Thursday, October 7, 2010

Sweet potato harvest 2010

Sweet potatoes

On Tuesday, the boys and I dug our sweet potatoes. We had frost down in the bottom two mornings this week which didn’t hurt anything. A few of the leaves on the sweet potato vines were touched, but I don’t believe the notion that frost will go down the vines into the potatoes as some claim. I an inclined to believe that sweet potatoes can’t stand cool temperatures, and that if they are allowed to chill below 45 degrees they won’t keep well.

Anyhow, it was time to get them out of the ground and into the house. We planted somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 slips last spring. Sweet potatoes are easy to grow, and we’ve had very good success with their production. The harvest in the bed of the truckWe plant the slips in ridges, mulch them a few weeks later when they’ve gotten going well, and then leave them alone other than pulling a few weeds. The only other chore for the season is digging them out of the ground.

I estimate that we harvested 10 bushels of sweet potatoes this year, approximately 600 pounds of these nutrient-rich little buggers. We sorted out the best ones based upon size and blemishes, In the cratesfilling 7.5 crates which I stacked inside. I made these crates a few years ago, and each one holds about 1.25 bushels. There was about 2 bushels that we sorted out to use first, the ones with scrapes, vole bites, blemishes, etc. So, there may be more than 10 bushels, but that’s okay.

We’ll eat from this harvest all winter and through the spring, assuming they cure and keep well. sweet potatoesGenerally, sweet potatoes keep very well for us. They are currently stacked in the children’s room, where they will stay for the duration. After they’ve cured for a couple of weeks, we’ll cover them so that they won’t have light shining on them which could encourage a few of them to sprout prematurely. Next spring, we’ll start slips from some of them for next year’s crop.

8 comments:

Kelle at The Never Done Farm

We tried to grow sweet potatoes here in MT this summer. We did get some but they are actually about 1/5 the size of yours*wink* More like popcorn sweet taters, LOL I guess we don't have a long or hot enough growing season. Maybe we'll try some in the greenhouse next Summer.

Your crops looks great, enjoy :o)

small farm girl

Wow! What a great crop of sweet potatoes! I would love to have that many sweet potatoes to last out the winter. Too bad my Hubby doesnt like them. lol

Kat

I live in the sweet potato capital of Alabama. I love them, but have never planted them. Wow! What a great harvest!!! We used to buy them by the bushel from a local grower when we had all our children home, now they would just rot. Good job!!!

dp

We are, of course, quite happy with the harvest. They taste good, too! Believe it or not, up until a few years ago, I didn't like sweet potatoes. Now, I think they're great. They're also one of the 'superfoods,' loaded with vitamins A & C, calcium, and potassium.

Connie

We had some tonight. They tasted really good...even to me who had a hard time eating them last spring. I'm not sure what my problem was, just hope it's over as they are so good for us.

Mr. and Mrs. Hoosier Homesteader

Those sweet potatoes look great! Those are handy looking crates you put together too. We may have to try to put a few together for ourselves!

AnaDrol

Your crop looks wonderful. I just love sweet potatoes, to me they are much better than regular potatoes.

Anonymous

Hey there, I was browsing the net after receiving a sweet potato tubers with problems which are identical to the chilling problem shown on the first big photo. I am Zelalem from University of Florida trying to help the farmer and I am wondering if this problem could also happen in the sunshine state. I appreciate if anyone can drop me lines to my email mershaz@ufl.edu.

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