I was mistaken; Sand Hill did label the varieties they sent. They arrived in one heavily wrapped bundle, so I couldn’t tell until I unwrapped them to plant. There was a little plastic tag inside each bundle to tell me what variety it was. The writing was worse than a doctor’s though, so after a little interpretation and browsing through their sweet potato catalog page, I think that we have the following five varieties:
- Orange Oakleaf: (Heirloom Variety) Early. Pale copper colored roots, nice bright orange flesh, average vining, above average yields.
- Korean Purple: (Heirloom Variety) Early. Vining, dark green colored normal leaves, purple skin, white flesh, excellent yields, very sweet.
- Heartogold: Early. Developed in 1947. Vigorous vines, huge yields of tan skinned, bright orange flesh potatoes.
- Envy: Early. Sent to us by Rollie Morton. Pale orange flesh and skin, ivy leaf, stays slightly firm when baked.
- Indiana Gold: (Heirloom Variety) Sent to us by Mark Jennete. A superb, golden skinned and orange fleshed, vigorous, yet tamed vines that set roots early.
I planted the first four varieties this morning, and now that it’s naptime and Jason’s working downstairs with the baby monitor, I’m headed out to plant the Indiana Golds. The first four took up two rows, and the Indiana Golds are my biggest bunch, so I think they’ll take up the whole third. I specifically requested the Korean Purples (the only request I made), both because they’re Korean and because they’re purple, but they only sent me two slips. I guess they’re a popular variety! If they do well and keep well, maybe I’ll start my own slips next year.
I’m pretty sure there are way more than 50 slips in the bundle, so I got my money’s worth. The slips are short, though; I’d guess they average 6″ long. If I’d ordered from a company in a warm climate, I would have gotten bigger slips, and I would have gotten them earlier. But I like Sand Hill’s dedication to preserving heirlooms, and they have so many more varieties than most places do. Honestly, sweet potatoes like hot and shouldn’t really be planted before mid-June around here anyway, so nothing’s lost except a little size. And I think they’ll catch up quickly.
Planting sweet potato slips is super easy. I simply poked holes 12″ apart (rows being 42″ apart) with an old rake handle. Then I dropped a slip in each hole. Then I watered each slip, which caused some soil to wash in around the root. I helped the rest of the soil to fall in around the plant, watered again, and moved onto the next slip. Seriously the easiest planting I’ve done all year. I’m actually looking forward to going out and finishing the job.
Here’s hoping the weather gets nice and hot for them, and that the deer don’t find them. (I keep reading about how much deer love sweet potato vines…)
you’re just rolling right along! we just got back from picking 40 quarts of strawberries (hope to plant my own next year) so i need to get busy on that….
i’ve found a technique that seems to keep the deer and rabbits away (AFTER they ate the. entire. row. of cabbagy things.) y ou’ll like it because it’s organic. (i think?) i grated up irish spring soap,a nd then put a couple handfuls of the shreds in my hand held sprayer. add a bunch of hot water, and then i have been spraying the stuff that i think/know the animals will like- beets, carrots, cabbagy things, sweet potatoes. so far they have been leaving all the stuff alone, and the cabbages are all coming back. i do it about every other day, and then after whenever it rains.
hope that helps.
I’ve just planted sweet potato slips for the first time – can you tell me how long it took before they didn’t look like they were going to croak.
I know it seems late, but I was following the lead of another local farmer who just harvested slips and planted his, too. I’ve bought boxes of taters from him, so I know he knows how to grow them.
I just found Sand Hill this morning! I’ll bookmark for next spring as I wanted organic slips but didn’t find any locally.
Thank you for the feedback.
Marie
near Dallas, Texas