Harvesting Okinawan Sweet Potatoes

About seven months ago, I planted some Okinawan Sweet Potato vines into 7 half whiskey barrel containers (See this blog entry).

I decided this morning to see if there were any Okinawan Sweet Potatoes in one of the containers (see this picture to the right).

This is approximately the same that that I harvested Okinawan Sweet Potatoes last year (See this blog entry).

Last year, I had a very difficult time restarting the Okinawan Sweet Potato vines after I had completed the harvest (see this blog entry). This was primarily due to the cold weather at this time of the year.

This year, I wanted to be as non-invasive to the Okinawan Sweet Potato plants as possible. So instead of cutting away all of the leaves and vines as I did last year, I just flipped the container over a bunch of old news papers.

You can see all of the Sweet Potatoes cluster along the outer rim of the soil mix in the picture to the right.

Instead of destroying the root structure and get all of the Sweet Potatoes in the container, I only harvested the Sweet Potatoes on the outer edge.

The picture to the right shows all of the holes left by the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes that I harvested.

I am sure that there were Sweet Potatoes in the middle of the container, but I could not get at them without tearing everything apart.

I also left several small Okinawan Sweet Potatoes that were not worth harvesting along the outer edge.

The picture to the right shows my yield from this container. Last year, I harvested bigger Sweet Potatoes. I think this is due partially to the abnormally cold summer we had in the Los Angeles area this year.

I am going to wait another month or so before I harvest another container. Hopefully by then, the Sweet Potatoes will have grown bigger.

When I was done, I put the container back over the Sweet Potato plants and flip the soil mix back in.

The picture to the right shows how the Sweet Potato plants look after everything was done. You really can't tell the difference from the picture at the top.

I am very happy with this modification to last year's procedure.

I avoid the trouble of restarting the Okinawan Sweet Potato vines during winter and hopefully I can get another harvest from this container in another 6 months or so.

Fertilizing the Cherry Tomato Raised Bed

The 4 Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomato plants that I grew in my biggest Raised Bed have finally given out. This is roughly the same time as last year that the Cherry Tomato plants died (see this blog entry)


I spent about 2 hours removing the plants and taking down the Texas Tomato Cages.


The picture below shows how the Raised Bed looked like after I had cleared everything out.


One of the reasons why my Cherry Tomato plants grow so well and produce so many tomatoes is because I replenish the soil every year. I put natural fertilizer and manure into the Raised Bed and let it compost for 4 months, so the plants have access to a lot of nutriets.

This year, I am using Alfalfa Meal as my main natural fertilizer. Last year, I used Soybean Meal. Soybean Meal is richer (N-P-K ratio of 7-2-1) than Alfalfa Meal (N-P-K ratio of 3-1-2), but costs almost 1.5 times as much. With the recession, I wanted to save a little money and used Alfalfa meal instead.


I buy my Alfalfa and Soybean Meal from Kruse Feed & Supply in La Habra, CA. A 50 lb bag of Alfalfa Meal costs about $17 from Kruse Feed & Supply. A 50 lb bag of Soybean Meal costs about $25. I typically use about a quarter of a 50 lb bag to fertilize this Raised Bed.


The picture below shows the Raised Bed with a layer of Alfalfa Meal on top of the old soil.

I put a layer of newspapers (see picture below) on top of the Alfalfa Meal to prevent weeds from sprouting.

Next, I put another layer of Alfalfa Meal on top of the newspapers.

Lastly, I put a thick layer of composted Steer Manure as the final layer. I used 10 bags of 1 cu feet composted Steer Manure. I bought the bags from Home Depot for about $1 each.

The picture below shows the final result. You can see the soil is several inches higher than before. I always put the soil up to this level every year, so you can see how much soil is "consumed" each year. I don't step on this Raised Bed, so the soil loss is not due to compaction.

October Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes

Today, I was able to pick my first Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes from my second batch of Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants.

The timing was excellent, as I had just cleared away my Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomato plants (See this blog entry).

This is the first time that I have tried growing Cherry Tomato plants in the Fall. I have tried before, but usually the Summers are too hot and cause my young Cherry Tomato plants too wilt. This year, we had a very mild Summer.

I started these plants from clones about 2 and 1/2 months ago (See this blog entry).

