Sweet potatoes

[DalesmanParticipant]

We were really looking forward to our first crop. I understand the tubers don’t form until daylight < 12hrs so thought it best to move our 5 50litre pots from poly tunnel to greenhouse in advance of frosts. The vines looked as though they needed watering but on inspection every single stem had been eaten through and a few holes dug.
Now, we learn to tolerate sharing the fruits of our labours, but this is sheer vandalism as the crop hadn’t grown!
So, any other growers, go and build defences, NOW.

Maybe I could take cuttings from the vines to start next years attempts?

[charlesModerator]

Hello Dalesman, this sounds really frustrating, presumably rodents, and they are difficult to protect against. I lost a lot of oca to (I think) field mice last November, the problem being that you cannot harvest ova until after mid November.
Sweet potatoes being late to crop means the same problem and rodents do love them. I have a couple of sweet potato plants in a bed outside at the moment, wonder what may happen. Perhaps we should stick to growing potatoes!

[SuellaParticipant]

Could fine metal netting over a pot be of help here. Something like perhaps fiberglass screening? This could keep out mice or at least make it clear when mice had been active. Metal screening wouldn’t be so easy to eat through but might be more difficult to come by.

[Author]

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