We Won't Make This Mistake AGAIN!

[@LazyDogFarm]

Do you like companion planting? Let us know! 0:00 Intro 0:33 The Best Sweet Potato Varieties for Raised Beds 3:09 Digging Sweet Potatoes in Raised Beds 6:27 Why Did This One Bed Perform So Poorly? 8:10 Does Companion Planting Always Work?

[@HadassahHaman]

TRAV....I'll tell you this.... companion planting is wonderful!!!!! however, I no longer put zinnias and marigolds in the same bed as my veggies!!!! I Container plant them near certain veggies because I had the same experience, the flowers would flourish two to three feet tall and I'd have small vegetables. It seemed the flowers were zapping the veggies nutrients. Now I plant them nearby in containers beside the garden bed or in the garden bed but in their own container. ❤

[@ElRemaro]

I had a similar experience last year with a very large variety of marigold that I had planted among my tomato vines. The marigolds nearly crowded out my tomatoes. I now plant only small varieties of marigolds among my tomatoes.

[@raineboyd6917]

Dude. I love your videos! Thanks for what you do! I am a huge fan of companion planting, but only for pest control reasons. If I am going to plant multiple crops in a space, then I’ll try to take the time to understand the feeding/ watering needs of each crop so that they do not interfere with each other’s growth. Example: heavy feeders like tomatoes and brassicas pair well with shallow rooted herbs or ground cover annual blooms. This creates a reasonable environment for all of the micro biological activity in the soil so it can still be maintained safely. My issue with all of the information that is online with “companion” planting is that it is incomplete information. Basically, I threw out all of the “rules” and just pay attention to what I know the individual plants needs are. This requires a little bit more research per plant/seed, but is absolutely worth it and I have been gardening organically for 10 years And haven’t had many pest or disease issues much at all. True story!🤓

[@memph7610]

One interesting thing you see in companion planting, is that they'll say you shouldn't plant a heavy feeder like a tomato next to another heavy feeder like a squash, but they say nothing about not planting a heavy feeder tomato next to another (also heavy feeder) tomato.

[@dawkinswashere--tcg9199]

"shan't" lol well done sir

[@HadassahHaman]

Beautiful!!!!! Love the trav family! Love the videos! "I just couldn't take it anymore so I had to s ratch around and get them!" 🤣😂😅😂🤣😅❤ I soooooo can relate to that. 🌞

[@ElRemaro]

I planted one Murasaki sweet potato slip among several varieties of melons and cucumbers, and a single Titan sunflower. I harvested 25 pounds of sweet potatoes from that one plant.

[@sowingback]

I've found that planting garlic around the perimeter of my beds does wonders for pest control with my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Once I harvested my garlic, it was pest fest 2023. For my pumpkins/melons, corn, and sweet potatoes they seem to do best in their own beds. I also am a huge believer in interplanting with flowers and herbs because the pollinators are just amazing in the summer garden. I'm still figuring out which flowers/herbs do well with what. I have the same sweet taters but about two weeks behind you in north Georgia. I can't wait to harvest them.

[@nigellablossom]

I do plant a lot of stuff all together, but I always grow sweet potatoes in their own dedicated beds. Just seems to work out really well that way all around.

[@JamysOnJericho]

I had the exact same trial this year myself and had the same result. I wanted to make a pretty sweet potato plot this year so I had 3 4x4x3 beds that I put cannas in the center marigolds at the corners and sweet potato dispersed throughout. The beds were beautiful but produced virtually no sweet potatoes. I also didn't realize my drip system wasn't giving enough water because it all looked great

[@rwheeler4926]

I planted my sweet potatoes in raised beds with celery and a tomato. You might want to look underneath the other plants I had a bunch hiding underneath the other plants

[@ElviraSongalla]

Thanks for sharing your DIY garden host see there's a lot harvest sweet potato

[@jeas4980]

I always companion plant.... except for ground cherries, sweet potatoes, fartachokes, and walking onions. Squashes always get radishes... sunflowers, okra, and corn are trellises for pole beans. Tomatoes get basils, tomatillos get oregano, beets and carrots get peas. Brassicas' get dill. I have to thank you for encouraging me to plant a late season crop of sunflowers and okree btw... there's still 45 days left in the season and I ate my first home grown okra in a year this evening because you encouraged me to give it a go "too late". I'm so glad I did!

