Thursday, September 16, 2010

Sweet Potato Dilemma

Ok kids, so I was nosing around out in the sweet potato patch today after going out to cut some leaves for sauteed greens.  I couldn't help but to reach in and start digging.  Initially all I found was roots and I was getting a pouty face.  But then I came across these two honkers, and another wee one nearby.  See honkers below:


I showed you it's pretty side here.  The not so pretty side is pretty cracked.  On both of them.  So now here is the dilemma- do I yank out the vines to keep the big ones from getting any bigger, or do I leave them so that the baby taters continue to develope?

9 comments:

Jeff Vandiver said...

Do you think it was an excessive rainfall that might have made them split open like that? I just don't know. However, i'd have to leave the small ones to grow bigger.

Erin said...

I know nothing about sweet potatoes so I would defer to E.G. LOL!

meemsnyc said...

I have never grown sweet potatoes before so I don't know but EG may be on to something with the excess of water.

Kelly said...

Yup, too much water in the end stages will cause splitting. We had some heavy rains a few weeks ago. I dug about half the bed and will leave the rest for at least another day. I will do another post tomorrow- stay tuned!! (have some green tomato relish going on the stove- Mmmmm)

Ribbit said...

I got an error message when I posted the first time, so I don't think it went through, but those are beastial! I can't wait to dig mine up, too.

Thomas said...

Wow! Look at the size of that think. If it were me, I'd dig them up. You can always freeze the excess. I just wouldn't want any rodents to start munching down on them.

Dani said...

Those are huge! Shame they cracked like that.
Mine do the same here when we start going into our rainy season. :(

Corner Gardener Sue said...

I see you went ahead and dug them up, and are curing them in your bathroom. I always wait until the vines die back, but am wondering if I should check mine. I guess I have been buying them at the farmers' market, which means others in my area are digging theirs up, too.

I have never cured mine, but I have never harvested enough that they needed to keep any length of time.

Kelly said...

I still have quite a few vines in the ground, by my estimation I pulled about half so far.....I am not so good at knowing when to dig and when to wait yet.