I currently have 4 Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants growing. The picture below shows how they look today.

There are a lot of flowers and fruit on the plants. I am curious as to how long the plants will last before cold weather brings them down.

September Strawberries

Ripe Strawberries!

2nd Batch of Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes

My second batch of Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes are doing very well.

The picture to the right shows two of the four Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants that I cloned a little over 6 weeks ago (see this blog entry).

The plants are almost 6 feet tall and are producing a lot of flowers. Now that the weather has cooled down, I am get the flowers to set. I hope to have Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes ready to eat in a few weeks.

The picture below shows the Sweet Baby Cherry Tomato plants that I planted 5 months ago (see this blog entry). The fruit production from these plants have slowed down. It is too late in the year to try to plant another crop in this area, so I am just going to let them keep growing.

Cloned Sun Gold Cherry Tomato Plants

Last week, I replaced my two Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants. The Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants started to drop off fruit production a few weeks ago (see this blog entry).

From my past experience with Cherry Tomato plants (see this blog entry), I find that once the plants stop producing and it's mid-summer, it's time to put in new plants.

The picture above shows two Cherry Tomato plants that I cloned from the original plants (see this blog entry).

Hopefully, I'll have new Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes ready to pick in late September.

Why it does NOT make sense to plant Sweet Corn in my backyard garden

It just does not make financial sense to plant Sweet Corn in my backyard garden.

I dedicated a small 3' x 3' area of my garden this year to growing Sweet Corn (see this blog entry). After about 3 months, I harvested 16 ears of Sweet Corn (see this blog entry)

The local supermarket sells Sweet Corn for $0.25 to $0.33 each, so this 3' x 3' part of my garden saved me $5.

In this equivalent area, I could grow a Strawberries or Cherry Tomatoes.

Strawberries are going for $3 a pound at the local supermarket. I can get a pint of Strawberries from a strawberry plant in a season and a 6 foot tall Strawberry Tower can hold 36 Strawberry plants (see this blog entry). However, this part of the garden only gets sunlight in the morning (there is a big hedgerow behind it that blocks the afternoon sun), so I can only have 20 productive Strawberry plants in this part of the garden. A pint of strawberries is about 0.75 pounds, so 20 Strawberry plants would yield 15 pounds of Strawberries per year or about $45 worth of strawberries.

In this same 3' x 3' area, I could grow one Cherry Tomato plant. A pound of Cherry Tomatoes goes for $5 at the local supermarket. Although I have not added up how many pounds of Cherry Tomatoes a plant can produce in a season, I did record how much Cherry Tomatoes my garden can produce in 1 week (see this blog entry from last year). I think 20 pounds of Cherry Tomatoes per plant is a reasonable estimate or $100 worth of fruit.

So, I can grow $5 worth of Sweet Corn, $45 worth of Strawberries or $100 worth of Cherry Tomatoes. I really cannot taste the difference between my backyard Sweet Corn and the supermarket Sweet Corn, but I can taste the difference in the Strawberries (mine are sweeter). As for Cherry Tomatoes, I cannot even find Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes in the supermarket and in my opinion Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes are the best tasting Cherry Tomatoes.

From now on, no more Sweet Corn in my garden.

I converted this area to growing Cherry Tomatoes (see this blog entry).

Cloned Sun Gold Cherry Tomato Plant

With my Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants starting to falter in fruit production (see this blog entry), I decided to clone additional Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants.

I cut off the growing tips from a couple of branches of one of the the two Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants and stuck them into the ground a couple of weeks ago.

The picture above shows how the cuttings look today.

I rooted 2 cuttings in case one of them did not survive .I am glad that I did this 2 weeks ago, as it has gotten extremely hot this past week (almost 100 degrees F during the day), and I doubt the cuttings who have taken root. Fortunately, the cuttings look in good shape.

This spot in the garden was used for Sweet Corn earlier. After I harvested the Sweet Corn, (see this blog entry), I decided to convert the area to Cherry Tomatoes for the rest of the season (see this blog entry for why)

I will transplant one of the cuttings to another part of the garden next week.

Winter Melon Flowers Forming

This has been a very unusual summer in Southern California.

The mornings have been cloudy and the days cool. Last weekend, was the coolest July we had on record.