[@carolavant3778]

Honestly, Travis, I've found that "interplanting" doesn't give me good results. I've seen others who plant things together, but the ones I see having success are in different climates. What works in Zone 8 in Washington state simply doesn't work at all for me in Zone 8, North Florida Panhandle! I'm sure much has to do with our relentless summer heat, humidity, and crazy weather patterns, so I'll just keep planting things separately. I seem to be able to manage the weeds, pests and disease better doing it that way.

[@littlefootranch4410]

Super interesting. I planted our sweet potatoes in raised beds with other plants ( peppers, chives & calendula) and they did decently well. Maybe it's the type of companion plants that were planted? I've only ever done interplanting & companion planting, except one year. And that year was the worse gardening year I have ever experienced. So I immediately went back to heavy companion planting. Maybe try another type of companion planting with a different crop to see if the outcome is any different.

[@lindajustice2000]

I grow bush beans with my sweet potatoes simple because the beans put nit into the soil. I always have a nice harvest.

[@joeford7350]

I agree with you!

[@brycekirby1567]

Learning experience , or could be something we are totally unaware of

[@thewildingslanding]

We do a little of both. Sometimes we have herbs and flowers with veggies, sometimes we mono crop.

[@robclower9606]

In my limited experience gardening, anything that grows a below ground tuber doesn't like to be interplanted. I remember on your onion video you said onions do really poor if they start to get weed pressure.

[@WhatWeDoChannel]

That was really interesting and enlightening! I’m a big believer in one crop in a bed at a time! Klaus

[@melissakingery4393]

I kinda try to plant things that you or several of the gardeners I watch suggest.

[@TMesser74]

I planted my sweet peppers in my sweet potatoes and they both did amazing. Potatoes shaded the ground for my peppers and apparently they didn’t compete for nutrients. I barely watered. I will be doing this again with peppers.

[@jillismyname]

I have mine mixed in with perennial and annual herbs. But, I'm just growing them for their greens. If I get a big tuber at the top, great. I feel like I don't get a good value for how much water the tubers take! But I like the greens.

[@DV-ol7vt]

I have found for some reason that some plants don’t like growing with collards. Now I grow my collards by themselves.

[@teddyapproved]

I was coming to say the same thing. 😂 It’s definitely the collards. That’s why the collards didn’t do as well. Certain plants use different Microbiome in the soil so when you plant certain companions together, they do really well. But when you plant certain ones together that you shouldn’t they both do really bad.

[@MissPeachCobbler]

Well thank you for this. I thought it was me ❤

[@Happy2Run4Me]

True. I’ll plant an entire layer or two of just collards in my GreenStalk and they grew wonderfully. My sweet potatoes grow in their own grow bags so it’s not one I would intercrop honestly. Still, it’s my first year growing sweet potatoes so I am by no means an expert. However I hope I get a good harvest from the grow bags. I have lots of success with grow bags for just about everything I’ve tried to grow in them so I figured, why not sweet potatoes? We will see! I’m kind of hooked on both raised beds and grow bags for different things and in-ground growing for winter squash and pumpkins though I’m growing both in grow bags right now also quite successfully. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sometimes nature decides what it’s going to do and there’s not much we can do about it so it seems. Same reason I grow seedlings out in trays a lot of the time first because under the same exact conditions some do well and others don’t. Who knows why. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@ElRemaro]

I have found that garlic does not like competition.

[@kirstmlarson1]

I have a small space so I do pack the veggies in rather densely. The rows of bush beans are planted along side the heirloom tomatoes that are trellised. Lots of basil varieties are growing among cucumbers or okra. The Seminole pumpkins grow up along the fence right beside the grow bags of white and sweet potatoes. It’s certainly a jungle by the end of July. It’s great to look back at pictures and videos every few weeks to see the changes.

