Ken Allan's fantastic Sweet Potatoes for the Home Garden arrived. If you live in Canada or in most any other zone where you wouldn't traditionally think of growing sweet potatoes but have always wanted to, then I recommend this book. It is particularly good for the backyard gardener with its tips on soil types, water and fertilizer needs, propogation, and cultural techniques for improving yeilds. It is well researched, and anticipates my questions in an easy to read style.
By the way, I live in the 'medium' zone for growing sweet potatoes- yes zone 5a, Ottawa.
He says,
"Gardneners in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Souther Quebec, Southern Ontario and parts of British Columbia can depend on a good yield of sweet potatoes, in all
except the coolest of summers, providing clear plastic mulch is used. This is the climate zone in which I garden and consequently where much of the research for this book was done."
You may correctly infer that there is an easy zone in Canada too! Though reading this book won't guarentee you can grow a good crop of sweet potatoes, it certainly widens the possibilities...
Hmmm - I wonder if I could grow peanuts
You can purchase this book at:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~allan/catalogue.html
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