This weather has not been good for my Winter Melon plants. They flourish in hot weather.

Last year at this time, I had already harvested my first Winter Melons (see this blog entry).

This year, the flowers are just forming (see picture at the top).

The weather has turned hot the last couple of days. We have reached the 90s and more hot weather is on the way. This should make a difference.

Plumeria Transplants Doing Well

The Plumeria cuttings that I rooted 6 months ago (see this blog entry) are doing very well.

I gave away the original plant, but I kept the cuttings.

The picture above shows how the cuttings look today. There are lots of leaves and more branches are starting to form. No flowers yet, but I hope to see them soon.

Harvesting Cherry Tomatoes

My Cherry Tomato plants are producing a lot of fruit. Although not as much as last year (see this blog entry).

This week marks a change over.

My Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants have been producing fruit for the past six weeks (see this blog entry) and are starting to falter.

My Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes were transplanted much later and are only now starting to produce.

The picture above shows my harvest from today. There are slightly more Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes than there are Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes. I think starting from now on, I will be getting a lot more Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomatoes.

The picture below shows how my Cherry Tomato plants look. The 4 on the left are Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomato plants and the 2 on the left are Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants. All of the plants look the same height, because they are all supported by 8 feet tall Texas Tomato Cages (see this blog entry). However, the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plants have branches that drape well over the Tomato Cages. If you look closely at the picture, you can see that the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato cages are starting to tip over from the weight of the branches that have draped over.

July Lilies

More of my lilies are starting to bloom.

The one on the left is "Silk Road" and the one on the right is "Muscadet". Both are from the Lily Garden.

Charentais Fruit Forming

My Charentais plants have fruit! It was a little over a month ago that the plants were starting to produce flowers (see this blog entry)

I have 4 fruits forming. The fruits are the size of a baseball.

Thai Chili Peppers Ripening

The peppers on the Thai Chili pepper plant that I bought a few months ago (see this blog entry) are starting to ripen

The red chili peppers are deep in the middle of the plant. I had to spread out the leaves to find them (see picture to the right). Most of the chili peppers are still green, but I was able to pick a couple of them.

The picture below shows how the plants looks today. It has grown considerably.

I expect to have a lot more chili peppers in a couple of weeks.

Harvesting Sweet Corn

The sweet corn that I planted several months ago (see this blog entry) is ready for harvest.

You can see the ears of corn sticking out from the stalks in the picture to the right.

The picture below shows one of the ears of corn that I peeled back.

Back From Vacation - Cherry Tomato Plants Have Escaped the Cage

I went on vacation for a week and when I came back I found that my Cherry Tomato plants had "escaped" from their Texas Tomato cages.

This is not surprising as I have to "tuck" the branches back into the Tomato Cage on a daily basis.

There are four Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Tomato plants in the foreground of the picture above. The plants have now blended together to fill all of the space between the Tomato cages.

It's too late to tuck the branches back in, but I am going to cut off the tops of the branches that have escaped the Raised Bed so that that they stop growing. Otherwise, the branches will eventually collapse onto the floor.

The picture to the right shows my oldest Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plant.

It has grown several more feet since my last blog entry and is now draping over the 8 foot tall Tomato Cage.

The Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes are starting to ripen. The picture below shows what I was able to pick today. I was able to fill one and a quarter 32 oz containers.

The Cherry Tomatoes are a little behind where they were this time last year (see this blog entry). This is due to the late start I had as a result of "El Nino" (see this blog entry).

Sweet Corn Ears Forming

My Early Sunglow Sweet Corn plants are doing very well.

They have doubled in height since my last blog post 3 weeks ago.

The corn tassels are starting to spread out. I expect pollen to start flying in the next week.

Lower down on the corn plants, I can see that ears are starting to form.

In the picture to the right, you can see the corn silk emerging. Hopefully, the silk will catch the pollen and I will have lots of corn kernels.

I have also started another corn planting. This time I am planting Bodacious, which is a Sugar Enhanced Sweet Corn. I purchased the seed from Park Seed.

I had to wait until the soil warmed up before I planted the Bodacious seed. Sugar Enhanced Sweet Corn is much more dependent upon soil temperature to germinate than regular Sweet Corn.

