The sweet spot for sweet potatoes: A Greenfield family learned the secrets of spud-growing by trial and error

Ryan Nestor, the son and grandson of dedicated gardeners, shares the family passion to the next generation as he works with his son, Ollie, in their plot at the Pleasant Street Community Garden.

Ryan Nestor, the son and grandson of dedicated gardeners, shares the family passion to the next generation as he works with his son, Ollie, in their plot at the Pleasant Street Community Garden. Courtesy Becca Rideout

Becca Rideout enjoys gardening with her family, both at their School Street home in Greenfield and at the Pleasant Street Garden.

Becca Rideout enjoys gardening with her family, both at their School Street home in Greenfield and at the Pleasant Street Garden. Courtesy Becca Rideout

Building soil health is a top priority for Greenfield resident Ryan Nestor, who incorporates many amendments and processes, including rock dust, worm castings, cover cropping, composting, shading the soil, and mulching.

Building soil health is a top priority for Greenfield resident Ryan Nestor, who incorporates many amendments and processes, including rock dust, worm castings, cover cropping, composting, shading the soil, and mulching. Courtesy Becca Rideout

By EVELINE MACDOUGALL

For the Recorder

Published: 09-30-2024 3:33 PM

Ryan Nestor comes from determined people: his grandfather emigrated by himself at age 11 from Greece, found work in restaurants, and became a citizen, homeowner, and family man. Like his grandfather, Nestor is passionate about gardening, and now shares that love with his 9-year-old son, Ollie, and with Becca Rideout, Ollie’s mom and Nestor’s partner of 23 years. The family embarks on many gardening adventures, including growing sweet potatoes.

Nestor initially wanted to grow sweet potatoes because he knew their vines and leaves can suppress weeds and shade the soil. “I worried that they might not thrive in the coolness of spring and fall,” he said, “so at first we grew them in black fabric bags. We’d grown potatoes that way, with limited success, and the sweet potato yield wasn’t great either. We got terrific vines and green growth, but very few sweet potatoes … and the ones we got were pretty small.”

The following year, they tried growing from slips (rooted sprouts that grow from the tuber). “I made big black irrigated planters with holes in them, thinking the plants needed more room. We put them in a sunny spot, and again, the vines grew like crazy, but we didn’t get much yield.”

Last year, however, the family stumbled upon victory: They cut down a tree in their yard, which created a sunny spot. They planted garlic and added sweet potatoes, simply to shade the soil. Nestor added sand and compost “to build up the crappy soil,” made little hills among the garlic, popped in sweet potatoes, and voila! “We finally got a decent yield. It was by far the easiest (method), and it was easy to pull aside vines to pull up garlic.”

The family repeated the process at the Pleasant Street Community Garden, a stone’s throw from their School Street home. They added sand to loosen the soil, and then got an idea from friends WistyRorabacher and Judy Draper (superstar gardeners in their own right) to grow crowder peas (Vigna unguiculata). “We grew crowder peas and sweet potatoes together, and the (crowder) stalks grew about a foot-and-a-half,” said Nestor. “So far, we’ve gotten about two cups of dried crowder peas, and pretty soon, we’ll dig up the sweet potatoes.” Rideout added, “We’ll wait until just after the first light frost to dig them up.”

They’ve experimented with making sweet potato slips. “You can stick one in water like an avocado pit and put it on a sunny windowsill,” said Nestor. One year, they started in March, which didn’t afford ample time. The following year, they started in February, and subsequently found late January to be the sweet spot: “We got sizable slips that time,” said Nestor. “But we’ve also bought starters from (Greenfield) Farmers’ Cooperative Exchange. They have varieties suitable for growing around here, like Beauregard.”

Nestor offered tips for growing slips: “Look for the end that was attached to the vine, and put two-thirds of the sweet potato in a glass of water, making sure that end is upright. You can stick toothpicks in to keep part of it out of the water. Replenish the water so it maintains submersion at the two-thirds level. Roots will grow under water first, and then start growing from the top.”

