Sweet Potato Harvest in a Straw Bale Garden 

Ugly doesn't mean inedible!!! My wife and I tried straw bale gardening for the first time about 4 years ago. She's handicapped and the straw bale is much easier for her. We grew sweet potatoes in 1 and 1/2 straw bales. Got over 20 lbs. so we were very happy.

I don't think you need to worry about a split so much. They just grow too freely in the straw. Just peel more. So fun to watch you!🤩

Give the vines to your chickens, they love them. The leaves taste like spinach. You can cook and eat them as well.

You make harvesting look so effortless!

Sweet potatoes split for the same reason tomatoes split. Inconsistent watering. A lot of rain all at once can make them split. Great harvest :-):-):-)

Thank you for posting your learning experiences, both positive and negative!

Nothing wrong with the split ones they just scab over and still can be ate

Those split ones are edible !!!!

I saw those huge ones and immediately thought "sweet potato pie." 😉 Those greens are edible and nutritious for you and your chickens.

I like the look of straw bales planting. I have never used this method.

I grow my sweet potatoes in straw bales as well. I've learned that if they are near harvest time, pull them before you get a rain or they will split.

The greens are also edible. Like pea vines, the tips are nice and tender and make a nice addition to stirfry. We sauté the larger leaves like spinach.

Wow. You had an incredible harvest. A great learning experience. And the chickens got a treat too ?? Great. Really.

Sweet potatoes leaves are good to eat too.

Nice job

I'm doing sweet potatoes in bales this year, first time. usually when sweet potatoes split like that it is due to over watering, or getting too much rain. But, there's noting wrong with the split ones, they eat just as good as the ones that aren't!! Great job!!

Nothing wrong with the split ones I harvested 80 pounds today ..from round hay bales

seeing you be upset about the noodles but then immediately going to improve them is amazing and inspiring to me! i would've given up but you didn't and i really respect that! I love your videos. And it's an honor to have you visit our channel, we can discuss more about our experiences in harvesting and building farms.

Lovely sweet potato harvest

All those big potatoes will taste yum.

Omg what wild crazy sweet potatoes!

Second sweet potato plant looks like Diane. The leaf looks like that. The potatoes are red and vines are vigorous. Great harvest.

The split sweet potatoes, when we have a deluge of rain, cucumbers and tomatoes rapidly take up water and burst the fruit. Wonder if your potatoes had a deluge and split and the smaller potatoes not as affected or grew after deluge. Just a thought.

Some types of sweet potatoes are more susceptible to cracking than others but the culprit is usually too much water at the end of the growing season and fertilizers sweet potatoes need a fertilizer with boron,they make a special type just for sweet potatoes, also the sweet potatoes with the forked leaves are called German red I think,see if you can find some Covington variety sweet potatoes they are very productive and all around a great sweet potatoe,enjoy your harvest.

That splitting is due to the very rich nutrients and they been left a bit late to be harvested.

I grew Vardaman Sweet Potatoes in ground this past season 2022 here in TN on the Plateau and really liked how the plants grew. The are a compact bush type that doesn't send vines all over your garden, but instead have modest growth of vines but the tubers grow directly under the plant rather than out along the vines. That growing habit is a winner for me. We had a late summer drought here and even though I tried to water religiously, as expected some tubers were longer thin scrawny. Otherwise I harvest was good with nice sized tubers that were more uniform at 6-8 in length and 3in or so round. The flavor is wonderful and they mash, bake and french fry just fine. Our grow season last year was one of extremes - very cold wet spring, brutally hot humid summer and drought late summer through fall. That of course sent vermin to gardens for food and water. I nearly lost the entire sweet potato and bean crops to mice and rats. So my plans include greenhouse/polytunnel growing to better control the environment. I'm growing Vardaman again this next season but in 20 gal grow bags (4 plants each) and also want to try one growbag with straw as an experiment. I'm doing the same with Irish potatoes this year also in growbags 15 gal (3 plants each). Both potatoes in a greenhouse.

Hi, That is a quite an innovative growing! As far as the cracked sweet potatoes are concerned, there can be one or a few of the following reasons: Heavy water irrigation (or rain) after a period of dry weather. Boron and calcium nutrients deficiency. Successive cultivation of the same crop. Hope it helps. 👍

That is so funny, Jill! This is my second year growing sweet potatoes in straw bales. The first year was AMAZING but this year, I had the same experience with leaving them in too long. I think I might have a twin to one of your giant cracked sweet potatoes. While I’m sorry you had so many split on you, I am glad to know that I am not alone! Always something new to learn in the garden! 🥰

Those are great potatoes. There is nothing wrong with them. Home grown that will happen. So many gardeners wish they could grow that. 😉 😀

How amizing

If you don't want them, use the split potatoes as a supplement to dog food.

Great harvest. I will definitely be trying this method this year

You look more and more radiant as time goes on. A great testament to healthy living ❤️🙏🏼

Reminds my grandfather traded for produce his 5 pounds sweet potato and yours got to be close to the 5 lb size Thanks

You should be happy how big they are that is what we look in the island where we plant those

Don’t be disappointed they r still eatable

Wow maybe saw them into slabs and put them on the barbee

The chickens would love the greens.

