Grow your own starchy treat

When I plant some vegetables in my garden, I know in advance I may not harvest much from them. If the cauliflower doesn’t freeze or burn up in the heat, it will still only give me one crown. My turnips and carrots I can only pull once.

I value these vegetables because they taste great, so I don’t mind not getting much from them. There are a few vegetables though that will produce more than you could ever want and still have good flavor. These include zucchini, cherry tomatoes and sweet potatoes. It should be stated that sweet and Irish potatoes are not related to each other. They are in different plant families. Sweet potatoes grow as vines while potatoes grow as herbaceous bushes.

Sweet potatoes are not necessarily the same thing as yams either. Though they are commonly called yams, true yams are starchier, white fleshed and more tubular. They can also get bigger than sweet potatoes, and they cannot grow here.

The classic sweet potato has orange flesh, but since you are growing them yourself, why not try one in white, yellow or purple? Red skin varieties such as “Red

Lawn & Garden

Beth McMahon

Japanese” or “Murasaki” are good substitutes for Irish potatoes, with their white flesh and slight sweetness. Purple skin and flesh varieties are longer and skinner, and may not be as sweet as orange varieties. Look for “Kotubuki,” “All Purple” or “Okinawa.”

You can’t go wrong with the classic orange skin and flesh sweet potato.

“Beauregard” is the variety most often sold at stores but look for “Jewel” if you have nematodes, or “Vardaman” and “Bunch Porto Rico” if you have a limited amount of space.

Sweet potatoes are grown from fresh shoots from the tuber, also known as slips. You can order them online or grow them yourself.

To start your own slips from a grocery store sweet potato, partially bury it in potting soil in a pot. Or stick a sweet potato halfway in a jar of water near a sunny windowsill. These sweet potatoes will sprout. Remove the sprouts for planting when they are 10 to 12 inches long. These sprouts (slips) can be planted directly into moist soil in your garden or stuck in some potting soil to root better.

Before starting your sweet potato slips, make sure you have a good spot in your vegetable garden to grow them. They must have eight to 10 hours of full sunlight for good production. Work some compost or manure into the soil before planting. When planting, space them 10 to 15 inches apart with the slips 3 to 4 inches deep.

Go easy on the fertilizer. Too much fertilizer means more vine, less sweet potato. Sweet potatoes will keep producing until the vines freeze. You can start checking to see if they are the right size to eat when the recommended days to maturity for the variety has passed. While you are waiting, the leaves are edible, too. They are best sautéed or used in a stir-fry.

Like digging Irish potatoes, it can feel that just as you’ve pulled all the sweet potatoes out of the ground, you find five more. Cut off the vines, then dig with a potato fork. You can also wait to harvest after the vines die following the first frost. Be through when you remove your sweet potatoes. I’ve left only one or two in the past, only to have that row covered with sweet potatoes again the follow-

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April ing year.

Treat fresh roots gingerly because they bruise. Before consumption, let your sweet potatoes cure by drying them in a warm shaded place three to five days. Then store in a dark cool area.

Sweet potato weevils are a major pest. They leave small holes in the leaves, feed on the base of the plant, and in the potatoes themselves, their tunneling will give it a bad taste. Sweet potato weevils look like large fire ants and can persist on morning glory weeds in your garden year after year.

Thankfully they are not a common pest in Gillespie County, but if you find them, in the fall remove all sweet potatoes and morning glory from your garden. In the spring, apply an insecticide to the soil when you plant, and then another one midseason. You can use red weevil traps to catch them, too. Tilling twice in the winter may help decrease their numbers.

For questions about growing sweet potatoes, feel free to call me at the Gillespie County AgriLife Extension Office at 830-997-3452 or email me at Elizabeth. mcmahon@ag.tamu.edu.

Private pesticide applicator training announced

Those looking to get their Private Applicator License can participate in a training course on May 18. The course, which will be held from 8:30 a.m. to

12:30 p.m. at the Gillespie County Extension Office at 38 Business Ct., is for people who don’t have a Private Applicator License and need to purchase and use restricted chemicals. Attending a training is required before scheduling to take the exam. Those interested must RSVP by May 4.

Hotel Pillow

You select the pillow size (standard, queen or king), and the density (7) x-soft, soft, medium, firm, x-firm, xx-firm, xxx-firm, based on your sleeping habits and style.

The YBP pillow feels and acts like a luxury down pillow but is hypoallergenic because it is made from the highest quality microdown fiber!

CORE application set

Gillespie County AgriLife Extension, along with the Kerr, Bandera and Kendall county offices, have announced that the 2022 4-H CORE Academy will be held June 20-24. Students will travel to East Texas with AgriLife personnel and meet with industry and business professionals to get exposed to a variety of career paths.

This year, students will tour Blinn College, Sam Houston State University and Lone Star-CyFair col- leges.

“We will also meet business professionals with the Houston Astros organization, Culinary Arts Institute, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Texas Department of Criminal Justice and more,” said Shea Nebgen, Family and Community Health County Extension Agent. The cost is $200 and the deadline to apply is May 1. For more information, call 830-997-3452, or go by 38 Business Ct.