Thank you Cathie, they were in for about 4 months. They were the first ones planted this season. I think they are my best ever sweet potato harvest, especially out of a bed of 6. I never water them unless I have something in the “hose end” sprayer. Plus I give them a generous amount of Organic Extra fertilizer.
I’ve had lots of results like you described. Especially last season with the ones I planted after the new year. This season, I planted a lot & all before the end of Dec.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that they don’t compete well with other roots from trees or bananas for example. I’m not expecting great results from the ones I planted near those bananas. At least the vine keeps the weeds from growing. I’m planting potatoes after I harvest the sweet potatoes.
Apart from my 24/7 urea & slumgum water, I think worm farm wee is excellent & something I’d highly recommend for the community garden. That is if they don’t already have some.
Today I harvested 3 plants, the ones behind my left elbow in the 4th photo down. These were nowhere near where I buried the cane toads & I only got 1.33 kilos from the 3 plants.
The next plants in line to harvest are adjacent to where I buried the toads. I’m looking forward to seeing how productive they are. I’ll take a photo in the same position to show how much the sugar cane has grown.
I held back from harvesting the sweet potatoes adjacent to where I buried the cane toads last year. I had 3 plants near the back fence to harvest, so I harvested those for a mere 630 grams in total. I have a bag of cane toads with some rats included to bury, I think that’s where I’ll bury them. Then I’ll see how next years crop in that spot goes.
One month later, I harvested the next lot of 6 adjacent to where I buried the cane toads. I got some nice sweet potatoes, however not as many as the first lot, 4.9 kg in total, 1.1 kilo of that is in my right hand. We took a photo, trying to replicate the 4th photo down, primarily so I can show how much the sugar cane has grown in the last month.
There was large banana roots growing right through the area of the sweet potatoes. That would contribute to the smaller size, not to mention that they are further away from where I buried the toads.
Hi & thank you Cathie, I’m scratching my head as to why one plant had two potatoes the size of my thumb, while the one oppose it had one that weighed over a kilo. I harvested 10 other plants for 8.8 kilos. I’ll be cutting & blanching those for the freezer. Would you believe that I still have around 30 more plants to harvest during the next few weeks. It’ll be sweet potatoes for breakfast dinner & tea. The only way I’ll have it for breakfast is in the bread I make. I’ll put some mash in the dough.
I like those ideas Dawn. I generally have toasted baguette, with monsterio delicio jam, topped with banana for breakfast. Also recently it’s been dragonfruit with ginger & honey as well.
Talking about American concepts for breakfast. Have you tried biscuits with sausage gravy. It was nothing like we expected it would be. We looked at it, but didn’t try it.
I would love to, but I can’t. IBS rules my world and biscuits have flour, the gravy has flour too, and the sausage usually has onion and sometime garlic. That would be a prescription for 48 hours in the bathroom for me!
I’m sorry to hear that Dawn. After looking at it & hearing how it’s made, I don’t think you’re missing out on anything. Our biscuits are more like American cookies. American biscuits look more like our scones. Also to us, gravy is brown, not white.
Shortly after our trip to the U.S., we watched an old James Stewart western movie. In that movie a lady handed him a biscuit, which he ate while riding his horse. It was the same as the biscuits we saw while over there.
(actual American posting here ) American biscuits are delicious and can be made savory or sweet with just a pinch of sugar, to go with what they’re being served with. Flakier and tenderer than a scone; and to me, strawberry shortcake is made properly with a biscuit, not a gummy, sugary sponge cake. Sausage gravy is quite good, depending on the quality of the sausage and the cook - what primarily makes it whiter than typical meat gravy is the milk, and some flour. If it’s really white, it has too much flour and thus will not have enough nice sausage flavor.
Hi Peter, I never considered the poison in the cane toads. I guess it all gets recycled by compost worms etc, then it turns into available nutrients that plants take advantage of.
Hi folks, as a proud Pennsylvanian I have an exciting announcement - about a creature equal to (or maybe surpassing) cane toads in grossness, but on the opposite end of the spectrum as it relates to human philosophical and practical attempts to “help” nature:
What a great story Eva & thanks for sharing it. It’s sad to read that not many people have seen them because they only live in clean, flowing water.
On the subject of grossness, there’s a sea bird that’s not gross to look at, so much as the defensive mechanism. It’s the Giant Southern Petrel, they used to hang around my fishing boat, looking for a feed. Apparently they spew a stinky substance at predators, which is difficult to remove, which earns them a nickname of “stinkpots” or “stinkers”.
This is a video I took a few years ago while fishing alone.
This is nearly 2 months later. The sweet potatoes are finished, they are being replaced with potatoes. I’ll be harvesting yacon soon. In the mean time check out some of my ginger crop. However look at the growth in the sugar cane behind me.
you’re lucky you didn’t unearth a toad! They are so hardy that I would blink if one just hopped away
) American biscuits are delicious and can be made savory or sweet with just a pinch of sugar, to go with what they’re being served with. Flakier and tenderer than a scone; and to me, strawberry shortcake is made properly with a biscuit, not a gummy, sugary sponge cake. Sausage gravy is quite good, depending on the quality of the sausage and the cook - what primarily makes it whiter than typical meat gravy is the milk, and some flour. If it’s really white, it has too much flour and thus will not have enough nice sausage flavor.
we probably should have tried it, we was at a buffet breakfast in a small town in New York state.