Every frustrating experience is a learning experience, this was very interesting..now you know. I will most definitely try this method. Thanks, great experiment.

Sweet potatoes are always ready to dig 120 days after planting.

If the redder one is alot sweeter then the other, it is probably a Garnet sweet potato, they look like it, which are wonderful

They are still edible. Watching other you tubers sweet potato harvests the splitting seems to occur more frequently in straw bales than when planted in soil. I wonder whether it might be due to the straw holding moisture better than dirt which keeps them in an over-watered environment which would make them more prone to splitting.

If those are Georgia Jet sweet potatoes, they're highly prone to splitting. I quit growing them because of it. They do fine in some areas but not where I live in South Carolina.

You can eat the leaves too🥰 they’re pack of nutrients 🥰 you can put them in a soup or just blanch them… just add fresh tomatoes and onions and lemon juice salt and pepper its a perfect salad 🥰

Great Work ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Hi Jill good day. Really a big fan of your gardening. In the Philippines they planted their Sweet Potato or Kamote using the Vine Cuttings and its pretty productive. So they have an endless supply of planting materials. Ciao

Nice job form sri lanka 🇱🇰

wow that was nice , thank you

Great harvest 😊

They are still edible to eat … just peel it…❤️🇵🇭

Wow nice job

The leaves are also edible.

Can you please tell us as you go along WHAT VARIETY, each sweet potato is, because I want a visual of them, because I. The store, they rarely tell you what variety it is

Those are all still eatable!

My first time seeing your video. Where in Arkansas are you? I am in NWA and just bought 2 bales to try. I am probably later than I would like getting started, but, hey, better late than never!

You could make a big batch of sweet potato soup with the split ones? Thanks for video :)

I think your sweet potato exceed the month alloted for the right harvest because it was cracking..maybe 4-5 only.I love your video ang you! God bless!

Bales compost at a higher temperature meaning they need to be pulled sooner or they’ll split!

Could be inconsistent watering. Good information. Thank you.

sunlight.

Sweet potato leaf and vines are actually edible. The young one is even more tender.

Are those just straw bales? You did great with just bales!! I’m gonna try those next year! Great idea!

Good video enjoyed it thx for sharing Some of those taters look as big as pumpkins lol Be safe God Bless

Goodjob...sangat bagus ,media bukan tanah

Wow

Try to plant more closer it you will get proper size and pretty one

How to know when is the good time to pick your sweet potato? When you snap one vine and the milky white liquid drips from it, time to pick!

Well you sure got a lot of compost material from those vines!

Is there a planting video? I’d like to see how you started this. Thank you!

The splitting is both because of longer growing time and your bed retained or hot too much water. Also ck your other bed again

Excess water is most likely the problem

The split ones are still edible.

Make sure you check out her podcast..So educational

You gave perfectly fine produce to your chickens. 😣

I really like your channel I think I can learn a lot, so do you just buy a bale of hay and spread it over and the remainder of the sweet potato plants the vines did you put it back in the soil to keep it organic?

wonderful beauty ❤🦋🦋♥

Curious - why didn't you give the sweet potato vines to the chickens?

did you just throw away the big ones with crack???it is still edible..omg

nothing wrong with those split sweet potatoes I hope she not gonna throw them away

how do you condition the bales? how often to fertilize and water potatoes?

I have a white sweet potato with the other feaf. My is a asian sweet potato.

I don't understand why you are throwing the split ones out. I don't think there is anything wrong with them, they are just not "typical" looking.

They’re still good to eat so why is she giving to the chickens?

To garden in bales, do you have to do anything special to them?

couldn't the splitting be beause of not being in the ground and not having pressure around them, which makes them grow to easily, and makes them split ?

So how does this work? Do you just plant sweet potato slips in straw bales or do they have to lay outside to composte first or mixed with soil?

Does anyone know about eating the leaves? Another grower said they're edible & similar to spinach leaves.

The biggest problem with straw bale planting is knowing whether the hay has been sprayed with chemicals.

Did you quit watering at some point before harvest? The inside of my bales are mushy but yours look dry in the video. I should be getting within a couple of weeks to harvest. Thanks!

Those can't be as nutritious as growing crops in actual soil. Straw bales can't have the same nutrient profiles as diverse as soil.

👍👍👍👍👍

How long did you take to harvest these?

You said seed, are you talking about seed from the flower or growing slips from a sweet potato?

Sometimes excessive heat causes splitting in tubers. So...did the temperature drop in the straw bales after you "prepared" them? Or did you have a heat wave? This happened to me one year after a heat wave...but with regular potatoes.

How long did u wait

Don’t the straw bales hold more heat? That would have accelerated the growth, right?

Bales around here run about $10. Can buy the sweet potatoes for less.

That worked well. Did you do anything to prep the bales before planting them? Did you ever make a video showing the process? Thanks!

Imperfect ones are still edible just have to cure it and it will scab over. Disappointed that you only prefer to eat the grocery looking ones.

Did you fertilize with alot of nitrogen? Can you tell us how you grew them, fertilize etc ?? I've let potatoes grow to long before and did not look like that, there is another factor you haven't found.