I planted sweet potatoes for the first time last year. It is june and i m just getting down to the end of my tators. I've already got some planted and grow more slips. I really enjoyed digging up the tators. I could have used my tractor with potatoe plow but once i started hand digging, i was enjoying getting to see the fruits of my labor.
Very similar experience to yours, I didn't plant nearly as many, which was probably just as well as they were pretty underwhelming, but we had even less rain than you, and super-hot too - it's been disastrous this year. Like your viewer said, I have also been told that they really need water when they are first getting going, and don't need as much later on when the roots are forming. But considering how little rain there has been I still feel like some watering would've helped - our spring was really dry too. Like you, I am basically off-grid as water goes, so I can't be dumping tonnes of water on the garden every day - I'm not sure how you are supposed to grow things in drought conditions, but I bet there are more permaculture principles that would help, we just have to get creative, and see how natures solves these problems.
Sound tough, where in the world are you? Yea there is always a way, our water collection tnaks hve been going to the overflow alot recently so we will prob look into saving as much water as we can during the wetter months! Nice to hear from you
@@freedomforestlife I'm in Serbia, so that's basically south-eastern Europe, we are getting almost into that Middle-Eastern/North African kind of climate, though we still have cold, wet autumns and hard frosts in winter, so it's still temperate. Just soooo dry the last few years though, it seems to be getting worse - when we bought our land 5 years ago, spring was lush and green, that hasn't happened in several years now, we get almost no rain all spring and into summer... I also collect rainwater, off the house roof, but our tank is "only" 7-8 cubic metres, i.e. imagine 7-8 IBC tanks, which still doesn't go very far :/. I am thinking really you need to trap it in the landscape and that just means as much vegetation as possible, and maybe some earthworks as well...
I live two counties over from the largest sweet potato producing county in the US. Many years I have worked in sweet potato fields at harvest. I can tell you that drought is not as big of a deal once sweet potato plants are started. Loosening the soil and amending the soil to keep it loose will go a long way towards yielding a large harvest of large sweet potatoes. Your soil is beautiful, but watching how hard you have to work to get the sweet potatoes out of the soil tells me you need to loosen the soil. Melody B in NC
Hey great to hear your trying sweet potatoes, they are a great crops to grow! Highly recommend doing them in no beds. Where abouts in the world are you growing? We should have our video of our indoor harvest of Beauregard out for you to catch on Friday too - best of luck with them - let us know in the future how they do for you too 🙌✌️🌿
Ohhh gosh, been waiting for this video forever. A great harvest considering the summer we had. Thanks for sharing! Not sure why I’m a little hesitant harvesting mine 😂. Maybe because it’s not T65. I’ll probably wait another week or two as it seems there’s very little chance of frost for us in the coming weeks. Will keep you posted.
Oh yes! Please do let us know how yours go - I have my finders crossed for you. We would of left ours a bit longer, but just don’t want to get caught out where we’ve got the 2 lots to do.. hope to harvest the polytunnel ones this coming week though actually. Glad you enjoyed the vids - thanks as always 💚✌️🌿
Love it 😄 Sweet potato harvests are one of my favourites (whether mine or someone else's) and I'm looking forward to seeing what you uncover undercover 🤔 I've only harvested those in pots so far and need to do those in the open ground this weekend. Star of the show for me this year is Tatakoto which did really well despite the prolonged drought. I'm going to try T65 for the first time next year. By the way, I always propagate from stem cuttings taken in summer and grown on in small pots over winter.
Hey Karen, lovely message thanks! How were your potted ones? We will have a look at tatakoto..Oh we are looking forward to it too, this weekend were hoping to get them out! Oh thats cool, do you keep them in house temperature or in the greenhouse over winter?