Plus, I wanted to spread out the plants in time so that the pollen from the Early Sunglow Sweet Corn would not pollenate the Bodacious corn.

The picture below shows the Bodacious seedlings look today, two weeks after planting. I planted 16 seeds and 12 germinated.

More May Lilies

Last week, I had a couple of Lilies start to bloom (see this blog entry)

This week, I had a couple of more.

The one to the left is called Avonlea and the one on the right is called Gran Cru. Both are from the Lily Garden.

Chantentais Flowering

My Charentais plants are starting to flower. This is the first time that I have grown Charentais and I was surprised as to how small the flowers are. You can barely see them in the picture above.

These are male flowers. I expect female flowers to start appearing in a week or so.

May Lilies

I had two Lilies bloom this weekend.

The one to the left in the picture above is "Big Bang" from the Lily Garden.

I don't know the name of the one to the right. I purchased it from Home Depot a couple of years ago with a bunch of other bulbs.

First Cherry Tomatoes

I picked my first Cherry Tomatoes today!

These are from the Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plant that I transplanted almost 3 months ago (see this blog entry).

This is the same time that I had my first Cherry Tomatoes last year (see this blog entry). So despite the unseasonably cold weather we have had this spring, I am "on schedule".

This Sun Gold Cherry Tomato plant is now 8 feet tall and is about to out grow the Texas Tomato cage. I need to decide soon as to whether I should cut off the tops to stop it from growing any taller or let it start draping over the cage.

Growing Okinawan Sweet Potatoes in 7 Containers

I have started Okinawan Sweet Potatoes in seven half-whiskey barrel containers.

Last year, I grew Okinawan Sweet Potatoes both in a Raised Bed (see this blog entry) and in a container (see this blog entry).

I found that I got just as much yield from the container as I did from a Raised Bed, but it was so much easier to harvest the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes in the container. It would take me a over an hour to dig up the Raised Bed and find all of the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes. With the container, all I had to do was to dump the container onto some newspapers and the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes would just appear. No digging. No hunting.

This year, I decided to just grow the Okinawan Sweet Potatoes in containers. I reused the fiberglass half-whiskey barrel container from last year and I bought 6 more containers. I got 10 pounds of Okinawan Sweet Potatoes in the container last year, so I hope to get 70 pounds this year.

Okinawan Sweet Potatoes take about 6 months to mature. I started these plants in April and March (see this blog entry). I had wanted to start the plants earlier, but the cool weather we had at the beginning of the yield prevented my cuttings from taking root.

Two Feet Tall Sweet Corn

My Sweet Corn plants are now 2 feet tall. I planted the corn seeds 7 weeks ago (See this blog entry).

I was concerned that the plants were too close together, but they appear to be very healthy.

Thai Red Dragon Pepper Flowering

I bought a Thai Red Dragon Pepper plant from San Gabriel Nursery for $2.99 a few weeks ago.

I transplanted into a 5 gallon container.

You can see in the picture that it is starting to flower.

First Lily Flower of the Year

My first Lily Flower has bloomed!

This Lily is always the first one in my garden to bloom and at roughly the same time of the year (see this blog entry).

On difference this year is that I dug up the Lily from its place in the ground and put it in a small container. There is no noticeable change in the Lily from the move.

Kishu Mandarin Flowering

The Kishu Mandarin tree that I planted 1.5 years ago (see this blog entry) is doing really well.

It is producing a lot of flowers (see the picture to the right). I expect a lot of Mandarin Oranges next fall.

The picture below shows how the Kishu Mandarin tree looks today.

The picture below shows how the Kishu Mandarin tree looked a year ago. You can tell that the tree is much fuller than before.

Cherry Tomatoes Forming

I have Cherry Tomatoes forming!

The picture to the right shows my Sungold Cherry Tomato plant with several little Cherry Tomatoes.

This is about the same time that I saw Cherry Tomatoes last year (see this blog entry), so my mishaps with the weather (see this blog entry) have not delayed things too much. I am still on track to have Cherry Tomatoes ready to pick by the end of May.

All of my Cherry Tomato seedlings are now in the ground.

I am planting only 6 Cherry Tomato plants this year, compared to 11 last year. I had way too many Cherry Tomatoes last year that I ended up giving a lot away.

