Frankie Cordeira Jr.

Description: Off grid living: Grow 25 pounds of sweet potatoes in a bucket Off grid living: Grow 25 pounds of sweet potatoes in a bucket Friday March 03 2017 by: Amy Goodrich Tags: home gardening Homegrown homesteading off grid off the grid Off-the-grid living pesticide-free sweet potato vegetable gardening (Natural News) Although sweet potatoes are an important staple food for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners this versatile orange root tuber can be added to many other meals all year round. While sweet potatoes have been used for ages by many cultures around the world until recently they werent a regular sight on American kitchen tables outside of the Holiday season. In the past decade however the sweet potato has found its way to our hearts. According to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center the root vegetables popularity has skyrocketed between 2000 and 2014 with its consumption increasing by nearly 80 percent. And for a good reason; sweet potatoes pack a powerful nutritional punch. They are loaded with essential micronutrients to promote overall health and have fewer calories than ordinary potatoes. Essential nutrients found in sweet potatoes include fiber protein beta-carotene vitamin C manganese potassium and many vitamins of the B-complex. Whats more you actually dont need a big garden or a lot of space to grow your own supply of sweet potatoes. Read on to find out how to grow sweet potatoes at your home. Easy steps to grow sweet potatoes in a bucket Select the right sweet potato Rooted sweet potatoes will give you the best result since you can be sure that they are not treated with pesticides to stop the sprouting process. Create some heat Unlike regular potatoes sweet potatoes love the heat. While sweet potatoes will still grow at a minimum temperature of 50 F (10C) they seem to do much better at room temperature. So if you live in a colder climate make sure to keep them indoors. Prepare a 5-gallon bucket Once you have selected the right sprouted potato fill a container that has draining holes in the bottom with moist soil. Plant one potato per 5-gallon bucket tops exposed. Waiting for slips to emerge After a while green shoots or slips will start to grow out of the sweet potato. This step will take about 90 days. Transplant the slips Once the slips are big enough about 6 to 12 inches it is time to gently remove them from the sweet potato and transplant them to a larger 20-gallon container. In each 20-gallon container you can plant six sweet potato slips. Pick the right season As mentioned before sweet potatoes are a heat-loving plant. If you are planning to grown them outdoors make sure the last frost of spring has already passed. Late spring is the ideal time of the year. Also make sure they stay well-watered. Harvest time After about 3 to 4 months or when the leaves and vines start to turn yellow you can start digging up the sweet potatoes. If you grow outdoors this is usually just after the first frost. After digging up the sweet potatoes shake off any excess dirt but do not wash them with water as sweet potatoes need a curing process to create their delicious sweet taste. Cure sweet potatoes Next to enhancing their flavor curing allows a second skin to form over scratches and bruises you made while digging up the potatoes. This protective layer makes it possible to store sweet potatoes at room temperature for up to a year. To cure store the harvested tubers in a warm humid place (80F or 27C) for two weeks. As reported by Off The Grid News bucket-grown sweet potatoes will have a yield of about 25 pounds for each 20-gallon container. (RELATED: Find more information about off-the-grid living at OffGrid.news.) Sources: TrueActivist.com AGMRC.org WHFoods.com Almanac.com Take Action: Support Natural News by linking to this article from your website Permalink to this article: Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Follow Natural News on Facebook Twitter Google Plus and Pinterest
By Frankie Cordeira Jr.
Pinned to Domestic and Global News on Pinterest
Found on: http://ift.tt/2lqGUH6