The potted ones did quite well, apart from a variety called Erato Orange which grew massive vines but only a few tubers - I have some in the ground too so will see if that makes a difference. Tatakoto is a beautiful plant with purple-tinted ivy shaped leaves and a very compact habit. I keep the overwintered cuttings in a conservatory (av min temp 13C) but this winter I'm keeping some in the greenhouse to compare. I love an experiment 😃
Nice video and beautiful music! Hopefully Earth was able to dig out the small ones...😅🐶 Are you going to share how you are saving some tips bare-rooted? We're living in a tiny house and in summer I have a garden in Switzerland but for the winter we're in the Basc country and I took some tips with me, but after letting them root in water I put them in a pot. Don't know, how that will turn out and if I will be able to take some tips again in spring to put them in my garden back in Switzerland... 😂🙈 Bare-rooted is surely the better way to go, but I have no clue how to do that honestly.. Peace and plants! 💚
Great to hear from you from switzerland! Oh yes, he ate as much as he cound haha.. Sounds lovley, where is basc country? we have grown some bare rooted before, its basically the same as taking a cutting and putting it in water, but just plant straight away! But in shorter northern climates like here i prefer to start with good roots established already..Thanks for watching Peace and plants! 💚
@@freedomforestlife 😂😂😂 nice to hear he enjoyed! Ok, I'll have to try that as well then! Nice input! Basque country, I wrote it wrongly.. 🙈 TY for your answer! 🙏😊
By the way, I might be tempted just to run the mower over all the growth when I am ready to harvest, and collect it in the bag. It's not the most eco-friendly thing, but it's a huge timesaver, and it all gets mulched up nicely ready for the compost, or you could probably just leave it on the ground, chop-and-drop stylee.
Hey Amie, we are planning to start selling them ourself some time soon, but would not like to commit to it being for next season just yet, where we’re still honing our set up for it ! We used to order ours from Highland Horticulture though, personally always found them to be good 💚 Thanks for commenting here - always appreciated 💚✌️🌿
Hey Justyna thanks for your suggestion, well this bed is already terraced, on a slope and is flat so it retains most of the rainfall already in the thick mulch we have..thanks again!
I harvested my sweet potatoes in mid September as I get a lot of vole damage. I didn't think that I would find most of the roots resprouting in the ground...
Отличный урожай! Но я весь ролик думала, почему бы вам не взять лопату и не помочь себе выкапывать клубни? Почему руками? Вам было так трудно, земля у вас не самая мягкая и многие клубни были сломаны.)) И обычно батат сажают в высокие грядки. Вы так не пробовали?...
Hi, thanks for watching and for your questions. Our growing beds are No Dig, so we practice minimal soil disturbance for better soil health, we have tried harvesting with a forks or spades in the past and you normally cause even more damage to the tubers stabbing them by mistake. Normally the tubers do come out a little easier by hand than shown i this video here, we had a drought last summer, so the ground was harder and drier than it normally is. Also by harvesting with our hands, it connects you more to the harvest and the earth, you can see more about the quality of the tubers and your soil 💚
I planted sweet potatoes for the first time last year. It is june and i m just getting down to the end of my tators. I've already got some planted and grow more slips. I really enjoyed digging up the tators. I could have used my tractor with potatoe plow but once i started hand digging, i was enjoying getting to see the fruits of my labor.
Digging sweet potatoes is always fun and full of excitement 🤗🤗🤗🤗
You got that right!
Wow, for a small harvest you still got a lot of sweet potatoes, they will serve you well over winter! Thanks for the video!
Thanks Catherine, yes we really appreciate the harvest we did get, they are curing now, so very excited to start enjoying them! Nice to hear from you!
The soil is amazing there, I'm going to get some sweet potato slips this year. Thank you for your video's.
