CJ
	IP Logged

greenmann none Joined: Jan-13-2006 Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor Posts: 534	Posted: Aug-04-2011 at 9:49am
	bamboo poles or the like should work. Even a tomato cage or somethng like that... they don't need much, though the vines can get pretty appressive in the tropics. Dunno about here.. the ornamental ones I have tried in baskets and such are pretty wimpy compared to what I remember in Panama, lol, but that is partly variety too, i am sure.
	Green Man Gardens design and consulting with a focus on native plants and wildlife habitat
	IP Logged

CJoy none Joined: Apr-09-2011 Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro Posts: 100	Posted: Oct-25-2011 at 1:10pm
	I just dug up the sweet potatoes because it got cold enough last night to make the vines look pretty pathetic. As Greenmann indicated, they did grow vine like and did take advantage of the bamboo stakes, but were not agressive. They have 2 styles of roots, there were multiple small white fiberous roots, and then 5 or 6 deep pink underground stems about as thick as a zinnia which began to swell and the potato would continue to enlarge at the end of the stem. some grew horizontally, but some grew straight up and down into the heavy clay subsoil making it harder to get them out. My "crop of 5 slips produced 5 that were 9 to 17 oz. and 8 that were about 5 to 8 oz. and a bunch of baby fingerlings. If we had had a little more heat earlier this summer or a longer period of over 80 degree days,...bla,bla,bla. According to an article I found, to properly cure them they need to be in a 80 or 90 degree place, well ventilated with moist air. Doesn't sound like a PNW description of fall, does it? I don't want to discourage others from trying, but advise you learn a whole lot more than I did before you start in because 35 years of raising vegetable gardens in Oregon is not adequate.
	CJ
	IP Logged

JeanneK none Joined: Jul-28-2003 Location: Oregon, Greater Portland Metro Posts: 2068	Posted: Oct-25-2011 at 1:33pm
	Very interesting CJoy. Thanks for the info. Hmm, yes, heat loving veggies do have a tough time with the PNW, even in a "normal" year, whatever that is!
	Jeanne
	IP Logged