Thanks for the tip! I just put a big sweet potato in a jar on Saturday.GardenRN wrote:you can take a sweet potato, set it in a jar/cup whatever, but situate it so that it is half submerged in water. You will start to have shoots coming off of the potato soon....
Once the shoots are 10" long, break them off right at the potato's surface. At this point you can either plant and water in just like that, or root the vine in another cup of water. I like (and have better luck with) rooting the vine first. To do so just pull an leaves from the bottom 3-4 inches and stick them in water. They'll have roots soon. When the roots are about 4 inches long, I plant.
I would suspect you would need to do this every few days, or when the water is getting clouded.TheWaterbug wrote:Also, do you change out the water in the jar?
Well, that was nearly 3 weeks ago, and I have no shootsTheWaterbug wrote:Thanks for the tip! I just put a big sweet potato in a jar on Saturday.
Hmm. I dumped the water out and was ready to throw it into the trash, and then I looked closer. Shoots! And tiny roots.TheWaterbug wrote:Well, that was nearly 3 weeks ago, and I have no shootsTheWaterbug wrote:Thanks for the tip! I just put a big sweet potato in a jar on Saturday.
Excellent! Looks like all you have to do to grow sweet potato vine is just wait!Intriguedbybonsai wrote:Yeah the sweet potato that I got at the grocery store almost 2 months ago has a lot of sprouts. Bright green leaves w/purple stems.
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So I turned that potato upside down to bring the shoots out into the air, and they dried out. The rest of the potato rotted. Meantime, I bought another few from the store and put those in water. They molded and then rotted.TheWaterbug wrote:So I put it back in the water, but I'm not sure what to do next. I'm pretty sure the shoots aren't going to like being underwater, but if I bring the 'tater up too shallow, the little rootlings will dry out. Does that matter?
Thanks! I put them in a takeout thingy like you did. It's not a chicken container, but it's black plastic on the bottom and mostly clear on top, so it should have a greenhouse effect.applestar wrote:Waterbug, warmth and humidity are the key. See my post above yours.
And now one of those potatoes is rotting.TheWaterbug wrote:Now I just have to watch out for rot and mold.
That's 150 sf/plant, which seems extremely sparse. Most planting guides I've googled for sweets recommend 3-6 sf/plant.Gary350 wrote:I am growing 12 plants this year in a 30' x 60' spot dedicated just for sweet potatoes.
Gary350 wrote:Save all the small finger size potatoes they are perfect for planting your garden next spring. Poke a hole in the garden with a broom handle and drop in the little potatos. 6 plants will make a bushel basket of potatoes.
Hmm. If I just leave the fingerling potatoes in the ground, will they start growing again when the conditions are right?soil wrote:you being in southern california might be able to grow them year around.
I'm pretty sure the way its done in the tropics is you leave your sweet potato patch, and go through selectively harvesting the big tubers every few weeks, leaving the others to gain size, and youll have an endless supply of sweet potatoes.Hmm. If I just leave the fingerling potatoes in the ground, will they start growing again when the conditions are right?
I'm diggingsoil wrote:I'm pretty sure the way its done in the tropics is you leave your sweet potato patch, and go through selectively harvesting the big tubers every few weeks, leaving the others to gain size, and youll have an endless supply of sweet potatoes.Hmm. If I just leave the fingerling potatoes in the ground, will they start growing again when the conditions are right?
Aha! These _finally_ arrived from Sand Hill last week, while the forum was down:TheWaterbug wrote:Eh. I found another few potatoes in the bottom of the basket that had tiny little sprouts starting up. My wife refused to let me keep them in the kitchen, so I just put them outside. Now one of those is rotting, too.
I give up. I ordered some slips from Sand Hill.