Richard G. Sweet Potatoes?

PJH

Well-known Member
Richard - I saw your post saying you were gonna use your potato plow to plow up sweet potatoes. I've never tried that because I thought it would make a lot of wounds on the potatoes. Does it work pretty good? I have one 50' row left to dig, and you've got me itching to try it.

Paul
 
My potato plow goes below the potatoes and lifts and then throws them to the side.
Here are some better photos.
I mow the vines off and plow right where the plants were coming out of the ground.
The secret is to get below the potatoes with he tip of the plow.
Small cuts on them will heel up if cured properly.
Richard
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You mentioned mowing the vines - I have a JD 45 loader with manure tines. I set the loader about three inches above the potato ridge and idle down the rows in low gear. It pretty well picks up all of the vines without harming the potatoes. Once I get them off of the patch, I take them right over to the compost pile.
 
I am curious. What plow are you going to use.
When I was a kid, we used a mule drawn plow with a middle buster on it and pulled it with an 8N.
Richard
 
Richard did you see my post in tractor tales yesterday showing the sweet potato I pulled up yesterday. 8.26 lbs and very large
 
The one I have grown in the past did almost nothing but this year with the new raised bed and filled with compost every thing I planted in that bed we nuts and grew super big
 
Thanks Richard - We plowed out the last row of our patch today, using the Irish potato plow, and it worked perfectly. I set it so it would plow real deep, and it actually caused less damage than using a hand dig potato fork. Wife helped on the ground crew - said it was like finding Easter Eggs, ha. I'll never use a hand dig potato fork on Sweet potatoes again. Thank you!
 
My potato plow is a homemade middle buster fashioned after the horse drawn potato plows in our neighborhood.
 
Richard, we keep them on shelves that I built in the cellar under our house. It's interesting - the Irish potatoes won't keep well in the house cellar, but the sweet potatoes will keep well. The sweet potatoes will spoil quick in the cellar under our smokehouse, but the Irish potatoes keep until the next summer out there.
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What part of the country are you in? Those storage areas really look good. I assume the house basement stays warmer.
I hope to dig a root cellar/storm shelter into a hill behind our house.
Richard
 
Richard - we live in deep Southern Illinois - about 70 miles northwest of Cairo.

Yes - the house cellar is warmer and dryer. Our other cellar is all concrete and ancient, and the interior sweats under certain weather conditions. The white potatoes don't seem to mind, but the sweet potatoes will be a nasty mush by January. I don't know why the whites don't like the dryer house cellar, but they won't keep well down there. We learned all this the hard way. If you build a root cellar, study up on ventilation - it's hard to correct after the concrete is poured, ha.

A few years ago, I used ideas from your ridger and made a potato planter. It works real good, but this year we struck out with our white potatoes. We planted them twice, but they just would not sprout. Too wet, maybe? Overall, we had a poor garden this year, except for the sweet potatoes - they liked all of the moisture.

I'm anxious to try again next year.

Nice chat, and thanks for all of the ideas!
 
Glad to be able to help. We have been a drought here most of the summer. Worst garden we have ever had.
Last summer was too wet. Crops are really bad and pastures which should be half knee high right now look like bare ground.
They classified use as being in an extreme drought the other day. I watered all I could, but it did not help much.
Richard
 

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