The family maintains worm bins, feeding red wigglers kitchen scraps so they can collect castings to enhance horticultural projects. Vermiculture led to another unanticipated win: Nestor cut up sweet potato slips that didn’t produce well, and threw them into the worm bins. “The worms didn’t eat them, but the discarded sweet potatoes are growing like crazy.”

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Nestor noted that engaging in vermiculture includes “remembering that the worms spend most of their time close to the surface. They’re not like European nightcrawlers.” He said sterilite plastic containers, around 14-by-20-inches and five inches deep, to be ideal for the project. “Some people make holes for liquid to come out, but I don’t. After feeding the worms our scraps, we filter out castings (“worm poop” in layperson’s terms), making sure the worms stay behind. It’s simple, and the castings are great for amending soil.”

Nestor grew up in a gardening family in southern Vermont. “My parents were into organic gardening. My dad put compost, manure, and peat moss in layers and grew tomatoes and squash. He also befriended local farmers who were into biodynamic methods. Some of that stuff was pretty out there, but it was cool to learn about.” One farmer used an unusual approach: “He buried manure in an animal horn, dug it up during the full moon, and stirred it several times,” said Nestor with a chuckle. The manure was then used to amend soil.

Nestor didn’t start gardening again until after college: “We really got going when Becca and I bought our house in Greenfield.” The couple — who’ve been together since she was 19 and he was 20 — started with container gardening and growing native plants. An avid researcher, Nestor “read everything I could find about natural farming practices, including Korean natural farming, pseudo-spiritual approaches, scientific methods, using fermentation, and other processes beyond traditional organic farming, and of course very different from conventional farming. I’m obsessed with soil chemistry.”

As mentioned in a recent column, Pleasant Street Community Garden members benefit from Nestor’s generosity in sharing his experiences and skills. “Every time you grow plants, you learn something,” he said. “I focus on building healthy soil.” His family harvested a decent crop of sweet potatoes last year from an eight-by-12-feet plot where they thrived in the garlic patch. “It’s important to harvest sweet potatoes before the temperature drops below 40 degrees, and storing them can be tricky,” he said. Apparently, it also depends on the variety. “They like to be cured in warm temperatures, and need both good air flow and warm air. Some do best cured in sunlight; otherwise, they want to grow so badly, they’ll sprout.”

Nestor’s creativity extends beyond horticulture: he’s worked as an interactive media exhibit designer and developer. In college, he studied music, composition, sound recording and sound design. He plays the saxophone and guitar, and does a lot of music with Ollie, who has studied cello for several years and now plays the saxophone, as well. Mom is also phenomenally talented: Rideout is the owner of and producer for Told Video. She has filmed, edited, and produced award-winning videos for dozens of clients.

Although happy to share creativity with their son, Nestor isn’t disappointed that his family’s original name did not get passed down. ”Panayiotopoulos is a mouthful, and hard to spell. Nestor works fine,” he said. “My grandfather chose the name in honor of a mentor, a Hispanic maitre d’ who took him under his wing.”

While they were dating, Nestor’s parents encountered a wrinkle that almost resulted in a dealbreaker: “My parents each came from Greek families, one from southern New Jersey, the other from northern New Jersey,” said Nestor. His parents met in college, where they were each trying to escape the intensity of family expectations. Both had anglicized surnames, and neither one told the other about their cultural backgrounds.

“My dad headed home for the holidays to break the news to his parents that he’d done the forbidden: fallen in love with a non-Greek girl. His parents demanded to know the girl’s name, so he told them. His parents replied: ‘Oh, we know her family through AHEPA (the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association). The girl you fell in love with is totally Greek.’ My parents were so determined not to follow parental wishes, they broke up for a while.”

Fortunately, they got over it. As a result, our region is blessed with the forces of nature known as Ryan Nestor, his equally brilliant partner, and their amazing young son. Sweet potatoes, anyone?

Eveline MacDougall is the author of “Fiery Hope,” and a musician, artist and mom. To contact: eveline@amandlachorus.org.