GB 101 Sweet Potatoes. Alstroemeria
28:25
SPEAKERS
Warren Roberts, Gail Pothour, Farmer Fred
Farmer Fred 00:00
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Farmer Fred 00:20
Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.
Farmer Fred 00:32
It's not a baking potato, it's not a yam. It's a sweet potato. And it isn't just for Thanksgiving anymore. You can grow sweet potatoes in your garden for any meal. Master Gardener Gail Pothour will tell you how. The Plant of the Week: it's putting on a show right now here in California, and soon across much of the rest of the country. And it's an excellent cut flower, too. It's the Peruvian Lily, also known as Alstroemeria, Warren Roberts of the UC Davis Arboretum waxes rhapsodic about this plant, although he says it should really be called the Chile Lily. He'll explain. It's all on episode 101 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. And we'll do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go.
Farmer Fred 01:24
We like to answer your questions here on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and one listener sends us a text to 916-292-8964 and says: "I'm hoping you might address the subject of growing sweet potatoes." This person says, "any experience you might have with varieties or tips would be appreciated. It's been very frustrating with a low success rate. As a San Joaquin County Master Gardener in Lodi, I have access to resources to help with these crops. Any experience you might have with varieties or tips would be appreciated. Buying organic sweet potatoes and starting the slip growing process in January has been frustrating with a low success rate. They are in my house which isn't very warm in winter." Well, when it comes to vegetables, we like to bring in our resident vegetable expert, Sacramento County Master Gardener Gail Pothour. And, Gail, sweet potatoes: They really like the heat, don't they?
Gail Pothour 02:23
Oh they do. And so if you get them in too early you'll have problems. So you need to wait. Get them in the ground when it's like mid May here in the Sacramento Valley.
Farmer Fred 02:35
In one regards, I understand this person's frustration because at a lot of nurseries, sweet potatoes are available, usually in late winter. And that's not the time to be planting them. And so it's a case of having to keep those sweet potatoes someplace cool and dry until the weather warms up.
Gail Pothour 02:57
Cool and dry, but not too cool. Because they are sensitive to temperatures below 50 degrees. So if you store them in your garage or in a shed during the winter, that could be too cold for them. So one of the best ways to get the slips... and potatoes are grown from slips, not the actual potato... is to get them from a disease free certified mail order place or a nursery. Sometimes local nurseries will carry the slips, but not often. mail order catalogs, we'll have them listed. But one of the main problems is most are southern grown. slips cannot be shipped to California because there's a quarantine for the sweet potato weevil. So it can be difficult to find slips that you could order. But you can also grow them yourself. If you have, say an organically grown sweet potato that you've been able to hold over during the winter, there is a process to grab the slips yourself.
Farmer Fred 03:56
Is there a chance of picking up a disease that way though? Or should you actually buy the sweet potatoes, fresh seed potatoes fresh every year?
Gail Pothour 04:07
Well, there is a chance to have diseases that are passed along because the slips are since they're grown vegetatively you grow them from a slip that comes off of the sweet potato, it is possible to transfer diseases, particularly viruses like that. So I think if you're careful, I mean we always recommend you get them from a certified mail order you know a grower, but if you do it yourself, if you get an organically grown sweet potato at a farmers market, and there hasn't been any kind of a sprout inhibitor put on it, then you can try it yourself. It can be a little bit of a challenge but it's kind of like the science experiment we did in high school. You know there is a way that you can go and we do have one of our Sacramento County Master Gardener publications does have information about growing slips yourself.
Farmer Fred 05:03
It is it's very handy publication, called "Growing sweet potatoes in the Sacramento region." And you can do an internet search for that. Just by using that phrase, Growing sweet potatoes in the Sacramento region. If you add the letters, UCANR after it, it'll pop right up. UCANR stands for the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. Yeah, and there's a lot of great information there. And in the case of this particular person, I think they just started a little too early.
Gail Pothour 05:34
Oh, I agree. They said that they had started them in January. And that's way too early. Because at least in our area, in order for the soil to be warm enough and the air temperature to be warm enough, we'll plant them in the garden in May. So you would start the slips yourself two months before that. So March, the January is a little bit early. And this person also said that their home was wasn't very warm in the winter. And in order to grow out sweet potatoes slips, then you need to be kept quite warm. So the way you would do it is to have small sweet potatoes, put them in a shallow container, cover them a couple of inches with sand or peat moss or some material sawdust even keep it moist, and warm. So you would ideally put the container on, say a propagation mat or heating mat to keep the the medium warm 75 to 80 degrees. So that's what they need. If it's too early and too cold, they won't have very good success.
