Show us your harvest!

[doofaloofa]

This is turning into JAA

[Green Aura]

They do have very pretty flowers though.

[diggernotdreamer]

chinese artichokes have very pretty foliage and flowers and have the advantage that they can be grown in planters, being a stachys, they are quite compact. The only problem is, you must get every bit of root out of the soil if you tip it into the garden, as I found out when I had it coming up in a bed in one of my tunnels, took me a long time to clean it out and I still find the odd small bit 3 years later. Fuseau is considered to be the best named artichoke or sunchoke as they are smoother and make much larger tubers, I had a very good large crop from Fuseau. I am currently experimenting with Tropaeolum Tuberosum as a tuber crop, I may have enough to eat one in 5 years time. Does anyone else grow sweet potatoes, I must take a picture of the ones I am just tipping out of big pots, quite pleased but I need more growing time, the slips get sent out too late for a really big crop, will try to make my own slips now with what I have

[Green Aura]

I was reading, just yesterday, that sweet potato leaves are edible and will keep you in greens even if the tubers don't grow particularly well. We had the same issue - got the slips far too late for any root crop but I'd happily have another go at growing them to try the leaves.

Oh and we found the pots had been dug into, presumably by some rodent visiting the polytunnel. No wonder the cats like it in there.

[ina]

They do have very pretty flowers though.

Mine never got to the flowering stage - maybe they need more sun? I only have part shade in my garden, no matter where I plant anything...

And sweet potatoes - are you all growing them in the tunnel? I know a friend of mine would love to grow them, but it's unlikely she'll ever get a tunnel.

[diggernotdreamer]

.

And sweet potatoes - are you all growing them in the tunnel? I know a friend of mine would love to grow them, but it's unlikely she'll ever get a tunnel.[/quote]

Yep, I grow them in a tunnel, I don't know if you could grow them outside, certainly not where I live anyway

[Green Aura]

I tried growing them for the first time last year but we didn't get the slips until late summer.We decided that they wouldn't survive up here outside (I think they're native to much warmer climes) so we put them in a tub in the polytunnel.

I'm going to try growing some from the tubers in the spring - I saw this, which made me think it can't be too difficult.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n85kALkfvaw

[okra]

Yacon Syrup

2014-12-05 11.04.41.jpg (1.29 MiB) Viewed 10615 times

Planted 8 yacon plants which produced 15 kg of tubers. Used 8 Kg of the crop to produce 375 grams of syrup. Tastes great but I am not sure the effort involved was worth it.

[Green Aura]

Crikey, I think you might be right!

What have you done with the other 7kg?

[okra]

Crikey, I think you might be right!

What have you done with the other 7kg?

Nice raw in a salad, tried crisps but cut too thickly so going to try gain. Apparently also nice boiled in their skins and then opened-up and roasted but yet to try either of these yet.

[Odsox]

Back to sweet potatoes. Reading the posts above reminded me that some years ago I thought I might like to grow some sweet potatoes, so I bought some to try and decided not to, but I couldn't remember why.
So, you may be impressed that those posts prompted me to buy some more.
The upshot is, we had slow roasted root veg for dinner tonight, onions, butternut, beetroot and sweet potatoes, and now I remember why I decided not to grow them.
They taste just like butternuts, and butternuts are easy to grow where sweet potatoes are not.

So thanks to you lot, I just spent money to find out what I already knew but couldn't remember.

[diggernotdreamer]

Three sorts of sweet potato,

[ina]

They taste just like butternuts, and butternuts are easy to grow where sweet potatoes are not.

So far I've not had any success with butternuts, either!

[Green Aura]

Me too - we picked a teeny tiny butternut as we removed the plant last month. It was about 4" long and very pale. We brought it into the house thinking we'd cut it up and chuck it in a stew anyway but it started rotting within hours.

[Odsox]

They taste just like butternuts, and butternuts are easy to grow where sweet potatoes are not.

So far I've not had any success with butternuts, either!

One thing that I found early on is the need to hand pollinate squash. I grew a trailing type one year that covered my veg garden and I got absolutely no fruit at all. The next year I grew the same variety and hand pollinated and got a reasonable amount.

Now I grow one bush plant (Harrier) in the tunnel, hand pollinate every flower and get about a dozen mature fruits every year.
It also gets fed regularly with liquid fertiliser as soon as the first fruit has set

Hope that helps