What up steemitkind? I'm back, after skipping last week's update in order to work on a massive piece on a rather controversial topic. But anyways, here it is, week 8 and 9 update.

Week 8: The four slips that I planted last week were looking much better and healthier than they did initially. Their leaves turned into a darker green plus new leaves were growing.

It suddenly occurred to me that it was already June and I was not at all ready to plant my sweet potatoes into the garden. I took the week to root the remaining slips and pot them. Only temporarily though, because there was no time to let them establish themselves into the soil.

See where I live (Alberta, Canada), June is the only time of the year, where the weather will be hot enough, to keep the soil at an optimum temperature for the plants. Sweet potatoes need time to establish themselves in the warm soil. Once they do that, they should be fine for the remainder of the growIng season.

Week 9:

Yesterday was probably the worst day to have done this. It rained all day long, but I really felt that I needed to get it done. I couldn't afford to wait another week to do it. (I'm hoping I made the right choice)

The purpose of the plastic drop sheet is to keep the soil nice and hot for the sweet potatoes. I went with a thicker plastic this time round. Last year was a mess, as the plastic began to rip and tear, leaving pieces all over the place. (Not very friendly to the surrounding area)

So it's really simple, you mark out your spots to plant. Dig a hole underneath the plastic sheet, make a slit in the plastic and plant the sweet potato through the slit of the plastic.

Be sure to make a concave so that water on the plastic will feed into the plant. Bury the edges of the drop sheet and make sure to cover any openings in the plastic near the sweet potatoes.

Here's the fun part (not) because I was planting in a spot outside of the garden, the chances of deer coming in and sampling my sweet potatoes were high. I needed to build a fence (for the first time) in the rain.

This was a rough time for sure, but I managed to build a fairly sturdy fence. Using sticks from the forest, tomato stakes, wooden stakes, zip ties and sand I was able to erect the monstrosity you see here. lol

Well that's all I can do for now. Hopefully I'll get a chance to check on my sweet potatoes sometime this week, really hoping they will be ok. Really, really hope that fence stays up. lol

Thanks to those who take the time to follow along on my journey to grow sweet potatoes for the second time in the great white north. As always any questions or comments are most welcome.