Farmer Fred 06:38
But again, you have the conundrum of sweet potatoes being available at the nursery way too early. I mean for planting so you buy them in winter, but hold on to them and don't start the slips until like you said when the weather warms up,
Gail Pothour 06:53
right and unlike the regular potato, the Russet, the Irish potato that we normally associate with growing in the ground, you put that potato in the ground and that's what sprouts. Sweet potatoes, you don't plant the sweet potato, you do need to get slips growing from that potato and then you would snap those off and plant the slip in the ground.
Farmer Fred 07:16
Okay, then what is the process for doing that?
Gail Pothour 07:19
Well, that's, as I mentioned, you would put the sweet potato in a shallow container, cover, keep it warm, the slips would grow the winter about eight inches long, you just snap those off, and then just stick that in the ground and then roots will form from that slip.
Farmer Fred 07:37
Sweet potatoes have a large growing area they can be grown in many areas of California. And also around the country too. They can be grown in many zones. And that would include if you're familiar with the National Sunset zones, zones 26 through 33. And that includes Central and interior Florida, the lower Rio Grande Valley, the Gulf Coast, North Florida, the Atlantic coast to Charleston, the interior plains of South Texas Hill Country of Central Texas, the interior plains of the Gulf Coast and coastal southeast, the interior plains of the Mid Atlantic states Chesapeake Bay, southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and the North Central Texas and Oklahoma area eastward all the way to the Appalachian foothills. So sweet potatoes do have a very wide growing area where you can try this yourself. So what sort of fertilization and watering do sweet potatoes need?
Gail Pothour 08:37
Well, they need to have a fertile soil it needs to be pretty sandy and well draining, they tend to not do real well in say a heavy clay soil because when you harvest the sweet potatoes that can get scarred up and things like that. But as far as fertilization, you don't want high nitrogen, because then you'll get a lot of foliage and not so much flowering with sweet potatoes. So what we like to do at the Fair Oaks horticulture center when we grow sweet potatoes is give them a monthly application of something like fish emulsion that has been diluted, nothing too high in nitrogen.
Farmer Fred 09:14
When are sweet potatoes ready to harvest.
Gail Pothour 09:17
Yeah, many varieties are available after 90 to 140 days. So depending on the variety that you're growing, you would start checking in the soil around that time. So if you are growing up 100 day, variety, after 100 days, kind of check around and see what size that little sweet potatoes are. But generally it's going to be later in the summer, even early fall because it is a long growing season.
Farmer Fred 09:43
Well the vines turn yellow first before they're ready.
Gail Pothour 09:47
Generally they will. That's one of the signs that they're getting ready to harvest is the sidehill start to yellow. So if the vines have not started to naturally turn yellow, but it's starting to become cold weather. Remember I said they're sensitive to temperatures at 50 degrees or below, then you might want to just harvest them before the cold weather because that would really damage the sweet potatoes.
Farmer Fred 10:11
All right, so pay attention to those nighttime temperatures. And when the forecast starts calling for nighttime temperatures or early morning temperatures to be below 50 degrees, get out your shovel or spading fork and start harvesting.
Gail Pothour 10:25
Absolutely, yeah, because they will be damaged even if just a few hours below 50 degrees.
Farmer Fred 10:32
How do you store sweet potatoes?
Gail Pothour 10:35
A good question. Sweet potatoes do need to be cured before they're stored. Otherwise, they will decay in storage. And it's kind of tricky of finding ways to cure sweet potatoes. Because commercially, the growers do have curing rooms with heaters and humidifiers and evaporative coolers to maintain the proper temperature and humidity. Well, that isn't something that home gardeners really have access to. So actually, in the publication that I mentioned earlier, about growing sweet potatoes in Sacramento area, there is a list of ways that home gardeners can try to cure the sweet potatoes without having all that fancy equipment. The thing is you want to keep it warm and humid. So it's kind of hard, at least in our area to have warm weather though humid, because we don't have a lot of humidity here. But there are things like storing them in a warm area greenhouse or something with a pail of water and covering them with plastic to keep the humidity and so things like that. But you need to try them for several weeks in order for them to store properly. And another way to cure sweet potatoes, they say it can be rather daunting to have the right equipment is that you could set up a heater in a small room or in a pantry and have the temperature about 85 degrees and then have a bucket of water that you would place in that room to kind of keep the humidity up. And put the sweet potato roots that you've harvested in boxes have been well ventilated, so in a single layer and place that box on a table or something above the heater so that you have the warmth and humidity. And that would help with the curing process. And it may take a week or so. However, just be careful if you're using a heater around anything that's flammable, that you want to take precautions so that you don't have the heater get overheated and could cause a fire. After you cure them, you'd want to store them in a room that's about 60 degrees. And so you know what's the coolest place in your house, maybe wrapped them in newspaper, put them in a box under your bed kind of thing or an unused closet. But that's kind of one of the challenges of growing sweet potatoes is the curing process and then storage process. Now, if you don't plan on storing the potatoes, sweet potatoes for very long, certainly eat them. And that's fine. But just be aware that newly harvested sweet potatoes aren't going to be very sweet. They need that curing process or at least a storage time when the carbohydrates turns to sugar. So that makes the sweet potato a little bit more palatable. So you can certainly eat them right after they're harvested. But they won't have that real sweet flavor that we that's what we expect.