This year, I also spaced out the maturity of the Cherry Tomato plants, so that they don't all start producing at the same time.

The picture below shows 2 Sungold Cherry Tomato plants. The one on the right has been in the ground for 7 weeks and is the one that has the fruit forming. The one on the left has been in the ground for 2 weeks.

The picture below shows the other 4 Cherry Tomato plants. These are all Sweet Baby Girls. I transplanted the one in the front about 3 weeks ago. The other 3 were just transplanted.

With this arrangement, I hope to have a much more manageable crop of Cherry Tomatoes

Growing Sweet Corn in Southern California

I have a patch in my garden where I grew Okinawan Sweet Potatoes last year (see this blog entry). I had a difficult time digging up the Sweet Potatoes, so I am switching to mostly growing them in containers this year. This leaves an empty spot in the garden.

My family likes to eat sweet corn. Sweet Corn is plentiful and cheap during a few weeks in the summer, but is expensive the rest of the time. So this year, I decided to try to see if I can grow Sweet Corn in my garden.

I read on the Internet that there are 3 types of Sweet Corn: Standard Sweet Corn, Sugary Extended Sweet Corn and SuperSweet Corn.

Standard Sweet Corn is easiest to grow, as it is most tolerant of germination temperature and planting depth, but loses its sweetness rapidly after harvest.

Sugary Extended Sweet Corn is sweeter than Standard Sweet Corn but is harder to grow. It needs higher soil temperature and needs to be handled carefully after harvest. It can keep its sweetness for up to 4 days after harvest.

SuperSweet Corn is the sweetest Sweet Corn but is the most difficult to grow. It needs even higher soil temperatures than Sugary Extended Sweet Corn and precise planting depth. It can keep its sweetness for up to 10 days after harvest.

Since this is my first attempt at growing corn, I decided to plant the easiest Sweet Corn to grow: Standard Sweet Corn.

I bought a packet of Early Sunglow Sweet Corn from Park Seed last December and waited until the soil temperature got warm enough.

A couple of weeks ago, I thought the weather had gotten sufficiently warm that I decided to plant the corn seeds.

I planted the seeds very close together (about 8 inches apart) in 5 rows. Corn needs to be close together, as Corn pollinates by wind and if all of the kernels do not get pollinated, you get blank spots on the cob. Eight inches was probably too close together, but I did not know how well the seeds would germinate.

The picture above shows how my corn seedlings looked today. They started to emerge a week ago (about a week after planting). Of the 21 seeds that I planted, I got 18 seedlings. an 85% germination rate. I was very surprised.

I am going to let them grow. If things start to get crowded, I'll thin them out a bit.

March Strawberries

The Albion Strawberry plants in my Strawberry Tower are doing very well.

I read that it takes a year for Strawberry plants to mature and start producing a lot of fruit. In the first year, the plants yield some fruit, but it is the second year that they really produce.

That is why some people recommend pinching off all of the flowers during the first year.

I did not pinch off all of the flowers that last year. I just pinched the flowers in the first couple of months (see this blog entry)

Still, I am amazed as to how much more productive the plants are this year. I have see more Strawberries and Flowers at this time than at any one time last year!

Strawberry plants produce well for around 3 years. So hopefully I will have another couple of years of this kind of yield before I need to replace the plants.

Links to more of my Strawberry Tower Blog Entries:

Building a Strawberry Tower - Intro

Building A Strawberry Tower - Choosing Strawberry Plans

Building A Strawberry Tower - Gathering Materials

Building A Strawberry Tower - Prep Work

Building A Strawberry Tower - Soil Less Potting Mix

Building A Strawberry Tower - Anchoring the Tower

Building A Strawberry Tower - Adding the Drip Irrigation Line

Strawberry Plants 2 weeks After Planting

Adding Mulch to the Strawberry Plants

Pinching Strawberry Flowers

Strawberry Plants 6 weeks After Planting

First Strawberries Forming

First Strawberries

Why No Strawberry Flowers

Strawberry Flowers

Second Batch of Strawberries

Pruning Strawberry Plants

Fall Strawberries

Strawberry Plants Are Multiplying

Preparing Strawberry Tower for Winter

Strawberry Tower - Year 2