Calling Tucson/Southern Arizona Gardeners

tuk50 · June 5, 2012

The sweet potatoes grow well in the heat, but not excessive like we have.. I've found that you need to add a month or so to the harvest date and they are not overly large, but good size. Another problem I have had is with them splitting, but since I set up this garden three years ago I installed a timer irrigation and I've had no more splitting with regular watering all summer. I've grown them here in Tucson for years and this is the worst year ever.. I believe it is because we went from too cold at night to overly hot so quickly that it didn't allow them to get a good growth to stand up to the heat. I've got 3 varieties this year and all three are struggling. Another problem with them is pill bugs.. I use a lot of manure and straw mulch and with the regular irrigation pill bugs chew on the sweetpotatoes... I use dm when planting and a couple times before I use the mulch and it helps keep their numbers down. You mentioned planting melons late and I'm trying the same thing this year... I harvested my garlic beds last month and planted melons there and they are just now about 6in tall... if this works I'll probably do it every year in the old garlic beds and then be able to plant garlic again when they die back in October.

June 5, 2012	#11
tuk50 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Tucson, Arizona (catalina) Posts: 413	The sweet potatoes grow well in the heat, but not excessive like we have.. I've found that you need to add a month or so to the harvest date and they are not overly large, but good size. Another problem I have had is with them splitting, but since I set up this garden three years ago I installed a timer irrigation and I've had no more splitting with regular watering all summer. I've grown them here in Tucson for years and this is the worst year ever.. I believe it is because we went from too cold at night to overly hot so quickly that it didn't allow them to get a good growth to stand up to the heat. I've got 3 varieties this year and all three are struggling. Another problem with them is pill bugs.. I use a lot of manure and straw mulch and with the regular irrigation pill bugs chew on the sweetpotatoes... I use dm when planting and a couple times before I use the mulch and it helps keep their numbers down. You mentioned planting melons late and I'm trying the same thing this year... I harvested my garlic beds last month and planted melons there and they are just now about 6in tall... if this works I'll probably do it every year in the old garlic beds and then be able to plant garlic again when they die back in October. __________________ Hangin on for dear life!