Gardeners in the Asylum

[SvilleKid]

Originally Posted by Jasonw560

Cliff, can you grow potatoes? I tried, but too warm.

I tried the trashcan method. If I can get more eyes, I may try this fall when it's cooler.

Jason.... Not too hot here. This is third year I've planted them. I use a mound method, and use wire cones (like used for tomatoes) mainly to get the vines off the ground and out of the way to make it easier to weed around plants and to keep the base area more visible. First year I planted them (three years ago), I let them spread, which made it necessary to weed by hand (verses a small Mantis-type tiller). Plus, being in the suburbs and lots of land around me, letting the grass grow up too much gives hiding places for field mice/rats, which burrowed down and ate half my sweet taters the first year. Haven't had same problem since using the cones.

First two years, I planted "slips" I purchased. This crop, I planted pieces of leftover yams from last year's crop. They seem to be producing fine, but it took them three times longer to start growing as the "slips" did. My MIL's husband said they always sat old yams out in wet sawdust before the season, and picked the sprouts (slips) off and planted them when the time came. Might try that next year. My mother remembers Yams being grown in south Mississippi where she grew up in the 30's and 40's in large quantities. I also know that yams are a big crop in Louisiana. so it's probably NOT heat as much as water that could be your pitfall!

They have turned out to be much easier to grow than I imagined they would be. Give them a try. Garbage can method probably holds moisture better anyway!