Starting Sweet potato slips or plants

[Weedygarden]

I have yet to successfully grow sweet potatoes. I am looking for tips for all of you who have grown them successfully.

I had a colleague who grew a sweet potato plant in her classroom and grew it year round. I don't remember much about it, except that it was a nice vine.

I went to an Asian grocery store this week and purchased 4 smaller sweet potatoes, all different varieties to start them. I searched for information on how to grow them and came up with this video. I thought that people started them with the toothpicks in them suspended in a container of water. I think I have tried that before.

 

[DrHenley]

I have yet to successfully grow sweet potatoes. I am looking for tips for all of you who have grown them successfully.

I had a colleague who grew a sweet potato plant in her classroom and grew it year round. I don't remember much about it, except that it was a nice vine.

I went to an Asian grocery store this week and purchased 4 smaller sweet potatoes, all different varieties to start them. I searched for information on how to grow them and came up with this video. I thought that people started them with the toothpicks in them suspended in a container of water. I think I have tried that before.

I can get the plants to grow just fine, but they make tiny little potatoes a few millimeters in diameter.

 

[joel]

That the way my father did it, but he used a 2 X 4 fame full of sand in early April.

 

[Amish Heart]

I tried the dirt method and didn't work for me. Haven't tried the glass method, but might. It's just been easier just going across the road to a lady's greenhouse and picking up an eight pack of two inch starts for a couple of dollars. We've been doing that, and last year was really a bumper crop. I still have alot in the basement, we just had some boiled with butter the other night.

 

[Weedygarden]

I tried the dirt method and didn't work for me. Haven't tried the glass method, but might. It's just been easier just going across the road to a lady's greenhouse and picking up an eight pack of two inch starts for a couple of dollars. We've been doing that, and last year was really a bumper crop. I still have alot in the basement, we just had some boiled with butter the other night.

I don't think I have ever seen starts in nurseries and other places where I've gotten plant starts.

 

[RJ2019]

I sell slips in the spring, because its something the stores don't carry. My sweet potatoes from fall are already beginning to put out sprouts on a few tubers... I just take the sprouts off and put them in water to grow roots then either plant in 4" containers to sell or sell bareroot for a discount. Typically the ones I've potted up sell better.

To get the tubers to put out sprouts I leave them out in the counter or windowsill with a little water, one tuber will put out a TON of slips. I do red, orange and white sweet potatoes here, the purple ones never amounted to
Editing to add: I've been growing my own sweet potatoes and selling the slips from them for about 5 years now, so the kinds I have are somewhat locally adapted already which offers an advantage to local gardeners.

 

[RJ2019]

Here's my process...
These are beginning to sprout in their storage box... if they aren't already sprouted, I put them in water (inside the house) to motivate them to sprout...
And then I put the sprouts in water, like so: these are already well rooted and I just haven't planted them.
A pic of the roots, as you can imagine these have been rooting in my windowsill for quite some time.
And finally into their pots, where they go under the grow light or in the shade outside to be hardened off, if it's warm enough outside. BTW, thanks y'all for motivating me to get these planted today.
And there you have it. It takes some time but the results are well worth it especially after you've been doing it a few years.

 

[Weedygarden]

Here's my process...
These are beginning to sprout in their storage box... if they aren't already sprouted, I put them in water (inside the house) to motivate them to sprout...View attachment 172671
And then I put the sprouts in water, like so: these are already well rooted and I just haven't planted them.View attachment 172672
A pic of the roots, as you can imagine these have been rooting in my windowsill for quite some time.View attachment 172673
And finally into their pots, where they go under the grow light or in the shade outside to be hardened off, if it's warm enough outside. BTW, thanks y'all for motivating me to get these planted today. View attachment 172674
And there you have it. It takes some time but the results are well worth it especially after you've been doing it a few years.

Thank you! It looks good.

 

[Amish Heart]

I don't think I have ever seen starts in nurseries and other places where I've gotten plant starts.

We have a lady catty corner from us, goes by Kansas Bouquet, an amish lady with three large greenhouses. So she grows and starts and sells what the people in our area buy. Tomatoes, sweet potato slips, big hanging flower arrangements for Mother's Day, mums in the fall. Some flowers she does from plug starts that are husband's favorites...gerber daisies, and I have bad luck starting those, so I always go buy five pots from her and put them on the porch for him to see. I think I paid $2.99 for those sweet potato slips last year, three them in the greenhouse to get them a big bigger, like from 2 inch to 6 inch, planted them in ground, and I got 8 baskets of sweet potatoes this year. They've been good. Still have lots left in the basement, cooking the smaller ones first