I YAM what I YAM

[Nomadicus]

Originally Posted by Debsi

Sounds like you really know what you're doing.

Our soil here is very heavy and clay-ey and I'm learning from experience that nothing grows well in it. That's why I want to give up and just go back to containers next year. Also I have a pretty shaded yard but a long sunny driveway.

I'll bet ya a play money dollar I can grow sweet potatoes in that clay soil and grow them well. That's what my experiment was about back in the late 70's. And just a few weeks ago I read on MO university's website how they are now teaching people how to do what I did decades ago... Any way you need to build a well raised bed about 18 inches high and 18 wide at the top. Sides will be rather steeply sloped. It's important to till the soil when it is not to wet or dry and build the beds. I had a Troybuilt with the hiller/furrower attachment to do this with. For a small plot you can use hand tools. As soon as built before it can be rained on you need to use black plastic mulch to cover it with. This prevents weeds and pounding rains for packing the soil during the growing season. I had the same problems with hard ground. A neighbor saw me doing my beds with plastic and tried it to the first year we did it. During harvest he came a marching down the street with on hill intack with all the potatoes on the vine. 13+ pounds from one hill. And the great thing the potatoes that got very large did not have those nasty inside like they can have. These where good to the core. The ones that were to big to bake we used as cut up canners in the pressure canner for winter and spring use. Gee I need to go tiller shopping again...And move to where I can use black dirt again...Need more details glad to have ya DM me.