Re: [gardeners] Getting ready already
olin (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Fri, 22 Nov 2002 11:56:07 -0700
Re: Sweet Potatoes
Reminds me that two years ago we had a Safeway sweet potato we liked so well
we bought another to grow slips from in a jar of water. When it came time
to plant the slips, I didn't have much space so I just planted the whole
thing with all of the slip still attached. The result an eight foot square
root spread (vine spread was much more) with some normal looking potatoes,
some deformed potatoes and one normal-looking one that was 17 inches long
and over 4 inches dia. - the biggest one I have ever seen. We thought it
might be fibrous but it wasn't and was tender throughout. We prepared it in
a casserole much like George does (but ours was for the adults). It served
nine of us with plenty left over. This spring I started slips the usual way
from last fall's crop and most looked like sweet potatoes should with the
largest ones about a foot long and 2 inches dia. weighing 1 1/2 lb. after
curing for 2 weeks.
Garden catalogs and posts in garden newsgroups often caution against using
garlic bulbs, potatoes or sweet potatoes from supermarkets alleging the
produce is sprayed with a retardant to prevent sprouting. I have using
supermarket produce in the garden for decades with no problems which leads
me to believe the retardant spraying practice exists more in the minds of
the seed suppliers than in the supermarket produce,
Olin
----- Original Message ----- From: "George Shirley" <gshirl@bellsouth.net>
> .... Got the sweet potatoes cooking so I can mash them and get
> them ready for sweet tater casserole with brown sugar, pecans, and
> marshmellows. That will be for the youngun's and I'm saving one small
> sweet tater for me to eat plain. I was surprised that our supermarket
> had 6 varieties of sweet potatoes on sale for 50 cents a lb this year. I
> bought Garnet, a variety I'm not familiar with but the taters were
> really nice, firm and had a good skin color to them.
>...