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Tue, May 19, 09 at 10:48
| Would some one that has grown sweet potatoes in a SFG please share your experience. Did you use the Mel Mixture. How deep were your beds. How did they turn out. Red |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I have never done this so please ignore this information if you want to :) I was planning on putting my sweet potatoes in an area that I was going to use for carrots (I havent seen much of a difference in the 2 months they have been planted). It is a deep area and I have the Mel's mix in there. I didnt use the greatest of compost because I didnt have a compost started and things are growing SLOOOOOOOOWLY. I was going to add some 12/12/12 garden food to help give it a boost before I planted them. I have gotten MANY vines from my 2 sweet potatoes and I have some that are planted in containers so that's my story :) |
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| I did this! I LOVE sweet potatoes. I used Mel's mix and my boxes are 12" deep. They will take over the WHOLE box - on the top and underground. We planted them with other things and when we harvested the sweet potatoes everything else had to come out because they were all over the place under the soil. Mine were long and skinny, which I read was due to the soil being TOO good. So I planted them in a little sandier soil this year to see if I could get fatter ones. I'll know in the fall. Still, I'm not complaining because they were delicious. Here's a link at the bottom to my sweet potato post from sept 2008. Also, I just found THREE more sweet potatoes in April and May that had been hiding in there since last November when we harvested - we'd missed them. They were sending up slips to re-plant themselves. I dug them out and ate them. They were great! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Sweet Potato Post from fall 2008
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- Posted by engineeredgarden 7, nw Alabama (My Page) on Tue, May 19, 09 at 13:01
| jengc - sweet potatoes don't like alot of nitrogen, so I wouldn't add that plant food you were talking about.....some organic source that is low in nitrogen would be better, like composted manure.... chao - if crystabel or cheryl will chime in, both have done well with them in the sfg. EG |
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| Thanks for telling me! I was going to plant them tonight. So can I use old (about 2 months old) horse manure as composted manure or is this something totally different? I have found bags called composted manure at wal-mart for like $1.50 a bag. Will this work? You rock EG. You know EVERYTHING!! |
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- Posted by engineeredgarden 7, nw Alabama (My Page) on Tue, May 19, 09 at 16:50
| jengc - horse manure that is at least 120 days old is only recommended, because it takes that long to kill the pathogens in it. Most bagged manure compost has about 1/2 of one percent nitrogen content, and a little more would actually be better. I'd probably go with some cottonseed meal, but only if my soil ph was 6.5 or higher. EG |
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- Posted by engineeredgarden 7, nw Alabama (My Page) on Tue, May 19, 09 at 18:00
| I said : Most bagged manure compost has about 1/2 of one percent nitrogen content Correction....I meant to say .05%, or 1/20th of a percent. EG |
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- Posted by ribbit32004 (My Page) on Tue, May 19, 09 at 20:09
| I just planted mine today! I put them in the middle of a box so they can go wherever hey like on either side. They'll run together with the cantaloupe which will run all over the place anyway. |
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