Today I Start a New Permaculture Experiment!

in permaculture •  7 years ago 

So I have this piece of my property that is probably about a third of an acre. Its is the piece of my property that in the back closest to the river! Several times a year, depending on the rain, moon and winds it may flood with the brackish water from the river. So needless to say, I have never even attempted to grow anything there. The soil is very sandy and just looks lifeless! Well my friends i am on a mission to change that forever. I Have decided to experiment with sweet potatoes and see if their expansive vine ground cover and deep tapping tuber roots will help create a fertile soil full of nutrients and life. Keep checking in and follow me here to catch all the action and updates on the Hewett Homestead!

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I would do almost anything to grow more sweet potatoes. I hope your experiment is a success

Well I'm not sure what region you live in but around here all I got to do is cut the vines off and stick them in the ground and pretty much they will grow. That is why I have such high hopes for this new experimental patch. If I can just get a little growth out of these guys we can start transforming that Barren soil

I live in Pennsylvania so we need to make slips starting in February and our growing season is just long enough to get good size potatoes.

Well thats good to know! They are delicious and nutritious! We can pretty much grow them year round here in Florida although this year we finnaly got one freeze in late January that killed off the vines. So I cleaned out the bed and let it rest till March. I could probably go harvest some now but Im gonna let em sit and get bigger.

I am so jealous. LOL! We only have time for one harvest per year.

If sweet potatoes choke out poison ivy and other vines, then I will start planting them.

not sure, this is only my second year growing them. i doubt it though it does choke out the surrounding weeds that try to grow up into the beds.

Yes, please keep us updated on your results. I'll be interested to hear if it works.

Absolutley! Im just as excited to find out!

That tomato is sunburned! It could be from soap? what kind did you use and what time of day? You really need to pick your tomato fruit as soon as it begins changing to blush color, don't wait till red or you won't harvest any nice ones. Your squash is growing pretty normal, the wilting could be from heat or squash vine borer, wich would be bad news. Pumpkins looking great! Those peppers look great! What are you spraying your tomatoes with? High salt tolerance veggies, tomatoes, sweet peppers,spinach, kale, beets, cabbage and broccoli. Loquat even could do well! Great work my friend! Can't wait to see how the sweet potatoes take over!!!

lol i keep looking for the thumbs up button.lol.. so your saying all those plants would grow well in salty soil? Ill have to check it out..ill let ya know about the sweet taters

They will TOLERATE salt!

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Thank you for the great article! This post has been featured in this week's issue of the Weekly Homesteading Newsletter!

Ohh this is great! I've wondered the same thing for regular potatoes. If I just harvested a portion, and let them grow back year after year, wondering if I can have a nice ongoing tater patch. We live in the South so I'm concerned with keeping the seed potatoes viable year to year, figure might as well just leave them in the ground!

That is exactly what I did and it worked all year long last year until January.