Now THAT's a Sweet Potato Harvest

12# showing minus 3#tare = 9# from one 25 gal grow bag

The sweet potatoes last year were so pitiful that I don't think I even mentioned harvesting them.  The grower had trouble producing the slips because of their weather so they were late arriving and were pretty spindly.  Also, I experimented with potting mix.  I didn't want to mess with my container tomatoes, so I used the sweet potatoes as the experiment.  I tried Fox Farm, Espoma and my own compost.  My own compost did OK but the Espoma and Fox Farm fell flat.  These were grown in Miracle Gro Moisture Control Potting Mix plus Espoma Bone Meal and Espoma Potash.

This year the cost was just too high for my meager success rate, so I tried starting my own slips instead.  Win!  The 2020 harvest was pretty good, and believe it or not I still had tubers from that.  If you cure them properly they store for what seems like forever.

Since they are again warning us of a possible early frost tonight I decided to go ahead and start with the grow bags.  I still have 8 plants in the ground on the bank next to the garden.  

After harvesting you have to cure sweet potatoes in 85 degree heat and high humidity to convert the starch to sugar and make them sweeter.  I don't know if it makes a huge difference or not because I haven't done a control group but that's what I do and they taste awesome and keep forever.  In 2020 my method was plastic bags and a south facing window.  Last year I used the cold frame.  This year I am trying a heat mat.  When I was researching how to best start slips I stumbled upon this video about curing them.

It all makes sense to me.  I got the heat mat out and set up in the chicken coop.  These tubers here are from the other grow bag plus three from the one plant in the ground that I dug as a test.  The in the ground ones are looking really good to.  Not quite giant, but certainly respectable.