KitchenGardener wrote:Hey Lakngulf, have you started your sweet potatoes yet or are you getting slips from your cousin? I ask because I need someone with sweet potato slip growing experience to help me out!
In the meantime, your vegies look awesome - can't believe how big and how fast they are growing. But the key question: has it proven to be critter proof?
Please understand that this is my FIRST year to attempt to grow slips, and to plant sweet potatoes at all. I got help from my cousin on growing them, and from some advice on here. I started with a couple of potatoes about 1/3 submerged in water in a mason jar. Used toothpicks to keep the top 2/3 out of water. Got some decent success with slips this way.
Another method I tried was to lay a couple of potatoes length wise in some moist potting soil, with just the top third showing above the potting soil. This method worked too, AND I think is the best, because the slips that form have some decent nutrients from the potting soil.
I took the slips from both methods, separated them from the mother potato (leaving a small bit of potato where I could) and put the slips in 3 inch peat pots with potting soil. After couple of days I gave them a small drink of miracle gro (especially the ones that formed in the mason jar because they were pale green compared to the others). They grew in there for a week to ten days and are now planted in my Mom's garden.
love the blue hydrangeas, too -- I was going to ask if that was this year when you posted that photo in another thread. Should have known by the metal panels. They look sleek.
