We have been waiting since early spring for these to form. And now I am finding spuds surfacing from the wood mulch they grow in.
With the recent frosts I am seeing the leaves start to turn. So first I plan on harvesting all of the viable leaves. And to blanche and boil them @cryptopie and @adamada told me how to use them for food and looking forward to trying.
The second bed is also almost ready. The yellowing of the leaves is a sign its soon to be the end of their season.
I am always amazed how easy it is to grow these vines. The hardest part is starting the slips in the early spring and making sure they get enough water. Though once they start growing quickly they seem to have their own metabolism or water reserves keeping them going when its dry.
Using a two level system these vines can have extra surface area to form leaves. I am hoping this design gives me more spuds, as more leaves can form growing more roots underground.
The red spuds can be seen emerging from the woodchips. They have grown so big they are running out space.
It's quite the jungle of vines in the raised bed. I see animals running in and out and hoping they are not munching on my spuds. We shall see when we pull them up if they have bite marks in them. Its possible animals are just hiding from falcon's and hawks in the deep foliage.
So maybe a week and I will harvest. Just waiting for more yellowing to be ready to pull them up.
It just occurred to me that the sweet potatoes I enjoy may not taste the same as the ones you plant after looking at those leaves. They are larger than the variety I am familiar with. It is either your sweet potato is different from the ones we grow here or your garden really has a healthy soil to get those leave look twice as big as the ones I am used to eating.
Blanching them and soaking in vinegar will is enough for an appetiser. Adding chopped onions, tomatoes, salt and other herbs/spices are for taste experimentation. You can make a lot of batches to experimemt with that amount of leaves. A heads up on what it would taste like, it has a viscous feel, like okra only slightly sweeter but less slimy. Looking forward to your post about trying the salad out. :)
I tore off a leaf and took a picture. A comparison above next to a silver dollar.
Not sure what kind mine are, I bought spuds from my local supermarket so its whatever is sold in most US markets.
They do get full sun and I am growing them on a horizontal trellis. So maybe my design of their growing bed is giving me bigger leaves? I grow the spuds in 6-10 inches of woodchips made from ground up trees. It makes it very easy to harvest them. I have also had good luck growing sweet potatoes in old stale hay.
They also get alot of water, Georgia is known for alot of rain. So not sure why mine are bigger.. maybe they are different. When I harvest the spuds I'll take pictures and maybe they are indeed different.
Looking forward to cooking some. I'll probably do some in the next few days. I'd hate to lose most of them turning yellow so I plan on cutting them before.
I just took this a pic at pinterest because there isn't any sweet potato growing nearby (I live in a surbuban area and these things can occasionally be tossed in empty lots and grow wild for free picking, we don't have seasons, only rain or sunshine being near the equator so this one grows all year round). Not a potato expert but your soil probably helped a lot. The leaves are bigger while the ones I know of are more angulated and smaller than the image on this comment. Hopefully they taste just as delicious too (if they do differ in variety from. The ones grown in southeast Asia). Good luck and take care!
Thats awesome they grow all year around where you live. We grow them from spring to fall here and then restart next spring.
Those leaves do look a little different than mine, so maybe its a different cultivar.
What color are the spuds? Mine are red on the outside and yellow on the inside.
Hah I am sure they will taste good, I have eaten alot of the leaves raw and seems just like some stringy lettuce to me.
Hi solominer,
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