Update on Sweet potato growing Trial in Ireland.

Update

Novemeber 2010.

We harvested the Sweet Potato in late October and yield per plant averaged 1.5 kg but on the good rows we got up to 2 Kg on some plants. As we planted on the flat we reduced yield per plant so next seasons plants will definitely go into drills. this season we were not able to drill the particular site. Next years trial has already been decided on and ill be 3 times bigger with a total of 4 very different varieties three of which are totally new to cultivation. These are pictures from from this years harvesting.

Progress of our Sweet Potato Trial.

Planted on 17th of May the first to my knowledge serious scaled production of Sweet Potato here in Ireland is making great progress. The purpose of the trial is to establish what yield and commercial value this crop can have for organic greenhouse production. As you see in this picture the crop was planted as very small two leaf cuttings. See earlier blog post.

http://fitzgeraldnurseries.blogspot.com/2010/05/sweet-potato-planting-for-2010.html

By early June this is how the crop looked.

In mid June I then applied biological control for insects. All weeding was done by hand, flame burner and hoe until the crop fully covered the soil.

This is a picture taken of the crop on 23rd of July, well on the way to being a bumper crop. The strong performance of the crop leads me to believe it should be possible to grow a successful crop in Ireland using "Spanish Tunnels" until end of July. Then leave uncovered until harvest. Already I am planning to make this the subject of a 2011 trial.

More on this crop when we harvest in late September.

We are ahead of the trend curve on this Check out these articles.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119560675497599936.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704691304575254771704417714.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/series/recipes_for_health/sweet_potatoes/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/us/25sweet.html