Taming the Sweet Potato Jungle

I planted Beauregard sweet potatoes which are fast maturing–in about 110 days. The last time I grew sweet potatoes, I had some real WHOPPERS. The question is, will this be a repeat since I am harvesting about 45 days earlier than last time.

This is what the garden looked like when I started:

So, of course, I had to pick as many zinnias as I could, because I was going to have to pull them up to harvest the sweet potatoes. I originally planted the zinnias because I knew that it would be a while before the sweet potatoes took over the garden and I had extra seeds, so I just sprinkled them over the bed. The zinnias have been great for two reasons: first, because they provided tons and tons and tons of flowers that we have enjoyed all summer (and so have our neighbors); and second, because they have kept the deer from eating the sweet potato vines which was just a happy accident.

Then I started pulling up zinnias, dill, and sweet potato vines. I filled the giant wagon we have for the tractor.

Plus, there was a big pile that would not fit in the wagon.

But how was the harvest, and did I harvest in time to avoid the really huge football sized sweet potatoes…..

The harvest was substantial–about 50 to 60 pounds by my estimate and some of them are monstrous. So the estimates of 2 to 3 lbs of sweet potatoes per plant were about right. My husband is going to help me search for stragglers this evening, but this is most of it.

I will lay these on my large baking trays and let them cure for about a week. Then I will brush them off and put them in storage to enjoy this fall and winter. Generally, this has been a fantastic year for the garden. We have harvested hundreds of pounds of produce from all the lettuce, arugula, and strawberries in the spring, to pickling cucumbers, English cucumbers, yellow squash, tomatoes, and peppers this summer to all these sweet potatoes in the late summer. How was your garden this year?