2019 Sweet Potato Harvest

I yielded about 3-4 lbs of sweet potatoes (1/4 of a 5 gallon bucket) from the one sweet potato I sprouted (from last year's harvest). This is quite a bit less than last years harvest (10-15 lbs from two potatoes purchased from the grocery store), but still rather decent given the poor growing conditions.

Spring started about a month late which provided a rather short growing season. I tried to get the sweet potatoes in the soil as soon as possible and nearly got them frozen in a cold spell in which the temperature dropped below freezing. Out of desperation I covered each plant with Tupperware bowls secured in place with rocks on top. I also put a little mulch around the edges to keep them warm. This did the the trick, as I only lost one plant out of eight. This method worked well enough that I'm planning on experimenting with it in coming years to extend the growing season.

We also had an insect invasion (mostly small black beetles and moths, but also some grass hoppers) which resulted in some moderate leaf damage. For the most part the insects avoided the sweet potatoes.

Because I started sprouting the sweet potatoes early, I was able to grow and plant six slips (five of which survived to maturity). I also planted the remaining two potato halves. Here are the sweet potatoes that I harvested from each half:

And here is the sum of all the sweet potatoes harvested from the slips:

As you can see the halves produced a lot more potatoes per plant. I'm guessing most of this is due to the head-start the halves had over the slips, but I also gave the halves better soil (softer with more organic matter).