Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes still flowering on day of harvest

Well, it was a beautiful weekend with great days to harvest sweet potatoes.  They look good-- many gigantic!  Even more pleasing is the pest that plagued the fingerling potatoes is less evident on the sweet potatoes. 

Kamal holding a group of sweet potatoes

 Saturday's work was harvesting 1/2 the bed.  Now onto Sunday's work to finish up. 

Uncovering the sweet potatoes is half the battle, as it were

Sweet potatoes like sandy soil.  Thank goodness for me that they grew well in compacted soil.  In growing guides, it was suggested to play with the spacing of the plants.  Those that I spaced closer together went deeper. 

Might look like this.

All and all growing these was a delightful surprise. 

A Tale of Two Fields

Part of the field still in hay, gathered for baling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  A long-term goal of mine is to lease land for an extended period to learn the land, to steward it and to increase its capabilities.  Currently, I have one more year at this site.  As this season plays out, my observations have turned from theory to confirmation.  Thankfully, I have two fields if one crop does not work as well in one place later, I can try it somewhere else.

Carrots from the lower field

Carrots from the upper field

 It's not just the camera perspective.  The upper field carrots are lush and create a canopy to smother weeds.  While the lower field carrots took so long to grow, I seeded carrots wherever I could in the upper field to make sure that we had carrots.  They've done so well; now I really have carrots.

Chard in the lower field

Upper field chard

 Ah, well, the chard presents a few problems: like, maybe the biodegradable black mulch was too much, this hot summer?  I have less chard in the upper field and just as it got big and sturdy, I found goldfinches landing on it and taking bites while there!

Collards in the lower field

Collards in the upper field

 If you could not see a difference between fields with the carrots and chard, it may be easier here.  I have a hunch that the soil is compacted in the lower field; thereby, making it harder for the roots to penetrate and the plant to flourish.  My mulching did not help either.  Now, we are turning to cooler weather and these crops prefer it.  We'll see.