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Magicland Farms 2010 News

Notice:

February 18, 2010

In late November, we put a few of our sweet potatoes in some potting soil and placed them next to our big window which faces southeast. A few weeks later we noticed a couple of tiny shoots. Then, as the weather got colder, these tiny sprouts seemed to just dissolve away. We then decided to put the sweet potatoes downstairs by the wood stove and planted some more. Well, by mid January the sweet potatoes got new sprouts. We moved the ones that were growing to the big window again but didn’t put them right next to it. They are now growing quite well. Most of the sweet potatoes that are growing right now are from the ones we grew last summer. They are the Beauregard variety. We also grew Georgia Jets but they cracked more than we liked so we don’t want to propagate them. We did get one Beauregard potato last year that was over 5 pounds. That one was delicious cut up and candied! By the way, I submitted an article to Grit magazine about growing sweet potatoes in the north. Happily, I just signed the contract and should get a check within 30 days. This article is scheduled for their September/October issue and it has quite a few photos. You might want to take a look at it. By the way, we do like the look and feel of Grit magazine and I would recommend checking it out. Tractor Supply usually has issues for sale and local libraries might have some for you to look at. For a trial subscription go to www.grit.com.

This year we plan on a larger planting that we hope will provide a good supply at our market. In addition to Beauregard, we hope to plant Carolina Ruby and Vardaman. According to the reports, the Vardaman variety is the best tasting sweet potato there is. Watch out though since, as far as I can tell, the sweet potatoes from Vardaman Mississippi are not the Vardaman variety although they are probably Beauregard, which is also very tasty.

We have purchased all our seeds for the year (we hope, since we often forget some) and have made plantings of onions, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Most of our onions are up and growing although the peppers and eggplant are so slow (and planted later) only a few are sprouting so far. Our first planted tomatoes (the “Little Red” tomato variety which it, along with Sunsugar are the first to ripen) are over 6 inches high. However, we have just started planting tomatoes—we found the first two weeks in March is the best time to plant the bulk of our tomatoes). I’ve got a gut feeling that this year the problem will be a lack of rain and not too much like last year. If this is true our problems will have changed from late blight on tomatoes to getting enough water on the corn and other water sensitive crops. While the winter has been quite dry (the snow out there has little water in it) the middle and lower soil moisture is probably more than adequate because of all the spring, summer and fall rains. Once the roots get down over 2 feet the crops should come out OK unless the summer is like it was back in the mid 50s. (We don’t even want to think about what was said to happen around these parts back in the mid 30s!) By the way I also have a gut feeling that the summer will be more like 1995 than 2009 since in almost all years the sunspots started coming back really strong (which they DEFINITELY have, the last month) had hot, dry summers. A little dry would be nice; a lot dry could be nasty.