Howdy, David...
I know a little about potatoes, probably 'cause I like them so much, they are easy to grow– and are a low-maintenance crop– fairly easy to harvest, and certain varieties store well.
And don't get me started on the numerous ways to cook 'em and the various recipes!

" I have always heard that when you store potatoes for long term you should not wash them. Just gently brush off any loose soil and store them like that, if you wash them, they rot faster and won't keep for some reason. Does anyone know if that is true? "

It's true to a certain extent, frillylilly. The idea is to not store wet/damp potatoes OR store them with un-hardened skins (is "un-hardened" a real word?) Yes, if they are damp, wet, or not fully cured they rot much faster than potatoes that are dry/cured. The idea of just letting them dry a bit, or rather the soil attached to them after digging them up, then brushing the soil off by hand is a good one, one I go by. Ideally you'll let them air dry and the skins will harden up, offering more protection as well as holding in just the right amount of moisture (and flavor!) By the way, if you rub your thumb across the potato and the skin rubs off, as it will with "new potatoes" it is not hardened; if no skin rubs off you're good to go.

I used to have racks made of 2x4's with hardware cloth on top and would put my potatoes on those in a shady area to dry. (I also did my garlic the same way.) It worked great but any kind of ventilated area big enough to allow you to lay your potatoes in a single area would do just fine.

Ken/drdawg...
I'm wondering if you harvested your sweetpotatoes too early. Around here it is common to "never harvest sweetpotatoes before the end of September". I'm sure that might be due to our local growing season, and yours is no doubt much longer, but the general consensus is September is when the tubers gain their biggest growth. So, that being said, I wonder if you would consider letting them grow a bit longer this time and see how they do. I'd also suggest, especially since you are growing in grow-bags with store-bought soil or the like rather than in-ground, you give them extra potassium; both "Irish potatoes" (super high in potassium) and sweetpotatoes (containing about half as much as Irish spuds) love potassium.

As for using your saved taters for growing, sure, give it a go!. I'd use the biggest ones and either put them in a container on their side in damp peat or you can just insert one in a jar of water, stem end down. I've had good results doing it either way. When they produce the top growth you can then pull them off and insert the top growth into water for more individual root growing OR stick them in potting soil in containers. Once the weather has truly settled - meaning consistently warm - plant them in their dedicated area. Sweetpotatoes love warm feet ten times more than tomatoes do so keep that in mind. Set them out a month later than your early-planted tomatoes. Or since you have a greenhouse I wonder if you could grow them in there, if given ample sunlight.

Hope this helps.
Shoe (thinking of baked taters, sweetpotato fries, french fries, sweetpotato cake (and pie!), country fried taters, tater casserole, hash browns, taters almondine, mashed potatoes, twice-baked taters.... )

I also wanted to try sweet potatoes. I found a web site that sells seed potatoes. I would have probably put them in the felt bags also as I do with Yukon Gold and bakers. Our ground is probably too cold for them although potatoes do grow in the ground. I just don't want to mess with worms or such and it so easy to just dump the bags out in the fall and harvest my potatoes without cutting them with a shovel accidentally; also I don't have enough ground.

Horseshoe, I dug up my sweet potatoes in late October, giving them as much time to grow as possible. The problem may be that I did not get them in the ground as early as possible. I think, and this is just a guess because of all the things I grow, they were put in the ground after I harvested my garlic in late May. This year I plan on putting them in the raised bed/potato bags in March if frost is past, or April at the latest.

Thanks for all the helpful hints and information.

I sure hope you get a nice harvest this coming year, Ken. I guess by March you have consistent warmth in Mississippi. And if you like greens please be sure to try eating some of the vines, they're delish!

Oberlin/Mary...I can't picture the ground in Alaska ever warming up but I've never been there and always picture Alaska as cool or cold. Growing in grow bags is the way to go for you. As for your starts I bet you could buy a sweetpotato or two in the store and grow your own and save some money (instead of buying them online.)

Shoe (really tired of the Winter of 2014 already)

Just for grins I may stick my compost thermometer (has long stem) in the ground both in raised beds and flat earth. I need to make a schedule so I won't forget and maybe get D to measure while I am gone in April. Interesting experiment. I have been wary of planting spuds from store bought potatoes. Have read that they can be 1) sterile 2) peetered out and not able to produce the original potato

Well, what happens is with store-bought potatoes, (white or "Irish" potatoes) they are usually treated with an inhibitor to slow down/halt their sprouting. Potatoes sold as "organic" aren't usually sprayed with it though. Personally I've had store-bought spuds sprout and have even planted them out...warmish temps and darkness seemed to be what made them sprout. I've heard that direct sunlight will also de-fuse the inhibitor but never tried it.

However, if you buy sweetpotatoes at your local grocery you should be able to grow your slips from them just fine.

Shoe (itchin for tater soup for supper what with all this tater talk!)

I have been to Alaska numerous times, always in the summer months though, and I have seen some of the most gorgeous flowers, similar to what is seen in France and Belgium in the summertime. I think the looooooooooog days more than make up for the shorter growing period. At least that's my theory.

March, here in NE Mississippi can be wonderfully warm and sort of dry (with all our humidity, we are hardly dry!) one day/week and can be freezing/rainy the next. The winters of 2010 and 2011 were very mild and we had an early spring, and I was able to put my dormant plumeria in pots and outside the last week/first week of February/March. Last winter was sort of mild, but we had a cold/wet March and my plumeria did not go out until the first of April. This winter, well you know. I have no clue whether we will have an early spring (doubt it), a normal spring, or a late spring. Just when we start to have more typical winter weather here, the National Weather Bureau has issued a winter warning for Monday night and all day/night Tuesday, with lows in the 20's, high in the mid to lower 30's, wind from the north and snow, sleet, and icing.