Glad your enjoying our vids - always so nice to know. Glad to hear you are going to get some slips yourself - Happy growing my friend 💚✌️🌿
Wonderful harvest. Great information. Thank you
Thanks for watching! 💚✌️🌿
Superbe vidéo bravo 👍 👍 👍
A bientôt 🤗
Thank you 🙏✌️😊
@@freedomforestlife de rien c'est avec plaisir 😊
Very similar experience to yours, I didn't plant nearly as many, which was probably just as well as they were pretty underwhelming, but we had even less rain than you, and super-hot too - it's been disastrous this year. Like your viewer said, I have also been told that they really need water when they are first getting going, and don't need as much later on when the roots are forming. But considering how little rain there has been I still feel like some watering would've helped - our spring was really dry too. Like you, I am basically off-grid as water goes, so I can't be dumping tonnes of water on the garden every day - I'm not sure how you are supposed to grow things in drought conditions, but I bet there are more permaculture principles that would help, we just have to get creative, and see how natures solves these problems.
Sound tough, where in the world are you? Yea there is always a way, our water collection tnaks hve been going to the overflow alot recently so we will prob look into saving as much water as we can during the wetter months! Nice to hear from you
@@freedomforestlife I'm in Serbia, so that's basically south-eastern Europe, we are getting almost into that Middle-Eastern/North African kind of climate, though we still have cold, wet autumns and hard frosts in winter, so it's still temperate. Just soooo dry the last few years though, it seems to be getting worse - when we bought our land 5 years ago, spring was lush and green, that hasn't happened in several years now, we get almost no rain all spring and into summer... I also collect rainwater, off the house roof, but our tank is "only" 7-8 cubic metres, i.e. imagine 7-8 IBC tanks, which still doesn't go very far :/. I am thinking really you need to trap it in the landscape and that just means as much vegetation as possible, and maybe some earthworks as well...
I live two counties over from the largest sweet potato producing county in the US. Many years I have worked in sweet potato fields at harvest. I can tell you that drought is not as big of a deal once sweet potato plants are started. Loosening the soil and amending the soil to keep it loose will go a long way towards yielding a large harvest of large sweet potatoes. Your soil is beautiful, but watching how hard you have to work to get the sweet potatoes out of the soil tells me you need to loosen the soil. Melody B in NC
Thank you for that great advice and your knowledge - thats good to know 🙏 and thanks for watching too 💚✌️🌿
Trying to grow sweet potatoes next year, wish me luck. Thanks for your videos. #addictedtogrowinyownfood.
Hey great to hear your trying sweet potatoes, they are a great crops to grow! Highly recommend doing them in no beds. Where abouts in the world are you growing? We should have our video of our indoor harvest of Beauregard out for you to catch on Friday too - best of luck with them - let us know in the future how they do for you too 🙌✌️🌿
Awesome guys - definitely want to try growing some T65s myself this year 😊
Go for it! 💚 Highland Horticulture for slips 👍
@@freedomforestlife thanks for the tip!
Ohhh gosh, been waiting for this video forever. A great harvest considering the summer we had. Thanks for sharing! Not sure why I’m a little hesitant harvesting mine 😂. Maybe because it’s not T65. I’ll probably wait another week or two as it seems there’s very little chance of frost for us in the coming weeks. Will keep you posted.
Oh yes! Please do let us know how yours go - I have my finders crossed for you. We would of left ours a bit longer, but just don’t want to get caught out where we’ve got the 2 lots to do.. hope to harvest the polytunnel ones this coming week though actually. Glad you enjoyed the vids - thanks as always 💚✌️🌿
Great stuff guys. you've inspired us to have a go at outdoor sweet potatoes on the allotment next year.
That’s great news!!! Recommend no dig for sure with these guys - let us know how you go ✌️🌿
Love it 😄 Sweet potato harvests are one of my favourites (whether mine or someone else's) and I'm looking forward to seeing what you uncover undercover 🤔 I've only harvested those in pots so far and need to do those in the open ground this weekend. Star of the show for me this year is Tatakoto which did really well despite the prolonged drought. I'm going to try T65 for the first time next year. By the way, I always propagate from stem cuttings taken in summer and grown on in small pots over winter.
