Boardash: ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Friday October 2, 2009

Thursday, October 1, 2009

ArcaMax Gardening Daily Tips for Friday October 2, 2009

Having trouble seeing this email? View the most recent issue or stories from previous issues.

Free Book Samples from BookDaily.com

Gardening Daily Tips
For You
Friday October 2, 2009

Plum, Purpleleaf (Prunus x cistena)
Q&A: Propagating Ornamental Sweet Potatoes
Q&A: Harvesting Sweet Potatoes
Tip: Harvest Dried Beans
Choose from 60,000 Books -- Get Your Free Samples at BookDaily.com
Reader Photos

Plum, Purpleleaf (Prunus x cistena)

Today's Featured Plant
Plum, Purpleleaf (Prunus x cistena)

Read the full profile of this plant at ArcaMax.com.

Interested in reading about other plants? Search through hundreds of plant profiles and helpful articles by keyword.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Q&A: Propagating Ornamental Sweet Potatoes

Question: This summer I grew several ornamental sweet potato vines in containers. I've replaced them with fall annuals, and now have a couple of beautiful, large potatoes. Can I save them for next year? How do I propagate more plants from them?

Answer: A freshly harvested sweet potato has a tender skin that bruises easily. Damaged roots will decay in storage. Allow the harvested potatoes to dry for a few hours and then spread them on a tray lined with newspaper, hay or sawdust. Place them in a dry, warm area (about 80-85 degrees for 10-14 days). This will "cure" them and set the skins so they store better. They should be stored in a cool (55-60 degrees) dry place. Sweet potatoes treated this way will store for several months. Remove any roots that show signs of deterioration or decay. Next spring, lay the sweet potatoes on their sides in a hotbed about a month before the nighttime temperatures stay above 60 degrees F. Cover the sweet potato roots with 2 inches of moist sand and keep the hotbed between 75 degrees and 80 degrees F. When the sprout develop, remove them with a twisting tug and pot them up for rooting and growing into new plants. Additional transplants (slips) will form from the bedded sweet potatoes if you leave it in place. The vine segments can also be rooted if you wish to make more plants than the above method provides.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Q&A: Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

Question: I have planted sweet potatoes, Centennial, and would like to know when it is time to dig them. Do you wait til the vines die as with regular potatoes or wait til the first frost or what? My vines are still very lush and green.

Answer: You can harvest sweet potatoes as soon as the leaves start to yellow, but the longer a crop is left in the ground, the higher the yield. If frost blackens the vines, though, the tubers will quickly rot. Your average frost date is the end of September, so plan to harvest them before that. (Or, watch the local weather reports and harvest just before the first predicted frost.) Tubers can grow a foot or more from the plant, so harvest carefully. Dry the tubers in the sun for several hours, then move them to a well-ventilated spot at keep at 85F - 90F for 10-15 days. Properly cured sweet potatoes will keep for several months.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Tip: Harvest Dried Beans

Harvest pods of dried beans when brown and dry. Pick pods, place them in a burlap bag, and hit the bag with a stick breaking beans out of the pods. Separate the beans from the chaff and store.

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Choose from 60,000 Books -- Get Your Free Samples at BookDaily.com

ArcaMax Publishing has launched the new BookDaily.com!

Browse, search and read sample first chapters from your favorite authors -- and sign up for free email newsletters with the book samples you want to read later.

You'll find books from Lisa Jackson, Tucker Max, Brian Herbert, and many more.

Once you have given the site a look, we welcome any feedback or suggestions.

Visit BookDaily.com now.

-- From the ArcaMax editors

Comment on this Story | Printer Friendly | Send Story to a Friend | Top

Today's Reader Submitted Photos

Click an image above to see full size and read caption.

To see more of our subscriber photos visit our full Photo Gallery.

Enter your Gardening Daily Tips pictures so you can show them off to other readers right here in this ezine and on the ArcaMax.com Web site. Click here to submit your photo.

Sincerely,
ArcaMax Editors