Potatoes grown organically

[pepe2000]

Well, getting back to potatoes,
I found a source for Green Mountain potatoes, yippie! Picked up some Kennebecks and Red Norlands today. Tilled up the potato patch today (raspberry patch to on the left of potato patch) and picked up 2 pickup loads of leaves and pine needles for mulch to add to my treasure chest. I could have filled a tractor trailer today with yard cleanup. Gold all over the curbs. My sandy soil is starting to look really good now from years of compost and cover crops. The new bees were really active today. Gorgeous day, but raining now and tomorrow will be wet, too.
Pepe

The long term compost bin. I'll wrap it in black plastic to keep it from drying out too much from wind and sunlight. I also keep it watered.

[pepe2000]

Hey All,
Now for another (distantly related) potato, the sweet potato. I'm pretty far north, but I'm giving sweet potatoes a try. Here's a short vid of growing slips. Cut slips off at 6" or so and put them in water to root before planting out. I'll keep you posted. If you want to try this, now is the time up north. It's almost too late considering the long (100 days) growing season. You can still do it but yields will be small taters. Further south you can start much earlier.
Pepe

[rustyold36]

I never knew you could grow sweet potatoes in the be North until last year. I had no luck starting my own slips last year but I did find some starts at the garden center. I grew the biggest sweet potatoes I had ever seen.

[DanNH]

Glad to hear you had success with then. I tried then a couple of years ago all I got was small to the point of useless or way to hard to dig. They just didn't work well in my garden. But they are soo good.

[rustyold36]

The reason for the lack of success be with the slips be was I couldn't be find organic sweet potatoes. I am sure the potatoes I used to were treated to not sprout. I have been adding organic matter to my Sandy soil for years. I can now push me arm down to my elbow. Potatoes do am amazing in it but will moved to a new garden this year.

[pepe2000]

Hi All,
I thought I'd do an update on my sweet potato quest.

Hang them in containers of water, let them root and produce shoots. There is a top and bottom so look for evidence of growth of either buds (top) or root nodes (bottom). If nothing is evident, leave them out in a sunny warm spot until something develops. This is one of the reasons for getting a real early start. If the slips get too long, cut them back and use the cutting to start another slip by sticking it in water to root.

They'll look like this after a few weeks or so.

Cut or break the shoots off below a leaf node and root in water.

Looking pretty good. They should be about a foot long when you set them out. Note the stem on the right is red not green. It's a different variety of sweet potato. These were generic SPs so I have no variety names, sorry.

Here's some pieces I threw in water just to see what happens.

I can't believe how fast and sure these things root.

Here's a piece of stem I threw in some water for a week or so. Look at those roots! Starting at the right make your cuts on the stem section between leaf nodes

Each of these will grow more roots and the leaf node will grow into a stem and become a slip for planting out. Unbelievable!
I will plant these out around the first week of June. They need heat so I can't rush them now. I got a late start and the slips will be smaller than I would like. We'll see how it works. Small potatoes are better than no potatoes.
I'll keep you posted.
Pepe

[KristijanL]

Sir, you got me interasted for next years crop. Keep us posted!