I had planted Okinawan Sweet Potato cuttings (see this blog entry) in 3 areas of my garden.
I had already harvested Okinawan Sweet Potatoes from a Raised Bed about 6 weeks ago (see this blog entry) and from a container (see this blog entry).
In this part of my garden, I planted Okinawan Sweet Potato cuttings under the trellis that I use to support my Winter Melon plants.
Last week, I harvested all of my Winter Melons (see this blog entry). You can see dead vines from the Winter Melon plants hanging in the midsts of the Okinawan Sweet Potato Vines in the picture at the top right.
With the Winter Melon plants gone, I could cut off the Okinawan Sweet Potato vines and harvest the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes.
The picture to the right shows the Raised Bed with the Okinawan Sweet Potato plants. This blog entry shows how the Raised Bed looked like when I first planted the cuttings.
This picture shows two Okinawan Sweet Potatoes in the ground. I carefully removed all of the soil around the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes. You can also see the drip tubing that I use to water my plants in the background of the picture.The two Okinawan Sweet Potatoes separated very easily. They were not really attached together.
This picture shows the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes that I harvested from the Raised Bed, about 7 pounds worth.This is less than I harvested from my container (see this blog entry). I think this is because this part of the garden does not get as much sun as the container did. There is a lot of shade from my Neighbor's trees behind the Raised Bed, so this part of the garden only gets sun in the morning.
Still, I got more Okinawan Sweet Potatoes and with a lot less work from the Container, so I am going to plant more Okinawan Sweet Potato cuttings in containers next year.
Since I have the Winter Melon Trellis in this part of the Raised bed, there is not much that I can grow in this area. The Okinawan Sweet Potato vines grow fast enough that it can compete with the Winter Melon vines for space. So, I will continue to plant Okinawan Sweet Potatoes here.The picture to the right shows new Okinawan Sweet Potato cuttings that I planted in the Raised Bed after I had completed the harvest.
The brown stuff around the plants is Coconut Coir. I use this to mulch the Raised Bed and warm up the soil. With the cold temperatures we have been having, it has been hard to root Okinawan Sweet Potato cuttings (see this blog entry).
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I grew up in Cerritos, quite awhile back. I had Filipino friends back then, and my friend's mom was avidly into high-density Asian vegetable gardening, utilizing their entire back yard for this purpose. I was fascinated by what she could do with what must have been just a few hundred square feet of growing space. In the summer when you went out back, you could see only green leaves overhead -- almost the entire back yard had an overhead trellis for squash vines. She kept a family of 8 in vegetables most of the year. From her I learned quite a bit about growing techniques, items more of interest to people from her part of the world -- long beans (sitaw), japanese eggplant, white squash (upo) and chayote (sayote). I learned that you cold make a light stew with fresh squash vine tips and flowers. In mid-summer, the taste was so fresh and good it was simply indescribable. I came upon your blog because I have recently grown interested in the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes. Here they are expensive to buy but delicious. I'd like to try growing a batch this year, but the growing season is much shorter up here in the Seattle area. Anyway thanks for posting this blog!
ReplyDeletehi i was wondering where can you get okinawan sweet potatoes i am from indiana and i would love to grow some to eat!!! here is my email sweet_tater20012002@yahoo.com thanks dusty
ReplyDeleteI got my Okinawan Sweet Potato slips from Mericlone Labs.
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