Seriously, Ixnay on the Ainray.

I don’t have the heart to do the big pestilence post that I’d planned, so I’ll just say that if this weather does not shape up soon, I’m going to just jackhammer a hole into the floor of my greenhouse and plan on growing everything in there… under artificial lighting…

I could barely feel my fingers when I came in from tonight’s slug/weevil/cutworm hunt.

April Greenhouse

I’ve got nowhere to even step in there.

This year’s new plant project is going to be sweet potatoes.  I don’t have anywhere left to grow them, but that’s never stopped me before.  If need be, I’ll sneak into the neighbor’s yard.  It’s kind of fun to start off with something that I’ve never grown– even though that usually means that I’ll do something really stupid and not realize it until I pull the mushy, rotten roots from the ground when the tops go all septic on me.  Ah, DON’T pour boiling molasses on the plant!  Of course!

For those who don’t know, sweet potatoes are grown from “slips,” which are sprouts taken from a tuber, sprouted much like an avocado in a glass of water (or one of a bunch of other ways).  Those slips then root in water themselves, and you plant them in to, apparently, whatever kind of soil and ignore them until the tops die back or frost threatens.

They’re a hot weather crop, and so I likely won’t plant them out until June-ish anyway.  I might just be able to get some slips rooted by then if I play my cards right.  As for varieties, there’s… lots.  My first foray is likely to be using the variety “Supermarket Available”.  After that, if I don’t mess it up too badly, I may order some fancy type from one of the online suppliers.  I’ve never seen them at the nursery.

Incidentally, the “sweet potato vine” that you see at the nursery IS a sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), but it’s been bred for, typically, yellow or black foliage and won’t produce any appreciable tubers.