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Beauregard tips the scales at Horticulture Center

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED OCT 11, 2018

That's a 10.5-pound sweet potato in the center, part of the Horticulture Center's harvest (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

Master Gardener Gail Pothour talks about the
straw bale garden and sweet potatoes.

Sweet harvest of sweet potatoes during Open Garden event

For all the activity in every corner of the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center on Wednesday, the buzziest area was in the vegetable garden — specifically, the straw bales where the sweet potatoes were planted.

It was harvest time during the Open Garden event, and UCCE Master Gardener Gail Pothour and her crew were busting down the bales. The pride of the harvest was a whopper of a Beauregard sweet potato that weighed in at 10 1/2 pounds. Think bigger than your average newborn baby, or about the size of a small dog. Everyone who came by exclaimed at the size.

That sweet potato will make some fine eating after it’s cured a couple of weeks, allowing the starches to turn to sugar. Unlike some root crops, Pothour says, sweet potatoes don’t become woody as they get larger. The only concern is if a sweet potato develops “veins” on the outside; they have to be trimmed off. The big one -- dubbed Taterzilla -- didn’t have veins, but some of the others in the 57 pounds harvested did have them. In addition to the Beauregard variety, the straw bales also had some Nancy Hall sweet potato plants.

Here's what the straw bales looked like in mid-May, just

after the sweet potato slips were planted.

The master gardeners have experimented with different crops in straw bales over the past few years, but this is the first time for sweet potatoes. The method has become popular as an alternative to raised beds: At the end of the season, the remaining straw becomes mulch for other parts of the garden.

The three bales used this year were wheat straw, which is less common in our region -- most of the ones you see sold are rice straw, Pothour says. But the master gardeners have found that wheat ones hold up better over the season.

Augmented with potting soil and heavily watered at first, the softened straw allows roots to grow more easily than in our typical clay soil. Pothour says carrots also have done well in straw bales.

In early August, the sweet potato vines covered

the bales and most of the trellis.

If you are thinking of planting a straw bale garden, you can read up on it here . Sweet potatoes are a warm-weather crop; they're planted in May from slips grown from a mature sweet potato. The master gardeners have information on that here .

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Keywords:

UCCE master gardeners gardening Sacramento straw bale gardening Fair Oaks Horticulture Center vegetable gardens sweet potatoes

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Garden Checklist for week of April 21

This week there’s plenty to keep gardeners busy. With no rain in the immediate forecast, remember to irrigate any new transplants.

* Weed, weed, weed! Get them before they flower and go to seed.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Feed shrubs and trees with a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.

* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Mid to late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce seedlings. Choose varieties that mature quickly such as loose leaf.

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