Farmer Fred 13:43
Yeah. And I guess storing the roots in rooms that are warmer than 65 degrees could cause those roots to sprout.
Gail Pothour 13:50
Right? So that's another problem is if it's too warm, then they can sprout. So it's finding that optimum about 60 degrees, that dark place in a box under your bed, Maybe.
Farmer Fred 14:02
one thing we haven't talked about in this discussion of sweet potato tips is, is that is a sweet potato the same thing as a yam.
Gail Pothour 14:10
No, it is not. That's a marketing ploy. Actually, the true yam is from Africa. It's a completely different family, not related at all to the sweet potato. And they can get huge they can get three feet long and weighed 30 and 40 pounds. So you don't find true yams grown here in the US. I've never actually seen one. It was back in the mid 20th century that farmers in Louisiana decided they wanted to differentiate their orange flesh, sweet potatoes that are a little moister than some of the white ones that are a little drier. They wanted to differentiate them from those drier, sweet potatoes. So they started calling them yams. Just simply a marketing ploy. So in California, I don't know about other states. But if it's labeled as a yam, they have to also tell you it's a sweet potato. so all sweet potatoes are sweet potatoes. There's no true yam that's grown here in the US. Also, I failed to mention that the leaves on sweet potatoes are edible as well. I mentioned it about okra, but I think I forgot to mention it on the sweet potato.
Farmer Fred 15:29
Well, you just did.
Gail Pothour 15:31
But it's that the sweet potato leaves can be used like spinach or chard.
Farmer Fred 15:35
I would eat them raw. Can you eat the sweet potato leaves raw?
Gail Pothour 15:39
So sweet potato leaves can be raw, although they kind of have a slight bitterness. Apparently, when they're raw, when they're cooked, they become a little more mild and delicate flavor. And I have not actually eaten sweet potato leaves raw myself. But according to one of the websites that I got on, specialty produce, they were talking about it and said that it's very similar in taste to spinach, and it can be a little bitter when raw so if you use it in a salad, it's perfectly edible, but it might impart a little bitter flavor, cooking it would mellow that out.
Farmer Fred 16:16
We've learned a lot today about growing sweet potatoes. Gail Pothour, Sacramento County Master Gardener, Thanks for your help on this.
Gail Pothour 16:23
My pleasure, Fred.
Farmer Fred 16:28
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Farmer Fred 17:27
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Farmer Fred 18:16
Every week we like to talk with Warren Roberts out of the UC Davis Arboretum and find out a Plant of the Week. A plant that is probably putting on a show right now or has some sort of interest for the season. And Warren, this week we are talking about the Alstroemeria or the Peruvian Lily.
Warren Roberts 18:34
Yes, the Alstroemeria. I really didn't know about Alstroemerias until I lived in Peru and it was back in the mid 60s. It was being grown a lot as a cut flower. Although cut flower is not quite right, because when you harvest alstroemerias, you pull gently pull and twist the stem out of the ground because if you cut it, it discourages continuous flowering. It's called the Peruvian Lily, because when Europeans described it and discovered it in Chile, a country to the south was part of the Peruvian vice royalty. And so it was given that name, but it's really from Chile, the species that are used in the hybridization, most of them are Chilean natives. And I've tried to convince people to call it the common name from the country of origin. But when I say Chili Lily, people usually snicker so I don't think I'm going to make headway on that. But the Chilean lily would be a more appropriate name. There you go. However, yes, however, like the Thanksgiving bird, the turkey is actually was domesticated in Mexico and had nothing to do with Turkey at all. So once these things are started, they can't really turn them around. It's kind of a juggernaut of disinformation. There are About 50 different species all South America, and it's not a true Lily. It's in its own botanical family and not in the lily family. But is Lily like so it's the name Lily is okay.
Farmer Fred 20:15
I think it's the prettiest weed we have.