[@miltkarr5109]

In my experince sweet potatoes love new ground that was previously sod. Ive planted in really nice compost and they didnt do much. Ive tried all different fertilizer treatments but nothing grows them as well as new ground thats well prepared with maybe a 1/16 inch of chicken manure raked in on top.

[@LazyDogFarm]

That makes sense. The best sweet potato harvest I ever had was our first year here when the garden plot was brand new.

[@miltkarr5109]

@@LazyDogFarm Yep, Even more confirming anecdotal evidence. That's great. Love your channel BTW. THANKS.

[@JohnDeWeese-lq4pf]

I would guess the raised beds Lose water at a higher rate than the ground planted sweet taters, and that probably decreased production. OR, the soil got hotter, and plants tend to slow production in really hot soil. I have checked on real hot days (90+) and found my raised beds were very dry at the six inch mark even though they get water. The other thing could be related to soil compaction? Just guessing. By the way, the onion bulbs I got from you have gone crazy making multiple sets! Have a blessed day Travis!

[@notyomonky]

I’ve observed with some things that the roots seem to expend energy fighting for space or nutrients instead of growing the plant. Not that there’s not enough nutrients so much as the excessive energy the plants put into root competition. I could be wrong.

[@79PoisonBreaker]

I companion plant a few things in the ground like carrots under my tomatos, but mostly I grow in pots and so its more like planting beans under my broccoli so when i harvest it the beans take over. Again I only do it for a reason like carrots are ready and get pulled when tomatoes need a fresh topping of fertalizer.

[@Christian-jx3nx]

I wish y’all would trial the Japanese sweet potato. Might be good for how you cook them. Starchy. They taste better than Beauregard 😊

[@albertnett7864]

Interesting video.

[@johnlord8337]

biggest issue is planting collards/tree collards with sweet potatoes/yams - as they are brassicas - and these sulfur plants could be inhibiting this species growth. Other than companion planting, there are known complimentary plants - but consider as I mention to others. If you are a flatlander gardener or raised bed with a monocrop - you are literally creating a bug airport and landing strip for them in that area. Having extensive rows is just like an airport landing strip. Having separated plots of large watermelons, pumpkins, squash ... and you are just making big bug targets to zero in and chow down. As I have my own designs that are closer than Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot gardening (small bug targets) ... I say scatter your plants with others. Put individual squash with other plants -- so the bugs can't smell the squash and land. Same for potatoes mixed with sweet potatoes or yams - potato bug etc. Biggest issue of my concentrated plantings in a distributed pattern, is to get out there everyday - and pick 1 leaf from each plant (and fruit) and make your daily salads, or dry out and make powders for soups, stews, etc. That is less than 10 minutes in the garden - and checking for bugs and getting your family salad bowl. And less waste. The more you harvest the outer leaves - especially cabbage, kale, collards, and lettuces, you stop adult-smelling leaves attract the bugs, while the younger leaves growing from the center, do not have the adult-vegetable smell. So harvest through the season, instead at the end of the season and be overwhelmed by all their vegs, greens, tubers, roots, bulbs, vines etc. And if that is the correct sweet potato (and not a yam !) then you can eat the vines and leaves - and you had a massive harvest there for yourself, family, and the local livestock critters. No waste. If you do have waste, then don't throw in compost pile, but dry out (air dry or freeze dry), then blender, and put into a compost tea mixture, and water that back into the soil. No waste of roots, greens, anything. So much is edible that is thrown away through lack of knowledge. So scatter your carrots, beets, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, individually through the various beds and you will find that you have less bugs and chow downs - and greater harvests.

[@LazyDogFarm]

Sounds good in principle for some climates. But cool season veggies like beets, broccoli, and cauliflower have completely different seasons than tomatoes down here. They're never in the garden at the same time.

[@johnlord8337]

@@LazyDogFarm Then work out your regional growing seasons and what fits to which, when. You have all the varieties of roots, tubers, bulbs, vines, fruits, and leafies to work with.