Thank you for all the information Horseshoe, and those pictures were great!

Thanks Horsehoe. Indeed to buy seed potatoes runs about $15 per bag of 10-12#. The russets I can practically buy downtown for that and save the effort. But I like to grow stuff and it looks so cool in my boxes, with my jams and jellies, and frozen salmon and vegies. And the occasional moose or elk we trade the salmon for. Very citified farmers we are.

Sheesh. And I thought you guys had warm weather. Might as well stay here. It's 20F, little if any wind, and clear blue skies. Course it is supposed to dump into single digits tonight.

I would agree with you about our long days but I think that applies more to the interior where there days (and nights) are longer, they are dry and the temps can (and do) get up to the 80's and 90's. I loved those summer. You really form an appreciation for that kind of weather after months of dark, ice fog, below -25 temps (during the day no less). And those especially wonderful days of -45 to -55. Not so many of those any more but occasionally they do occur. Which is why we live in Anchorage now. Plus my MIL's garden is raided by moose and beaver from the river (Chena) at the end of her property. I would just put up and electrical fence and be done with it. Course the river comes up in the spring and ice floes can get pushed up on the land also. So you would have to put the fences maybe 20-30' up the slope. She faces south so it is beyond wonderful for a garden.

You're welcome, David. And I hope you grow sweetpotatoes this year. By the way, love your website! Looks like ya'll have a lot going on...lookin' good to me! I'm impressed.

Ken, yeh, this has been the mother of all winters, hasn't it? I watch the weather pages several times a day and see ya'll are about to get another blast, then it moves up here (ice or snow predicted Tuesday night/Wed morning.) As for that Alaska growing, I've always seen pictures of huge "everything" growing there...cabbages, flowers, root crops. I guess it is the long daylight hours, which goes against the idea plants need a certain period of darkness to properly produce, eh? I suppose plants up there get acclimated to the long hours of daylight, using the less-strong light of the day to rest and the brighter light to grow. Any input on that (w/out taking us too far off topic?)

Shoe (finally off to figger out supper...long day here!)

Whoops, guess we were posting at the same time, Oberon/Mary

"But I like to grow stuff and it looks so cool in my boxes, with my jams and jellies, and frozen salmon and vegies. And the occasional moose or elk we trade the salmon for. Very citified farmers we are. "

I'm jealous..salmon (costs an arm and a leg here and I LOVE seafood!) But it sounds to me like you can grow a good amount of veggies (and fruit), especially if you are canning them, and making jams. I guess I think of Alaska as the frozen tundra. I need to get out more, don't I!?

Best!

Drdawg, Cleaning out the pantry last year I found a sweet potato that we bought at the farmers market. It had sprouted but still felt pretty firm. Always being one to experiment i buried it right at the bottom of the hugel bed. It sprouted and quickly spread and right in time for thanksgiving we had at least 15 pounds of sweet potato. My main point I guess is that you should always try, you may be pleased with the results.
Here is a picture of the harvest we got (I also threw a potato in and it kind of grew a few little guys...i need to clean out our pantry more often )

Sweet Potatoes R' Us!

All my neighbors here in Florida have been telling me that I'm gonna' die from eating the 'ornamental' ones too;................haven't yet!

The lime green leaved 'ornamental' ones create huge beautiful pink ones that cook up deliciously by whatever name, and so do the purple leaved 'ornamental' ones that create incredible white sweet potatoes.

I just got several beauties from an ornamental pot planting from last year.

I also have a big ole' patch of the regular Sweet Potatoes out back though...

I guess if a disaster struck I would be digging things out of the gardens that no one else would take a chance on!

Hidden survival food that no one would fight me for?

Here in the subtropics, sweet potatoes grow quite easily. You can find them growing in people's yards and they are unaware of them. I planted some slips from a feral purple leafed, white-fleshed one. This was in a raised bed and the vine grew like topsy and spilled out over into the driveway. I felt like I was contending against a giant octopus.

I gave so many basketfuls away. Absolutely delightful roasted.

I posted this photo of a 31lb tuber elsewhere. Sorry I was so proud of it.


I have just started them off again in a more manageable area. A friend down the road has the orange fleshed one: delicious as well.

Holy cow, that's a giant tater. Is it edible? If so, I guess it would feed the entire neighborhood.

We do actually get some dark hours here in Anchorage; Fairbanks also. Although I do remember leaving a pub about 2am and getting blasted with sunlight. Not fun.

The guys on the coast actually have times when the sun simply does not set. But it is really dim.

Mary Stella, how many hours of DARKNESS can be expected in mid-July, between Kenai and Kasilof?

Full darkness?? Hmm. Have to look that up.

In June you get about 18 hours of sun (up @ ~ 4:30 and down about 11:30pm. Allow for the mountains to obstruct the sun in some places; the Chugach mountains would block it for an hour or so but you would still have a light dusk.

In July up @ 4:28 and down @ 11:38 (that is on July 1). Plan on 45 minutes less at the end of July.

June one is the pivot point as I am sure you know. We start losing daylight. Beginning of June a total of 18:44 min. End of July 17:10 minutes.

OK, good. More time to fish!

http://www.chirotoons.com/pota...

a cool link I found, has anyone tried this?