Beginning of February, I need to start my seeds soon (within the next week), so they'll be ready to go in the ground, come the beginning of April (typically safe from frost by then, here in northern TX, though I have the materials for a cold frame cover for the above ground boxes, if needed). Since everyone else is either in the same boat, or getting close, I thought I'd share this page with a video, that gives a good idea of what you can do, to take advantage of last fall's fallen leaves. Looking in my back yard, yesterday, it appears I'll have plenty of them, to try this method out. Maybe too many! LOL 5 Tips to Prepare Your Soil for Spring - LPC Survival And thought I'm sure it's been shared, plenty of times before, here's a jpeg, made from a page that calls recycling your veggies "magical"! I guess it would be, for some folks!
Interesting on the potato part....we've always planted Irish (white) or Yukon gold potatoes using parts with eyes, but sweet potatoes I don't think you can do that. You'll get a ton of sprouts off a piece of SP, plus by the time the sprouts get up, you'd be too far into the season to get a crop. How we, and everybody I know, raises SP is you plant whole potatoes in the fall, or late winter, mulching them with 5-6" sawdust, and here, best if you cover with a hoop of plastic to get them warm early. Once they have sprouted green 'slips' up about 3-6", pull the rooted slips out of the rotting potato, and plant them well after last frost (end of May here) in rows 6' apart, slips about 8-10" apart in the row (I mound up a long row of loose soil) with a forked stake, just push them in the ground, water a time or two, and that's it. You can probably plant 20-30' of row with the slips off just one potato ! The vines will spread 3' or more on either side of the row, so allow for that. Dig before first frost, (end of Sept here)...I go thru and weedeat off the vines to make digging easier..... and you'll get these:
I started my seed tray last Sunday. Got a lot of variety including 6 kinds of ultra hot peppers (which take 3-4 weks to sprout), a couple of bird's eye peppers,onions, lettuce, and heirloom tomatoes (which are almost ready to transplant!!) I use a heated mat to jumpstart everything, plus my ultrahots need about 80-85 degrees to properly germinate. I also have a 4' Jumpstart light setup....which broke this year, the plastic connectors on one side broke all to heck and gone. I emailed them and darn if they didn't send me 2 new sets! Yep, impressive. I've had the setup for about 5 years now. The plants are a bit leggy now because they sprouted before I was able to fix the light stand and didn't get enough light early on. They'll be ok. A couple of pics. I plant and transplant mostly by the Farmers' Almanac gardening calendar found here: Farmers' Almanac Gardening Calendar Kajun
I am so glad @natshare started this thread. I read TNAndy's post and was reminded it is time to start sprouting some sweet potatoes. I started mine in water last year and once I had shoots, was able to plant. This year, I will be doing lots of sweet potatoes in pots, basically food hidden in plain sight. PS- if anyone has ever got a pineapple to successfully regrow, please let me know. I have failed so many times using different methods.
Lettuce, basil, parsley, strawberries and some tomatoes so far. I'll have to double check tomorrow, but I think the first tomato is not far away ETA: It's amazing what one can do when work isn't getting in the way!
Most bang for your buck are peppers. you can planted on top of the sweet potatoes and have lovely foliage
I once planted a habanero plant in between my tomato plants, For some reason the tomatoes had a certain tingling feeling on my lips?
Dittto on thanks, andy. Great thread. Gator, I think maybe your lips were tingling from anticipation. I don't think peppers and tomatoes will cross-pollinate. I transplanted everything last Sunday. I have about 20 individual little plastic pots going and put some of the plants outside. Also got the yard sprinklers set up and turned on last Sunday. It's been around 60-75 F here for the last week or so. Hopefully some pics this afternoon. There are 2 reliable signs when spring is here.....#1 the turkey buzzards come in and stay for about a month and #2 there is a tree just outside my window at work I call a "Snowball" tree and when it blooms white all over, that's a good sign we've had our last freeze. It's awfully early here which may mean we're going to have a rip roaring hot summer. Kajun
I bought some little purple potatoes from the produce organic section. I have sprouted them and the roots have taken off. I think I need to plant these little guys whole, I do not think I can divide them without hurting the current growth. Plus we just got snow so I can't set the pots outside yet.
I don't see why you shouldn't be able to cut them up,unless there isn't enough room between the eyes to give each eye a good portion. Wait until the snow's gone and see what they look like then. FWIW, I never planted until after Mother's day weekend when I lived in your AO..
suggest you wait a bit then each root can be a separate potato hill or you can wait and plant slips How to Plant Potato Slips you get more from your potato