[@genecromer3261]

Darnit, now I'm all excited about that pepper 🌶 joke😅

[@sandramorton5510]

I "shan't" LOL, love your videos. Sweet potatoes are not my friend, trying again this year.

[@grannybearsgarden]

Last year I planted sweet corn with my sweet potatoes and got an okay crop. This year I planted them on their own and got a great crop. When it comes to sweet potatoes, I agree with your conclusion

[@chappell756]

I interplanet with peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, peas for the last couple of years and I get some giants. I let them go a little longer than normal, but have gotten some that are several pounds each.

[@davidward1259]

Travis, we are growing "Evangeline" sweet potatoes in wicking tubs this year. About a week to go before harvest, but they did not vine outside the containers as far as your "bush" sweet potatoes did. But the area around the tubs is a close dense jungle of vines, just not spreading like "normal" sweet potatoes. I've not read that Evangeline is a bush variety so it just may be because they are in containers. Obviously I don't know what the harvest will be yet. I keep resisting the urge to poke around for a peek. Ours did bloom on a few vines several weeks ago. Light purple blooms opened in evening and were gone by dawn. I planted 3 slips per 20 gallon wicking tub. I'm with you and think the competition from the Collards & Zinnia's keep your 2nd bed from setting larger tubers.

[@dvrmte]

Evangeline has average length vines in my garden. It's a really good eating variety. The only problem I have is it's slow to sprout slips. I grow my own slips and it was nearly June before the slips were ready to plant. All my other varieties were already in the ground and growing weeks before then.

[@charleselertii6187]

Hi Travis. Jim Koveleski who appears simetimes on the GreenDreams channel always plants sweet potatoes as a cover crop for the summer in his New Port Richie Florida garden. Last year he had a dissappointing crop. But in areas that were new that wasn't as nutrient rich, they did much better. He was thinking that they like poorer soil?

[@LazyDogFarm]

We'll see if that rings true for us in a couple of weeks. My Orleans sweet potatoes are planted in a plot with very rich soil.

[@MissBetsyLu]

​@@LazyDogFarm oh no. Blessings everyone everywhere.

[@kevindavis3841]

IDK. I’m still learning. Coplanted a few tomatoes and a few bush beans and a few flowers in a raised bed this year Nothing did well in that group.

[@faithk_integrityandintention]

What I'm finding is that igot just depends on the plant, and the purpose of intercropping - and raised beds are different than in-ground, organic v conventional, etc. Like most things in gardening - it depends. My sweet potatoes are planted in ground on their own... well, until the weeds around them took over. Still not time to pull them up here in 6B to see if it worked. That said, the tomato plants that were planted in ground with zinnias next to them - not really between them - had great pollination, but for various reasons that row just sucked in production once they set fruit. The tomatoes that were with peppers, and a couple of green onions tossed here and there, and next to a row of beautiful, huge tendergreen (komatsuna) - now those were insane. Super amazing pollination, no pests, like, none. Crazy production despite the insane weeds around them. My kale had huge, giant holes in them - but the chard, tendergreen, squash, etc., had absolutely no pest pressure at all because the kale acted as a trap crop. They weren't right next to each other in all cases, but near each other, so that each could function best - pest deterrent, trap crop, bringing in beneficial bugs, etc etc. So, yeah, I believe in it, but it doesn't mean (to me) that you need to plant 2 tomatoes, a mess of onions, 2 tomatoes etc.

[@GypsyBrokenwings]

I grow my plants pretty much like David the Good. It's a jungle, lol. I did grow my sweet potatoes in a different, new piece of ground this year and they did really well. I had pepper plants about 3 feet away from them. Maybe sweet potatoes are just uppity loners? Inter planting doesn't have to be so jam packed. The idea is to confuse the insects. While others complained their green beans were all stung up, i didn't have that problem, and only found 2 horn worms on my tomatoes instead of the usual 10 or more.

[@jeffengland1862]

I just looked at other videos of what I could plant with bunching onions. I do not like to plant different plants together. I did see that onions would keep curtain pests away from other plants! Onions and lettuce is something I will try. But in rolls beside each other. I think I would keep sweet potatoes by themselves. Not grown them in a long time! Just not sure about them!

