This is the 3rd year that I have grown sweet potatoes. In the past, If I plant outside of our fenced garden area, the vines have been eaten by deer, so this year I only grew them inside the fenced area. They were doing great through the end of August. The we had a lack of rain and the leaves were getting eaten to the vine (I believe it is squirrels that can get into the fenced area). By Sept 20 or so, I had a large raised bed of leafless green vines. It's now early October and I usually wait another 3-4 weeks to harvest.
Questions:
1) Any suggestions on avoiding further damage? Is it worth the energy to put netting over the bed - or some other deterrent?
2) Should I go ahead and harvest now? or wait until right before harvest
3) Any recommendations for next year. The squirrels also ate quite a few tomatoes this summer.
This is the 3rd year that I have grown sweet potatoes. In the past, If I plant outside of our fenced garden area, the vines have been eaten by deer, so this year I only grew them inside the fenced area. They were doing great through the end of August. The we had a lack of rain and the leaves were getting eaten to the vine (I believe it is squirrels that can get into the fenced area). By Sept 20 or so, I had a large raised bed of leafless green vines. It's now early October and I usually wait another 3-4 weeks to harvest.
Questions:
1) Any suggestions on avoiding further damage? Is it worth the energy to put netting over the bed - or some other deterrent?
2) Should I go ahead and harvest now? or wait until right before harvest
3) Any recommendations for next year. The squirrels also ate quite a few tomatoes this summer.