The Long Awaited Sweet Potato Post

I see I have picked up two new followers. Welcome and thanks for following.

To those of you who have been waiting for this post I apologize for the delay. 

The two photos below are the sweet potatoes that I found sprouting in my pantry. These photos were taken on Feb 02. For a larger view click on the photos.

I placed each sweet potato into a glass of water to root and continue to grow. Be sure to keep an eye on the water level during this time.

A month later I had several sprouts that were ready for potting.

March 06 2011

 March 6 2011 root ball

There were a few sprouts growing from below the water line. I was able to remove the sprout with the roots intact.

To remove a sprout place your fingers at the end of the sprout closest to the potato and twist until it breaks off.

Once removed pinch off some of the lower leaves to give you more stem to plant into the soil.

Sprout before lower leaves are removed.

Sprout after lower leaves are removed.

Sprout ready for planting

Cover stem with soil and water well.

It is not unusual to see some wilting once planted. Keep the soil moist to encourage root growth.

I was able to pull a total of 16 sprouts from the 5 potatoes.

I kept some of the sprouts on the potatoes to continue to grow just in case I lose a few during the rooting process.

The photos below are one week after planting the sprouts into the soil. So far I only have one sprout that is showing signs of stress.

March 12 2011

The rest of the sprouts seem to be doing well.

March 12 2011

Sweet potatoes like full sun and warm temperatures so be sure to keep them in a warm and sunny location until you can plant them into your garden.  I hope you found this post helpful.

Update: March 19 2011

It's been seven days since I planted the sweet potato slips into pots. They are all rooting now and are putting on new growth. In the photos below you can see the roots. They look strong and healthy. 

Click on photos for a larger view.

The slip below is the plant that was showing some transplant stress. It made it through the rooting process and is even putting on new growth.

I will have more than enough slips for my garden and for the Haven Family Garden.

Nice Relaxing Long Weekend At My Urban Homestead

I went into this weekend not feeling very well. I felt like I'd been coming down with a cold all week but it never really developed. So the plan was to sleep in and rest as much as possible. I kept things in slow mode all weekend but seem to have gotten a lot done. Outside of grocery shopping, some lite housework and getting in a much needed workout I was able to get a few things completed in the garden after the rain stopped.

Since it rained all day Saturday this was a good day to sleep in and workout. After lunch I headed out to the greenhouse and brought some seedlings into the kitchen to transplant into bigger pots.

Cucumbers

Basil and Oregano

After Transplanting

On Sunday I was able to get outside for a bit. I have been wanting to give back some space in front of sweet husband's man cave. My gardening stuff had been taking over the area. This is what it looked like before...

And this is after. I still have a little work to do. The weber will be moved to a more protected area and the rest of planters and watering can still need to be moved. The potting bench was moved to the side yard at the front of the house in a more decorative capacity. I find I don't really use it much since I do more vegetable gardening now.

I also took some photos around the garden. About a week ago when I was throwing some kitchen scraps into the compost bin I noticed something sprouting out of the sides. If you guessed potatoes you would be right. After I harvested all my potatoes last year I had some damaged ones I threw into the compost knowing quite well that they may sprout. I had even seen evidence of this the last time I turned the compost but thought if I keep disturbing them with my turning that they would give up and decompose. Well I guess I'm not turning the compost enough...

There is no sun in this area at this time of year so I'm really surprised they look so good. Will be interesting to see what I find the next time I turn it.

The morning glory made it through the winter and is putting out some new growth. I will need to get up there and move the vines onto the trellis.

The carrots in bed 3 transplanted well from the cell packs. This is my second sowing. I planted 4 squares and I will plant another 4 squares in bed 4 in about 3 or 4 weeks. If you click on the photo to enlarge you will be able to see them better.

I didn't think the lettuce in bed 4 was going to make it through the rain. I was raining pretty hard there for a while. But it looks like they will be OK. The lettuce in bed 2 was not looking so well. I think they will get a chance to recover before the next rain due on Thursday.

The greenhouse is full of life. The tomatoes will be potted up one more time before they are moved out into the garden.

New raspberry canes are coming up.

and so are the snow pea and sugar snap peas.

I'm even getting some blooms on the strawberries.

My next post will be on potting the sweet potato slips.

Lots of Seed Starting

I've started most of my seeds this past weekend for the Spring and Summer garden. Mostly lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and a second planting of carrots. I'm having much better luck starting my carrot seeds in starter cells than sowing seeds directly in the beds, although I will do some direct sowing later in the season. In a few weeks I will be starting Summer squash for my garden and squash and melons for the Haven garden. It's a good thing I have two greenhouses this year. One for starting seeds and one for hardening off.

Tomato Seedling

Tomatoes for both my garden and the Haven garden

I also spent some time installing the PVC hoops and bird netting on bed 2. Go ahead squirrels just try and get in there now!

Bed 2

Do you know what these are going to be used for?

Nope not trellises. 

Square foot grids. Sweet Husband made me a set for beds 2, 3 and 4.

This will be much better than the string I used last year. These grids can be removed which makes it easier to clean and add compost to the beds in the Fall. I can also remove them once the bed is planted... but don't tell Mel!

Tonight I pulled my sweet potatoes out of the pantry to use them for growing slips. They've got a good head start without my help.

Some of these slips will be pulled off the potato and planted in pots this weekend

Very alien like

This is the same potato I used for slips last year. Once I pulled off the slips I just left it in the glass of water. I cut back the old stems and now there are new ones forming.

That's it for my garden. There is lots going on in the Haven garden in the coming days. I'll be updating the Haven blog tomorrow. Be sure to stop by.

Lots of Photos

Sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog.

The greenhouse is down and all the seedlings have been planted. I still have some lettuce, beans and basil seeds to plant out into the empty squares.

Garden Tour

The first four photos were taken from the roof. Click on photos for a lager view.

Photo below: Tomato bed.

Photo below: Bed 6.

Photos below: Columnar apple trees.

Photo below: Banana. I really hope I get fruit this year

Photo below: Nectarine tree. This is the first year I am seeing a little bit of leaf curl. I have never sprayed this tree but will need to start at the end of this year.

Photo below: Raspberries. I need to get a bigger container.

Photo below: Cucumbers.

Photo below: Purple broccoli. I hope to harvest my broccoli before it gets to warm. I planted these last November. They over wintered very well.

Photo below: The bell peppers are growing better now that they are in the beds.

Photo below: Early potatoes.

Photo below: Potato bins 1 and 2 are looking really good.

Photo below: Summer squash.

Photos below: Strawberries.

Photo below: Sweet potato slips. If you remember a few weeks ago I pulled one of the slips off the potato to root it in some soil. I'm happy to say it rooted. In fact the roots are coming out of the bottom of the container. I will pull two more slips off the potato this weekend and plant them in small containers. I hope to plant them out into bed 5 some time in May when the weather warms up a bit more.

In my next post I will give you a look at each bed and what is planted in them.