[@FlomatonFamous]

Interesting I also think inter planting is over hyped

[@erichayden6620]

I'm thinking the slips didn't spend enough time in a Dawg's bucket .

[@LazyDogFarm]

Haha!

[@MarkSmith-qk2rl]

I had similar yield as your second bed !! I planted 13 slips and got 14 taters ! Totally baffled I grew some great root balls though lol. I have co planted my sweet taters and had great yields idk but I’m blaming it on my drought although I watered every other day. I ain’t quitting on my sweet taters. I got enough for some pies for the holidays. My favorite !

[@paulabrown5685]

Travis….a good many years ago I had the most lush patch of sweet potatoes….the. Vines were beautiful. Come time to dig…..NO SWEET POTATOES…I mean none. Voles😡. So I agree on your statement that your sweet potatoes don’t tell you when they need something😁.

[@cherylbertolini3140]

It was the zinnias, I had that happen last year with my sweet potatoes

[@gilshelley9183]

If you used sun hemp as a cover crop or for compost it can have a latent allopathic effect.

[@dvrmte]

I went out and started digging my Murasaki taters. I'm finding one or two big ones under the vine and smaller ones scattered throughout the beds and beyond, and even deep in the clay subsoil. They're not formed from vines that took root, they come branches off the main roots. I stabbed a half dozen of all the rest of the varieties. I've stabbed more than that on less than 10 ft of row. I don't expect half the production I got from my other varieties.

[@LazyDogFarm]

I've never gotten much production from the purple ones. They look pretty, but don't consistently perform IMO.

[@daniellewoodward4728]

I grow the purple ones and now only do they do awesome they store longer than the orange ones this year I got 243 pounds from 3 30 foot beds

[@dvrmte]

@@daniellewoodward4728 I got right at 200 lbs. of Bayou Belles from one 30 ft. bed. I'll probably get 80 lbs. from the Murasaki, which is about the same as your yield per bed. I don't like the way it sets taters all over the place. Some of the main roots are an inch or more in diameter and might run 3 ft. On the end of the big root there is generally a small tater or nothing. You could probably cure those roots and cook them. LOL I've never grown Murasaki before, it might grow differently in other climates and soils.

[@Chocamatoes]

Good lesson. Where did you get the first slips?

[@LazyDogFarm]

Steele Plant Company

[@marysurbanchickengarden]

Some things do grow well and produce together, but I don't put anything in my sweet potatoes. Like most people I like to have flowers in my garden and I noticed the peppers that had zinnias growing with them weren't putting on much pepper and the leaves on the tops of the plants went all weird. I pulled out the zinnias and the leaves started to straighten out and the peppers started forming on the plants. Note to self, don't plant zinnias with anything, give them a space of their own. When are you starting your onion seeds?

[@miltkarr5109]

Grew some late broccoli next to my peppers this year 4' spacing from em. Biggest broccoli ever... and stunted peppers. Root zone battle won by the broccoli in record time apparently.

[@terryallard1918]

Travis. Do you have any type of curing process that you do for your sweet potatoes before putting them into storage? Thanks.

[@LazyDogFarm]

I just put them under the pole barn for a couple weeks before eating them. I don't really have a specific curing process.

[@terryallard1918]

Okay. Thanks for the quick reply.

[@christinecrowley7132]

I think your sweet potatoes will taste fine just keep growing.

[@kellycrouch9576]

Gardening aside,Travis is QUITE the personality these days. He’s a naturally gifted speaker with an “awe shuks Huck” delivery. Get rid of that disgusting red bucket with a G. Go Orange/Blue….good and informative program Trav. Keep ‘em comin’

[@LazyDogFarm]

Thanks Kelly!

[@dwightmoss7919]

Is that bunch potatoe white or red on the inside I have trouble growing the white

[@LazyDogFarm]

It's more pink on the inside. Not dark orange, but not white either.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Do you need to refrigerate them before eating them? Or let them sit awhile?

