Friday, October 31, 2014

Sweet Potatoes


A light freeze is predicted for this weekend, so it's time to dig our sweet potato crop.  They say the potatoes will rot if left in the ground for very long after the tops freeze back.  I don't really know if that is true or not.  We always dig when a freeze is predicted or right after the green tops are nipped by a freeze.

Jo is removing wire row covers so we can get to the bed.  It may look as if she's dancing, but her arms are wrapped around a welded wire tunnel.  The way the sweet potato vines are trimmed back to the wire shows why the wire covers are necessary.  Rabbits and/or deer would feast on the green sweet potato vines if they were not covered.

We had a mediocre sweet potato harvest this year:  A little over 47# from thirty feet of garden bed.  There was quite a bit of rodent damage, but there always is.  I don't know how to fence out mice and voles.

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4 comments:

gwen said...

I would have bought the dancing bit.

Marvin said...

Dancing in the garden would be okay -- or a little Tai Chi to limber up before going to work.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Those darned voles get to everything. Grrrr Your wire cages look professionally made.

Marvin said...

Yes, Lisa, voles can be a real problem. Unfortunately, the heavy mulch layer we use to hold in water and prevent weed growth seems to create an ideal habitat for small mammals. The wire tunnels are just sections of welded wire cut to length off a larger roll.