09/12/2026
Another sad sweet potato harvest this year, but all is not lost.
The thing about gardening is, you learn more every year, from every success and every failure. Last year was my first year attempting to grow sweet potatoes. I planted full sweet potatoes in the ground and got a whole lot of vines with no potatoes. This year, I started from slips instead of trying to start from a whole potato. I planted three slips in a 4x4 raised bed. That raised bed was only about half full of soil. The chickens ate a lot of the vines because it wasnt very well protected.
This year's harvest has taught me that my bed needs to be fuller and instead of letting the vines trellis up the fencing. Everywhere that a vine can root itself into the soil will produce more potatoes. So it is best to keep the vines as close to the soil as possible instead of trellising.
I am drying these babies out and I will try to over winter them and start slips from them for next year. Even though we won't have any home grown sweet potatoes to eat, at least we may be able to get free slips in the spring. So its not counted as a complete loss.
I am only about 4 years into my gardening journey. I always say that I am "learning as I grow", and that is 100% true.
I won't give up, I will try again next year. It might take me 10 years, but eventually I will get a good sweet potato harvest. Lord willing and the chickens don't eat all the vines.
