Cabbage Moth on Lavender
These cabbage moths are pretty with their butter-yellow wings, but finding their offspring mid-bite of broccoli is pretty darn nasty. They have been very busy in my garden, even in the midst of two frosty nights in a row.
The frost bit the sweet potato vines. I planted some leafy whole potatoes sometime around Labor Day, and having never grown sweet potatoes before, I’m not sure when to dig them up. I tried planting some in the spring, but the deer ate them all before tubers formed.
Any advice on these sweet potatoes? Were they supposed to blossom at some point? Can I just leave them in the ground over the winter? I have some Adirondack Blue potatoes in the ground as well.
One Comment
Diana
No, sweet potatoes won't store in the ground. Generally you dig them before a frost, when the leaves start yellowing. I've been digging mine this past week (I'm zone 7b). However, not a great harvest this year. MIne did not bloom either — I wonder if there's a connection — I did plant a little late, but it really should not have been too late. Maybe the plants were too happy (lots of leaf and vine growth, but little flower or tuber formation) to feel they needed to do the work of generational survival that making flowers and seeds represent.