I mean… I
wasn't expecting much but dang. Zone 8b, South Puget Sound, WA. I tried black plastic on the deeper tubs and those taters got quite a bit bigger, but I don't know if that is what helped. I'd like to add some taller sides to the wood box to see if it helps next year. These are store bought tater slips as well as some slips from a fellow grower.
I will try again next year! The greens have at least been very enjoyable!
by FishnPlants
10 Comments
How many did you plant per tub?
Sweet potato fries. I feel for you, same thing happened to me.
Your carrots look great!
You win some, you lose some
I had the same thing happen to me this year and I only planted one root sweet potato and got a mess of what you got in a wine barrel no less.
Poor overcrowded babies. They never had a chance.
My sweet potatoes turned out like this last year. Try more spacing between slips and soil maybe a bit more loose and pliable. Also I found fertilizing every two weeks greatly helped the tuber production of my plants. This year almost all my stokes purple were grocery store size or larger. Don’t give up, It is well worth the big harvests!
Kitty is adorable, though! I’m planning on trying sweet potatoes next year. I guess the lesson is to give them lots of room. If it makes you feel any better, I grew a single carrot this season out of who knows how many seeds.
I guess that makes you a harvester of sorrow
Hey, OP, I feel ya. I planted 20 slips, commercially procured, in three different spots. Three were in a 4 x 4 deep raised bed. The other 16 were scattered through three deep bed rows in the garden (these are at least 2′ of topsoil heaped up by digging paths deeply on either side and piling up the topsoil).
The only ones that made sizeable tubers were one of the raised bed plants and 3 of the others that were in the sunniest spots in the ground beds. I’m just happy I got some! Half of the slips never survived to sprout, so about half of those survivors made good sized taters.
Next year: Plenty of room, plenty of sun, even watering through the hot months. I’m trying again bc it’s fun to grow new vegetables. Keeps things interesting. Good luck to you next year! We can do this!