Perennial Vegetables and the Last of the Sweet Potatoes

I have discovered two vegetables that have the potential of being indoor/outdoor perennials - sweet potatoes and tomatoes. And I bet there could be more, I just haven't discovered them yet.

 









I wrote about perennial tomatoes when I took cuttings from my favorite plants of the summer. 

 
They were rooting quite well in a sunny, south window when I discovered I hadn't gotten rid of all of the aphids that were on them when I took the cuttings. 

So, I took them outside and rinsed them off with the water from their jars, washing some of the aphids off. I have had a bottle of insecticidal soap for a couple of years that I have never used, until today. I hope it gets rid of the aphids so I can keep these plants going all winter. 

We harvested the last of the sweet potatoes a few days ago.

There were five more hills and we were pleased with the results.

There were a few odd red ones that came from a store bought potato that had sprouted. I stuck the whole potato in the ground in June. It didn't produce as much as the other type. We'll see how it tastes.

We figure we have about 25 pounds of sweet potatoes.

That is a pretty good deal for our first real crop. 

After we dug the potatoes, I got my gardening books out to read about how to cure and store the potatoes, again. I like comparing the information in several books. This is one of my new books that I haven't read much in yet. But the first page about sweet potatoes had a very interesting fact that I had not read anywhere else (that's why I like to have a variety of books about a given subject, whether it's goats or gardening).

It gave the usual recommendations for starting sweet potato plants in a jar or soil, but the third idea is what caught my attention. Take 6-inch cuttings from existing vines in the fall and put them in jars to root.

But I just dug up all of my potatoes! Well, not all. I still had the small hill back in the herb bed that grew from a small potato that was grown last year. Yea!

So, for my second perennial vegetable, I have sweet potatoes rooting in a jar next to the tomatoes. I am very intrigued and excited about the possibilities this brings to continue a variety of plant that produces well and tastes good. It will also provide nice sized healthy plants to put out in the spring.


Learning. What a great thing to do! Every day. Every single day.


Until next time - Fern
 

Perennial Tomatoes? What a Great Idea!

I got the neatest idea from Kathi over at Oak Hill Homestead. She has been growing perennial tomatoes! When I saw that description, I was immediately intrigued. Here is what she is doing this year, and I am going to see if I can duplicate her success by doing the same thing.

So, here goes. We have really enjoyed our Arkansas Traveler tomatoes this year. We have enjoyed them so much in fact, that this is the only variety I plan to grow next year so I can save the seeds. 

My garden is not very big, so I don't have room to plant things far enough apart to prevent cross pollination. In years past, we have been big fans of Roma tomatoes because they can so well, so we grow them every year.

Interestingly enough, I don't like tomatoes. Each year I try them and hope to enjoy them, but they are just yucky. This year was different. I actually enjoyed the Arkansas Travelers. Not a large amount at any one time, but they were good. They didn't have that whang like most other tomatoes.

So our perennial experiment will be with our Arkansas Traveler plants. Another reason for this choice is the long history behind this particular cultivar and the reputed acidity of this tomato. If we no longer have the ingredients to acidify tomatoes, which is the common practice today, then I want to grow tomatoes with a higher acidity to increase the potential for healthy canning and not foster botulism. 

 

I started off with seven cuttings from the tops of some plants. I tried to get strong, vigorous stems without any tomatoes on them.

I noticed a few aphids on them, so I decided to rinse them off before I brought them in the house.

The kittens were rather fascinated with the watering wand, but couldn't quite bring themselves to bat at the tomato stem that was dancing in the water.

Here is my harvest. It is very interesting to think of harvesting next year's plants this fall. I have high hopes for this technique.

Since there were aphids on the leaves, I decided they all needed another closer inspection before being placed on the shelf. I rinsed them all again in the sink.

Frank reminded me of how effective it is to cut the stems under water. This helps prevent a small vacuum from forming at the site of the cut. When  he cut these stems under the water, each one released an air bubble. We then quickly put them in a jar of water.

These plants will spend the winter in a south window. This is where I will be starting some seedlings in late January as well.

Kathi, thanks again for the idea. I just love to learn new, useful things!

Until next time - Fern