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Sweet potatoes do better in clayish soil?

Posted by scout3801 Hawai'i (My Page) on
Sun, Dec 7, 08 at 5:07

I have noticed that my sweet potatoes growing in soil with a high clay content, and therefore pretty thick and heavy, tend to have much less bug problems than my sweet potatoes growing in lighter, more organic soil. Anybody else see that? The common insect I see with the tubers is the sweet potato weevil, and if the soil has a lot of clay, I'm guessing it's too hard for the weevils to get to the tubers.

Thanks,

-Charles


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RE: Sweet potatoes do better in clayish soil?

Aloha Charles,

Not too familiar with sweet potatos or the weevil itself, but I would say that your guess seems about right =/
As I understand it, the weevils lay their eggs in holes they make in the potato and vine, depending on the time of the year/season. So if you're having problems, a pre-planting insecticide treatment applied to the soil, and once again midway through the season, may do the trick for future crops.

I found a site that you may have already seen, but just in case you haven't, I'll include it here. Hope this helps in some way, just keep doing what works, and let me know what you find! Sometimes all it takes is a little R&D!

Aloha,
Dave
Kauai

Here is a link that might be useful: Cylas formicarius


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