Mark Reed

And if done correctly, you don't need a pump

Could you elaborate on that?

My system is a little 200-gallon pond with fish, frogs and lots of plants. I get a lot of garden fertilizer from it and a lot of biomass for the size. If I want to, I can grow most anything hydroponically in the stream portion. The pump feeds the stream, aerates the water, prevents mosquitos and keeps it from freezing in the winter.  Having to use electricity is the only thing I don't like.

I haven't worried much about maximizing production as I've mostly been focused on breeding them for growing as seeded annuals. I do think that allowing them to root along the vines, especially if they have a trailing habit takes away from a nice harvest of larger roots and instead makes lots of little ones. Worse they are all spread out and hard to find and harvest but you might get by with it if you have a longer season and don't mind digging a crater to find them. I grow them mostly in pots and have selected for bushy, non-trailing vines and a clump of nice roots directly under the primary stem: I think those traits would also be nice to have even if growing in the ground.

I also haven't worried much about specific soil nutrients or anything else that would require me to test for or purchase anything, I just grow them in what I can scrounge up around the place. I do think though that a nice loose soil helps encourage larger roots and keeping them well-watered helps too. One year I saved a bunch of yard clippings and leaves and kept them dry in bags in the shed. In spring I mixed that up with some pretty decent compost and a little plain garden soil. That was the best ever as far as production, I got two to four pounds per 3.5-gallon pot. *If you grow in pots, especially small ones it is important that the drain holes be buried in the ground, so they don't dry out so fast and so feeder roots can exit into the soil below and never move the pots once those roots have established.

I saw a fellow on YouTube that grew them in large Rubbermaid tubs with a very specific soil recipe of purchased potting mixes. He had a fantastic harvest, many pounds per tub. It looked like most of the space in the tub was filled with just sweet potatoes. It was interesting but not something I would do because it violates my buy nothing policy, plus I don't need hundreds of pounds of sweet potatoes as there are only two of us here to eat them.  

Next year though, I am going to revisit the issue of maximizing production and have already stockpiled several large bags of leaves, weeds and grass to fill my pots. As I move to this new phase of my breeding project, I'm setting a goal of averaging three pounds per 3.5-gallon pot.

I had to laugh at this a bit; I guess at myself really because I never knew there was such a thing as cooking spray.

From what I've read about them they are bog plants, so they need to stay pretty damp all the time. I grow them and pitcher plants outside. I put them in hollow chunks of wood with leaves and so on stuffed in the bottom to wick water from the little stream part of my garden pond and in full sun. They don't always completely die down in winter but mostly so.  

I never had a lot of luck growing them inside. I think maybe it's because they are adapted to a winter dormancy time, but I don't really know. You might need to feed them too, they like houseflies or any other bug you can catch, just drop it in the trap and touch the triggers with a toothpick or something for a minute or two to make sure it locks up good. Otherwise, it might open back up because a dead bug doesn't struggle. Once it is fully closed and locked it won't open again until the meal is digested.

I have some occasional pains in mostly in my elbow and fingers, have never bothered to identify exactly what it is. It was related to when I drew maps on mylar plastic in ink.  Anyway, one time during a particularly bad flair up, an old fellow told me to eat all the nasty white stuff inside of grapefruit peals. I don't have an actual diagnosis of what caused the pain or if it might help in general, but the grapefruit worked.  Oranges and tangerines which I like much better than grapefruit, don't work.

A couple more little videos about this year's sweet potato project.

Other than the corn, I've used all the above and a whole lot more. When I was a little kid, I didn't have the patience to fish, but I liked to play around the water.  I got very good at capturing things, live locusts, live dragon flies, crawfish, little frogs and snakes. I also made thing out of sticks, blades of grass even little rocks. My dad and brother didn't have to mess with bait, they had me, and they always caught fish.  

Now I just use worms from the garden or for catfish, a chicken liver or piece of hot dog tied up in bits of an old sock or T shirt so it's harder for a fish to steal it.

Hi Judith, yes those do look like flower buds. If they open without aborting, and if the plant is self-compatible or another plant is also blooming nearby you may get pollination. Hand pollination is very easy, if no bees are available. If pollination happens little spherical capsules about the size of a small pea will develop, each with one to four seeds.  

Time is short for them to mature BUT, if you see development, or basically if the flower stem does NOT drop off after the flower fades, then you have a capsule in development. You can get around the issue of time by just clipping off a section of stem and taking it inside to a warm window. You don't really even need to plant it soil, just in a vase with water will do. I've never measured it exactly but I'd guess that outside, flower to seed takes a good month.

Below is what the capsules and seeds look like.

Re-posted from OSSI OSSI

Haven't made any updates for a while but the project continues. Also, I didn't get around to making a lot of videos, but I did finally make a new one about this year's volunteers and some ideas I'm getting from them. Not yet ready to articulate the ideas as they run in lots of directions and are influenced by a lot of variables. Basically though, I think I'm getting closer to breeding sweet potatoes to be a seed grown annual, rather than just producing more and more good clones.

Anyway, below it a little video about the volunteers, which I believe for lots of still unproven reasons may be a step closer to TRUE SEED GROWN annual sweet potatoes.

Ronaldo Montoya wrote: How crucial do you consider it to choose seeds adapted to local conditions, even for species that are seemingly resilient like moringa?
Do You think it crucial to plant a seed that comes from The same environment ?

If yes. How would You convince to a normal person?

It may be beneficial but no, I do not think it is critical, at least not anymore. Years ago, I probably would have leaned more toward it than now. Natural ecosystems have been shattered to the point that I do not believe they can be restored. If seeds of the same species or perhaps even different species will grow in the region then that would be good enough for me regardless of the source. I think it is very difficult to know what is "adapted" and what isn't. Unfortunately, I think what grew there fifty or a hundred years ago may no longer be any more adapted that something else.

In my area hickory and walnut trees have declined over the last few decades in health and production but pecan which technically isn't native grows very well and produces abundantly. I'm also using it to replace the native ash trees that were suddenly pushed to near extinction by the emerald ash borer.