Warren Roberts 20:18
Well, it certainly is enthusiastic. Not all the species are. Some of them are exceedingly rare in nature. But if I come into the hybridizing program, I warn people I say with you, if you want Alstroemerias, find a place in the garden, it's sunny, most of them like pretty much full sun, all afternoon shade, perhaps in our area of California, but you will always have it there. It will be there forever. The One example is the Botanic Garden at Berkeley. There was a beautiful population of hybrids, for the hybridization occurred right there in the garden. It was almost a rainbow of colors. Beautiful. And there was a they'd have a party in the spring to celebrate that. Well, the decision was made that these were not perhaps I put it there, their documentation was sketchy. in that garden, everything that grows there, you have to know exactly where it was collected in the wild, and so on. So there was some money to put in a Chinese herb garden and it's a wonderful Chinese herb garden but particularly because it's a Chinese herb garden with Alstroemerias, they continue coming up and and being beautiful. So I've warned people about that and then they don't follow my advice, which is not uncommon. And then they come to me and said, Warren, you were right. Because not only are they permanent where you put them, but they do spread a bit as well. And the seedlings come up and so on.
Farmer Fred 21:54
There is no question that if you plant Alstroemeria, indeed, you will have them forever. I'm still pulling up Alstroemeria shoots from where I tore them out four years ago.
Warren Roberts 22:05
Yes, it's that sort of a job security. Yes, it is.
Farmer Fred 22:09
But it's a great cut flower. It really does have a long bloom season. And in its place, I think, it's excellent.
Warren Roberts 22:17
Yes, but just finding the correct place. It's like hiring somebody who spent a lot of time making sure that you're hiring the best person and then let them get out of their way. Let them do the work. And that's the way it is with Alstroemeria. I think that a good good way to have both scenarios is to plant them in a very large container, a pot, that keeps it in place. And then just don't let it go to seed. There's these beautiful there to see there's Alstroemeria Aurea which is sort of orange yellow flower, which gets about four or five feet high. Also, the ligtu, which tends to have red flowers. And the hybrids are many between those two and these rare species along the coast and in the desert of Chile. There's even actually an annual and in the desert to Chile, but most of them are perennial, the fleshy roots, they're not evolved. Really, they can be grown in areas with considerable cold but don't let the ground freeze. For example, in Connecticut, they can be grown but you need to mulch them heavily. And they'll make it through the winter.
Farmer Fred 23:32
Generally speaking, Alstroemerias can be grown, shall we say, south of the Mason Dixon line and then up the eastern seaboard to just about Connecticut, you can probably grow them through Maryland, Delaware, southern New Jersey, Southern Pennsylvania as well.
Warren Roberts 23:48
And you could also you know, plant them in season or put them out during the warm season and then if you have a way to store them in the cold season, and you can you can have them as a perennial. It's an example of what the perennial is: a plant that would have bloomed again year after year, had it lived. Yes, there is another one from a southern Brazil called Alstroemeria psittacina, a meaning pear- like it has a narrow red flower with green tip, a flower aparts and that one is truly really but very beautiful. There's also a variegated form of that. It's it's a cut flower that you don't cut. And that's one of the longest lasting vase flowers. I know. Two weeks easy, grand. And if you use the something that can extend the life of a vase flower, then it lasts even longer. And even when it's through being in its prime in a vase, the the flower parts fall still intact. So it's really special. Plant carnations and alstroemerias. Some people don't like them because they're commonly used. The reason they're commonly used is success.
Farmer Fred 25:10
Yes. And you're very correct about pulling the flower out, don't cut it. And if when you pull it out, that also encourages it to rebloom as well.
Warren Roberts 25:21
It does and don't get if you're doing a lot of work with them don't get the sap on skin because it somehow reduces the skin's ability to resist ultraviolet rays and to get sunburn from from the juice of the plant.
Farmer Fred 25:37
Whoa. Okay, I did not know that. Well, Alstroemeria. It knows its place. Do you try out the Peruvian Lily for yourself? I bet you can find some Peruvian lilies at the UC Davis Arboretum.,
Warren Roberts 25:51
Usually. You can also find them at almost any nursery, and they're well worth getting that just remember the warnings.
Farmer Fred 26:01
Yes, they're gonna take over your yard and give you sunburn. Okay. They're gorgeous plants. Alstroemeria is the Peruvian Lily. Warren Roberts is the superintendent emeritus of the UC Davis Arboretum, visit the Arboretum online at arboretum.uc davis.edu. As the COVID-19 situation wanes, the activities at the Arboretum are picking up so check their website for more information about what's happening out there.
Farmer Fred 26:32
Warren, thanks so much for joining us and telling us about the Plant of the Week, the Peruvian Lily also known as Alstroemeria.
Warren Roberts 26:39
Oh you're welcome it was fun to do.
Farmer Fred 26:40
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Farmer Fred 27:15
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