[@brycekirby1567]

I think he has a video about aging them

[@LazyDogFarm]

We just let them sit a couple weeks under the barn before enjoying them.

[@flyfishdr]

I planted bell peppers one year right after collards. The peppers did poorly, lost half of them.

[@barbaraengle768]

I have a hard enough time keeping up with rotation..

[@whitestone4401]

I use companion planting mostly for pest prevention. Seems to work well, but, it’s nowhere near the scale you work with.

[@shirleyk623]

I plant the veggies together that have the same nutrient requirements. There will be a few flowers also in the bed. Google is a wealth of information if you ask the questions like what does broccoli like to grow together with. And other crops. I never want to plant things that compete with each other. So just ask Google and see what it says.

[@stevefromthegarden1135]

1 of my Potato buckets had a sweet potato vine get into it. I ended up with a bucket of fine dense roots and no potatoes worth talking about and no sweet potatoes either. Just lots of roots.

[@carleenjackson8692]

Some plants do not do well when planted together. Such as wheat and bananas or corn and apricots do not do well together. Also read that apples and potatoes do not do well together, So maybe sweet potatoes do not like the collards or zinnias.

[@MrSnapper1d]

That second bunch of sweet potatoes didnt like fish.I had a girlfriend that didnt like fish and she was rather scrawny also.

[@MissBetsyLu]

Hoots!!!! Too funny for words !!!! Roflmbo. Blessings everyone everywhere

[@triciakokoszka581]

What a bummer! I usually grow tomatoes or cucumbers amongst my sweet potatoes....in straw bales. Everything does well together. I love interplanting, mostly because it's beautiful. I don't buy much of that companion planting stuff in pretty charts that circulate the internet. Experimenting in your garden is the only way to see what works for you - next year, you'll have better yields.

[@terryl.9302]

Collards, no, bcz they weren't all that robust. Zinnias looking so very fabulous wd be my culprit of choice. Cd be their roots throw off a chemical detrimental to the sw.potatoes, as well as to insects.

[@ranhen8951]

Travis, can you recommend a high-quality tripod sprinkler for me to use on my deer plot? I will tell them you sent me if you have a promo code man. Randall Henderson N. AR. TY :)

[@LazyDogFarm]

I use the green orbit ones.

[@AH-yr3ge]

How do you cure them? It seems more complicated than normal taters

[@markb8954]

Best to store in a shaded, cool, dry area.

[@matthewking2209]

It probably would have worked fine if you were going to remove those collards before the potatoes started to mature. I do more of what would be called nurse planting. I plant in between what I'm getting ready to harvest. I planted sweet potatoes in between my tomato rows but I knew my tomatoes would be done before the potatoes.

[@pushs_cool_stuff]

I'd blame allelopathy before I blamed a lack of nutrients

[@LazyDogFarm]

I'm familiar with sweet potatoes having allopathic effects on other veggies, but didn't know it worked the other way around.

[@pushs_cool_stuff]

​@@LazyDogFarm It might even be from the lettuce or whatever you had planted there earlier on in the year, a google search seems to hint at the possibility.

[@that9blife465]

From my experience in the deep south, sweet potatoes grow better with less nutrition.

[@bobbun9630]

My take on companion planting is that some of the claims made in favor for it are reasonable, but the idea also serves as a jumping off point for people to make tons of claims that are poorly thought out or not well supported by any real evidence. A lot of the reasons given don't make a lot of sense to me. Without some clear and obvious reasoning and convincing evidence to back up the claims, I'm not going to bother.

[@LazyDogFarm]

Well said.

[@itsinyouryard]

Sweet potatoes will tell you the next year if you left one in the dirt lol

[@LazyDogFarm]

They sure will!

[@olsonlr]

allopathic plants to sweet potatoes???

[@Wilk853]

Think you may have had too much fertility made all vine and not many taters we been planting them behind Irish pot and never add any additional fertilizer

[@MissBetsyLu]

There's no such thing as Irish potatoes. Potatoes are from the Americas and the potatoes that ended the potato famine were bred in the US. Blessings everyone everywhere.