Hey Karen, lovely message thanks! How were your potted ones? We will have a look at tatakoto..Oh we are looking forward to it too, this weekend were hoping to get them out! Oh thats cool, do you keep them in house temperature or in the greenhouse over winter?
The potted ones did quite well, apart from a variety called Erato Orange which grew massive vines but only a few tubers - I have some in the ground too so will see if that makes a difference. Tatakoto is a beautiful plant with purple-tinted ivy shaped leaves and a very compact habit. I keep the overwintered cuttings in a conservatory (av min temp 13C) but this winter I'm keeping some in the greenhouse to compare. I love an experiment 😃
Nice video and beautiful music! Hopefully Earth was able to dig out the small ones...😅🐶
Are you going to share how you are saving some tips bare-rooted? We're living in a tiny house and in summer I have a garden in Switzerland but for the winter we're in the Basc country and I took some tips with me, but after letting them root in water I put them in a pot. Don't know, how that will turn out and if I will be able to take some tips again in spring to put them in my garden back in Switzerland... 😂🙈
Bare-rooted is surely the better way to go, but I have no clue how to do that honestly..
Peace and plants! 💚
Great to hear from you from switzerland! Oh yes, he ate as much as he cound haha.. Sounds lovley, where is basc country? we have grown some bare rooted before, its basically the same as taking a cutting and putting it in water, but just plant straight away! But in shorter northern climates like here i prefer to start with good roots established already..Thanks for watching
Peace and plants! 💚
@@freedomforestlife 😂😂😂 nice to hear he enjoyed!
Ok, I'll have to try that as well then! Nice input!
Basque country, I wrote it wrongly.. 🙈 TY for your answer! 🙏😊
By the way, I might be tempted just to run the mower over all the growth when I am ready to harvest, and collect it in the bag. It's not the most eco-friendly thing, but it's a huge timesaver, and it all gets mulched up nicely ready for the compost, or you could probably just leave it on the ground, chop-and-drop stylee.
Like it!
Maybe try using some trees to provide shade or some swales - could help with the water retention. And awesome video, thank you! 🙏
Thanks for the tip!
Definitely going to be trying sweet potatoes, do you have any great sources for slips to get started?
Hey Amie, we are planning to start selling them ourself some time soon, but would not like to commit to it being for next season just yet, where we’re still honing our set up for it ! We used to order ours from Highland Horticulture though, personally always found them to be good 💚
Thanks for commenting here - always appreciated 💚✌️🌿
"It's like digging for treasure."
It sure is ... nothing better than edible treasure 💚 - thanks for watching Lauren ✌️🌿
Have you thought about planing them on swales?
Hey Justyna thanks for your suggestion, well this bed is already terraced, on a slope and is flat so it retains most of the rainfall already in the thick mulch we have..thanks again!
I harvested my sweet potatoes in mid September as I get a lot of vole damage. I didn't think that I would find most of the roots resprouting in the ground...
Oh nice, good harvest?
@@freedomforestlife better than last year, hopefully next year is better still. I need to buy some T65 slips this time though.
Ya can't blame the poor pup, they are so yummy. Lol
... And our boy LOVES, veggies too 🍠💚 Thanks for watcubg Susan ✌️🌿
Отличный урожай! Но я весь ролик думала, почему бы вам не взять лопату и не помочь себе выкапывать клубни? Почему руками? Вам было так трудно, земля у вас не самая мягкая и многие клубни были сломаны.))
И обычно батат сажают в высокие грядки. Вы так не пробовали?...
Hi, thanks for watching and for your questions. Our growing beds are No Dig, so we practice minimal soil disturbance for better soil health, we have tried harvesting with a forks or spades in the past and you normally cause even more damage to the tubers stabbing them by mistake. Normally the tubers do come out a little easier by hand than shown i this video here, we had a drought last summer, so the ground was harder and drier than it normally is. Also by harvesting with our hands, it connects you more to the harvest and the earth, you can see more about the quality of the tubers and your soil 💚
p͎r͎o͎m͎o͎s͎m͎ 💪