Back in February, I wrote about how to start your own sweet potato slips for planting. You put your sweet potatoes in water. Et voila! They grow roots and shoots. Now what?
The next step is to gently break off the shoots with the roots from the sweet potato. Put the shoots in water and let them grow until you’re ready to plant. You can pot up the shoots and have a gorgeous sweet potato vine plant, or plant them in your garden when the soil is warm. If you have a long enough growing season you will get many sweet potatoes from each slip you plant.
Because I didn’t have a very bright or warm place to let my potatoes sprout, it took two months for them to start growing vines (this photo was taken back in April). Now even the sad potato on the toothpick is sporting sprouts. You can still start your own slips, you just may not get any or many sweet potatoes from the vines. If harvesting sweet potatoes is the goal, then at this late date you should purchase started slips from many online vendors.
Sweet potatoes like sandy soil and warm temperatures. Since we have sandy, sandy soil and hot summers, I’m looking forward to a good harvest come fall. Happy gardening!
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