Sweet Potato Harvest 2024 - Are the Rats At It Again!!?

Last year I noticed the little bush rats as they had just started to move into the sweet potato patch - just in time!
This year there's been a lot more activity from these little guys so I'm hoping for the same luck as last year but suspect I may be too late. Join me for this years sweet potato harvest and see if I make it two wins in a row against the rats!
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[@joannabrown4238]

I couldn't help imagining those rats thinking this lady is absolutely wonderful! But I know how it feels to have to share a harvest! Gardening is a great developer of patience and problem solving isn't it 🧐😅 we are always learning, hope you have a wonderful week and so happy you've had rain down your way, we have had good rain here in QLD too.🌻

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Thanks Joanna - I suppose it’s a good work out for the brain each year trying to beat out the critters, the weather and all the other obstacles throw in the mix. One things for sure - we are always learning! Pleased to hear the rains are with you too!

[@LittleGardenBigDreams]

Those bush rats are cheeky Linda. Nice to see you managed to get a harvest and they didn’t take them all xx Cathi xx 😘

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Cheeky, hmm , can think of a few other descriptions as well, but cheeky is a nice way of putting it 😆 Thanks Cathi xx

[@Tinachimneycreekfarm]

Your sweet potatoes 🍠 look great!

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Not too bad 😄

[@christasmicroflowerfarm2695]

A decent harvest, very nice.

[@rubygray7749]

I'm so envious of your delicious harvest! I tried to grow sweet potatoes for the first time, but it was just too cold here even to sprout them. No result whatsoever. Your last year self was trying to tell you something! Sweet potato vines are massive plants that need all the solar energy, water and nutrition they can get. They never learned how to share. And tubers cannot swell in hard compacted ground. They need a deep layer of loose surface mulch to expand to their fullest potential. I've been thinking that asembling a long deep row of compost ingredients and mulch in a new open area this winter, would make an ideal environment for growing sweet potatoes next summer, while creating a new garden bed for anything I want to grow later. I have many cubic metres of spoiled hay, goat bedding, grass mowings, woodchips, weeds, chicken manure, coffee grounds, wool waste, cardboard etc to dump into a long pile. I'm going to try again like this, but I will need to add a low hoop tunnel over it all to keep the heat in. Wayland Smalley uses the deep mulch method, as per Ruth Stout. He has phenomenal success with his sweet potato harvest. It's very envy-making to watch him pulling hundreds of kilos of massive tubers from the loose surface mulch. But his summers are much warmer than mine.

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

That sounds like a great plan Ruby! I’m sure it would give the plants the best opportunity to take off in your climate! Yep I certainly learnt my lesson on a number of fronts!!

[@mauimago5023]

A lovely amount you got, thanks for sharing

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Thanks Brenda - appreciate you having a video catch up day 😊

[@suepears2010]

Thanks Linda. Having a 'feel around' at the base, it looks like we may have had some success in growing sweet potatoes this year here in the cool climate of Katoomba, Blue Mountains NSW. Have tried in the past and got lots of leaves which was great but no potatoes. Have planted all in raised beds. Will wait and see when the vines start dying off.

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

How exciting Sue!!! Good luck - let me know how you go at harvest time!!

[@backtonature433]

still a good harvest 👌💚💚💚

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

You're right - can't complain 😊

[@lorrainerichardson3280]

Ok so next season I will plant sweet potato in compost. My first try this year and it took forever for the slips to appear. so didn't really get anything edible. As you say it's all a bit hit and miss each season. Take care =-)

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Yes definitely into compost!! Don’t know why I didn’t think about it for this last season - but won’t forget it going forward!! Have a great week Lorraine!

[@Charles00-xj3kz]

I am going to try putting some of the sweet potato vine in water (10cm or so cuttings) and grow multiple vines in my kitchen over winter. This will save having to make slips off a tuber.

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

That sounds good - haven’t thought to do that! May have to dig around in my pile of vines & see if there is still some viable 🤔 Good luck with them!!!

[@countrymousesfarmhouse497]

Ohh i thought your big patch would have had heaps and big ones in there. Rotten rodents. Last year you had amazing ones. My sweet potato patch is still looking green, lush and alive so ill leave them longer . Last year i left all the small ones in that patch so i wonder if ill get some giants , i hope so! Ice had them in a sandy spot with compost added but a deeper compost layer sounds far easier come harvest. Weve got a bandicoot in the veg patch nibbling things , i hope he hasn't eaten those too. I made lots of pesto already with sweet potato leaves , sauteed heaps in stir fries and added them to quiches . Time to do a big havest and blanch for yhe freezer. Yummy. ❤❤

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Yes I had been expecting big things from that second garden bed. There was evidence of larger potatoes but all nibbled off. I think the compost and maybe more rain last year contributed to the much more successful harvest with perhaps a third of the plants - amazing really. I've learnt a lot from this harvest so that's something!!

[@tst1200]

My Asian garden neighbors would be so dismayed at all the food you are tossing :) They grow sweet potatoes but not for the root- the potatoes but they grow them for the leaves and vine.

[@countrymousesfarmhouse497]

We eat the sweet leaves near the end and this year we made heaps of pesto for the freezer using sweet potato leaves instead of spinach, it's delicious. ❤

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Yes I know haha!! We all have different ideas on the ideal food! The leaves will be food, not for me, but the worms and soil microbes in my new compost path! Nothing wasted and everyone gets some sort of feed 😊 Thanks for watching!!

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Great suggestion Naomi!

[@rubygray7749]

​@@huttonsvalleypermaculture I could see the chooks eyeing off those leaves! I'm sure they would be good chook forage as well.

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

@rubygray7749 I’ve actually still got piles of leaves lying around so I might share with the ladies!!

[@jeanettefrancis6473]

Just started watching your channel and am working my way through all the videos. Your gluten free bread looks good so as I am a celiac I will try it out. The bought ones are OK and I freeze them in 2's, but have to lightly toast them to make them taste good. I like that you have a variety of garden/animals and cooking on your channel. Lovely property. I am in NZ also on 5 acres but my animals are horses. One of them has twice leaned over the fence and eaten the top of my orange tree!

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Hi Jeanette and welcome!! I'm coeliac also and refuse to buy GF bread - it's usually horrible and some is even made in the UK - what's that about?? Definitely try that recipe - it truly is the best! Horses are as cheeky as cows, sheep and alpacas by the sounds of it! 😆

[@Bernie5172]

not sure if I will get any this year. a rotten rabbit or ducks ate all the vines and they stopped growing now. turned cold

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Hi Bernie!! We’re always competing with something - who knows you may get a meals worth 🤞🤞

[@Bernie5172]

@@huttonsvalleypermaculture I hope so. Birds got under my net on the apple tree and ate them all . No wonder I gave up farming in 1985 and went truck driving

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

@Bernie5172 It does have its challenges!