Growing Sweet Potato in the Garden Route. Patats in die Tuinroete

I haven't been posting as frequent as I want because I've been on leave for about a week now, as is normally the case in April. It's such a glorious month, don't you think? The milder weather, all those public holidays and to top it all off; my birthday. What could be better?

Another awesome April surprise was my sweet potato harvest. And boy, what a harvest it was! See, the whole "experiment" started last year mid-winter when my second mom gave me three medium-sized sweet potatoes to start slips with. Yes, I did my research! Unlike the normal potato, which is planted with a seed potato ('moer' in Afrikaans), the sweet potato is planted with slips - or basically stems that grow from a sweet potato lying in water. This is because potatoes are plants that form edible tubers whereas the actual sweet potato is a thickening of  its plant's roots, or that is how I understand it.

By the beginning of October my slips were ready to plant. You know this is the case when the slips are six inches long or more. Most will have roots on them as well. Simply break the slips off where they're attached to the potato and its ready to be planted. This is how my slips looked on 8 October 2013:

Slips started off from 3 sweet potatoes/Ranke wat met 3 patats begin is

Most of them went into the ground on the same day. Since I'm not blessed with limitless space, they had to go in between shrubs, conifers, between small fruit trees and even partially under the massive swamp cypress. 

Small cleared space for sweet potatoes between the grass, ground cover and conifers

The one thing all sources were in agreement with is that sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) should be left in the ground as long as possible. This is due to the plant being native to tropical regions of Central and South America; therefore requiring warm nights and an average daytime temperature in the mid-twenties (centigrade). I decided I would leave my plants in peace until the beginning or middle of April, since March is still basically a summer month in my part of the Garden Route region. I could afford this luxury because I had planted the sweet potatoes so they could crawl into our normal garden, or just form a kind of green, living ground-cover for the soil in the fruit bed. They would therefore fulfill a dual purpose, because not only would I (hopefully) get to harvest some sweet potatoes, but the dense green foliage would help the soil retain moisture in the height of summer. Neat hey?

Sweet potato bed, instead of fruit bed?/Appel, laventel en kumquat skaars sigbaar tussen patatranke

The after photo (7 April 2014):

The fruit bed, sans sweet potatoes/Vrugtebedding na die patat-oes

Did the fruit bed deliver sweet potato-wise? Yes - over and over! I think it is the first thing I planted that wasn't just a success because it gave me pleasure to plant and harvest my own fruit and veg, but also a financial success... I actually put in way less than I got out. Wonderful!!!

Sweet potato harvest from the fruit bed/Patat-oes uit die vrugtebedding

How did the two slips planted six months before fare stuck between grass, ferns and conifers? Well:

Just as the sweet potato harvest was about to start/Nét voor die patats geoes is

Sweet potato harvest from conifer bed/Patat-oes uit conifer bedding

And so, from three average sweet potatoes I harvested 6kg six months later. I am amazed! This is clearly a vegetable I will plant over and over in my garden. Not fussy, no pests, minimal watering, big harvest. The only thing I noticed, once again, is that they shouldn't be planted in the shade. Partial shade is fine, although full sun (6h+ a day) leads to the highest yields. My biggest single sweet potato came from the sunniest part of the fruit bed. It weighed in at a respectable 750g... unfortunately I sliced it into pieces with the spade. Such is life.

Backyard Harvest. Agterplaas Oes

I think a report on my harvests is long overdue. Don't let the word "harvests" fool you into thinking massive, farm-scale hauls however. No, the produce harvested in a backyard garden is much more humble. It still leads to pride and joy - especially if the harvest is larger than expected. An occassion that, admittedly, didn't occur very often in my little South African patch this summer.

So here goes:

Clockwise fltr: Gem Squash/Skorsie, two Pepinos/twee Boomspanspekke, tomatoes/tamaties

One of the most successful plants in my backyard veg patch isn't a vegetable at all, but the pepino. It's like the gift that keeps on giving. I get at least one juicy pepino every week from a bush less than knee-height. Plant it if you live in a sub-tropical or moderately humid region people!

The gem squash wasn't through any effort of my own. No, a volunteer plant sprung up under my little kumquat tree. I think the manure-enriched compost might have something to do with it. The plant soon lost the fight against white powdery mildew, but not before providing us with two lovely squashes. Two might be a meager amount, but they were unexpected, so I'm appreciative.

The tomato haul has been bitterly disappointing. Blight of course. The only tomatoes that seem to flourish are the volunteer cherry tomatoes, and even they got blight in the long run.

Clockwise fltr: Brandywine Sudduths, Red Kaki, Dr Carolyn Yellow

The Red Kaki tomatoes (dark-green round tomato pictured centre-right) were a complete flop. The plants all got blight too early for the poor little tomatoes to flourish. At least I received the seeds for free haha. The blight is definitely to blame, but this cultivar seemed the most prone to it. I don't think they will get any of the valuable garden space in future.

I got some decent-sized Brandywine tomatoes. The plants also developed the dreaded blight, so most of the tomatoes had to be harvested greener than should be, but their taste was  great. No fake taste, like all those beautifully plastic-looking shop tomatoes. They are a bit mushy for my taste though. I think I will try another fleshy cultivar next year. Any suggestions?

The biggest surprise has been the Dr Carolyn Yellow tomatoes. I harvest at least a handful every day. They also lean to the mushy side when over-ripe, but they produce like little machines! They also look beautiful in salads. I don't know if this is pure coincidence, but they also seem more blight resistant than the other cultivars I tried this year. Think I will give them a go again next year.

How does your summer harvest look thus far? Winter harvest, if you're living on the other side of the equator?