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 The Pitchfork’s survival projects, Survival Sweet Potato Plants

Pitchfork © 2010
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Freely quote with attribution

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INTRODUCTION

A thematic thread throughout Pitchfork's views, experiments, choices, and other consideration in survival situations on his home turf America is:  personalize your expectations and experiences.  What's going to be more important to you needn't even be on your neighbor's to-do list.

To wit:  not all sweet potatoes are created equal any more than are their growing conditions.  In other words, wherever you are to plant sweet potatoes, there are sweet potato cultivars [read: cultivated varieties, i.e., kinds of sweet potato plants] that will do you more proud than other sweet potato cultivars.

WHICH SWEET POTATO IS BEST FOR YOU?

Inquire -

• Local vegetable nursery

• Major retail nurserymen suppliers

• Your extension service

• The local agricultural school or college

• Nearby farmers

• Web threads, blogs, and the like

• A good indicator = what the local retailers are peddling for planting

WHAT DID PITCHFORK DO?

Pitchfork determined through most of the referenced sources just mentioned that at least two sweet potato cultivars work better than others for his geography - Beauregard and Jet(t) [and maybe Jewell].  He bought both, the former as little sweet potato plants at Home Depot, and the latter from a mail order as sweet potato slips (to be vividly described shortly).  Both cultivars are OP (open-pollinated), or heirloom, that is, not cross-pollinated, or hybrid, but rather they can be reliably reproduced exactly the same year after year from the same stock.

These are Beauregard sweet potato plants in late infancy, planted in the closely staggered formation to test an aspect of survivability - the extent to which planting sweet potato plants can yield more plentifully per same-area as those more conventionally spaced; they have months to grow both above ground level as leaves on vines and below ground level as tuberous roots.

They're already starting to roam this way and that, cluttering a clear view of the planting scheme for spacing, so here it is in plan view .  .  .

In more common presentation, the same planting bed for Beauregard sweet potatoes lined up in single file . . . g'boys . . .

Which brings us to the mysterious sweets, growing here in the Jets' bed . . .

Pitchfork was to continue this webpage, in order to address the subject of home grown sweet potato slips as the third source of store-bought plants and slips.  He sees that there's too much to cover herewith; the subject of sweet potato slips deserves distinct attention in a file nearby.