Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A One and a Two or a Three?

I missed my one year 'blogaversary!' I know I've got posts on here dating back to 2007, but those were post dated from the actual time I began the first post. A year for many of you may not seem like much, but we as a society hardly ever stick to anything for a week, let alone a full year. How long do most diets last? How many weeks until you flake out on your gym membership or try to walk or bike more to work? I'm telling you, a year's a good deal and I'm thrilled to have met so many of you along the way who have helped me learn how to manage my garden.

Now for the two or three......I'm doing my sweet potatoes in containers this year. The pots I bought are just crazy large, but I don't know if I should do two shoots per pot or three. I've got three in there now, but my goal is to get large, serving sized potatoes and not those thin scraggly ones I got last year when I let the vines run everywhere in the bed. They haven't rooted so fiercely yet, so I can still take one out if I need to. What do you think: two or three? I suppose it matters if they'll grow potatoes close to the surface or stretch themselves towards the bottom of the pot to grow the tubers. The pot comes up right above my knees if that helps with the size.
The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

11 comments:

  1. Happy Blogoversary! I completely missed mine (I had to look it up, it was back in January). Oops... :-)

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  2. Happy Anniversary! I forgot mine too, LOL! It is easy to stick to when your followers all understand that life gets busy sometimes and aren't calling you demanding you finish a post! That being said, you are fantastic with the frequent posts, I need to work on that! It's been fun watching the corner yard turn into the corner "farm" ... always be planting! Can't tell you a thing about the sweet potatoes, never planted them.

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  3. Happy Belated....maybe try a bit of each to compare for next season? My sweet potato knowledge is severely lacking.

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  4. Hmmm....I had similar results as you last year, and will be reducing the number of plants in mine, too. I'm planning on 2 plants per container, for what it's worth. Your slips look great! Did you start them yourself?

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  5. Happy belated anniversary! I just know I'm gonna miss mine too. I was considering buying a few large pots to grow potatoes in but for some reason, I just can't justify spending all of that money on pots and potting mix. It would be the most expensive potato in the world!

    I hope your sweet potatoes turn out well for you!

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  6. Thanks for the well wishes! Erin, you're right....if only I could have chickens, the corner farm it would be.

    Thomas, the majority of what's in those pots is left over from the compost I bought in bulk to fill the new beds, so it wasn't too terribly expensive.

    EG...I'm thinking you're right to only put 2 in there, although Kelly's try one of each sounds good, too. I'm really leaning to pulling one out and finding a place for the others somewhere in the garden. I was going to put them where the garlic is, but that's not done yet. What I'd truly need to do is put some sort of a divider in the long beds to keep the roots contained in the smaller space and trim the vines so I can hopefully get larger tubers. Hmmmmmm...I think I've just solved my problem. Looks like it's back to the garden planning sheet to see what I can move around.

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  7. Happy blogoversary, and hope it last another year, then another year....

    We have sweet potatoes too..., and for the moment they stand in as ornamental for the next couple of months.

    ~bangchik

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  8. Happy Bloggiversary To You
    You Live in a Zoo
    You Look like a Monkey
    And you smell like one too!

    Okay, I couldn't resist. HAPPY ONE-YEAR BLOGGIVERSARY!!!! I love reading your blog and although I don't always comment, I think I read pretty much every post you write.

    I yearn (giggle) for sweet potatoes, but I tried to make my own slips and they all went rotten and died. I can't buy slips locally so I can't get any sweet tater plants started... and I'm really bummed about it. I wish I had an ounce of advice for you. Keep me posted on yours!! I'd love to watch them grow.

    Thanks for writing a great blog!

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  9. Happy, happy, happy, happy happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy happy, happy, happy, happy Blogiversary!

    I grew gorgeous slips one year, but at the wrong time of the year. I told my daughter to take care of my plant over winter, but she killed it. I haven't been able to get one to grow since, they just rot and smell to high Heaven.

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  10. Happy belated blogsversary! it's really great to meet many friends from all over. Happy gardening! I have a 'green harvest' post to read. Do hop over.

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  11. Congrats on the year of sharing your garden!

    About the sweet potatoes--part of how well they'll do depends on the variety they are. Vardemon are always long and fairly skinny, no matter how they are grown. A friend of mine grew Beauregards in a pot one year (one slip in a Very Large Pot) and the potatoes busted the pot. Last year I grew a less exuberant variety, Puerto Rican, in a pot, and it did just fine (one slip in a large pot). I will be interested to hear how yours do!

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