Sweet Potato Harvest, 2015!

A few weeks back it was time to dig the sweet potatoes! This year I tried something different - I put my nine plants in a big 8x4 raised bed. When the vines spilled over the bed I looped them back around so the runners could set more roots.

Last year I was having problems with the vines overflowing the water trough planter and setting roots and tubers in the walking path mulch. When I ran out of raised bed space this time I started giving the vines haircuts before they could set tubers.

Pre-harvest

I started by whacking off all of the vines, leaving a few inches remaining so I knew where to start digging. After that it was a systematic digging, sifting, redigging process. Some of the vines set tubers against the walls of the bed, which meant there were a few flat-sided tubers. The tubers went deep in some areas so I had to go back through and re-dig what I though I already got. But in the end this is what I came up with.

Left to right - big sweet potatoes, fingerling size sweet potatoes, surprise Yukon Golds

I also unearthed a few residual Irish potatoes (Yukon Golds) that were volunteers left behind from the spring crop.

Good roasting size 'taters in there!

Now they need to sit in the shed out of the sun and rain for a few weeks. The starches will start to convert to sugars and the skins will toughen up.

In hindsight, I liked the 8x4 raised bed better than the water trough, but next year I need to do a better job of watering and fertilizing. What I should have done was lay down a bunch of soaker hoses before the vines took off. Next time...