Just bought a few of these organic stokes purple sweet potatoes at Whole Foods. I couldn’t resist.
— if I can get any to sprout, I’m going to grow slips and try growing them... it looks like a long season variety though, so maybe not too likely to succeed....
I find sweet potatoes to be very easy to grow there is very little to do except keep out weeds & grass. If you plant more than 1 slip space them 2 ft apart. Each slip will produce 20 lbs of potatoes. Potatoes do not do well in hard clay soil the hard soil will not let potatoes grow big. When I plant I dig a hole about 12" deep then fill it in with top soil then plant the slip right on top. It is very easy to keep vines growing in a small circle around the mother plant. Vine will grow root in several places and grow more sweet potatoes every place the vines grow roots. I like to cover the vines with soil about every 18" to help the vines grow more potatoes. If you get 20 lbs of potatoes from the mother plant you will get about 10 lbs of satellite potatoes from the vine. I have never noticed my sweet potatoes doing better if I give them fertilizer and water. Sweet potatoes are a crazy plants like Okra the hotter & dryer it gets the better the plants like it. Plants love full sun 100 degree heat all day. I usually plants my sweet potatoes about 1st week of May and let frost kill the plants in Nov. Slowly lift up the vines to learn were the satellite potatoes are.
Give it a go I think you can grow sweet potatoes where you are. I have relatives in Michigan that grow sweet potatoes there growing season is only 3 months long. There last frost is about June 6 they live in the northern part of the State about 1 hour south of Mackinaw City it gets 90 degrees there sometimes in summer. I get a lot of potatoes from a few plants if your growing season is shorter you need more plants to get as many potatoes as me. We use to grow sweet potatoes in Illinois last frost was about May 1st. 40 years ago I did what your doing I let a potato grow sprouts then I cut the end off then cut it in 1/2 for 2 cutting to plant. If your careful you can get several smaller cuttings each with a sprout. Now days I buy a 4 pack of plants for $1.99
People in Michigan grow white potatoes too. Plant cuttings in May plants don't come up until after last frost in June. Sept frost will kill the plants. You can dig up good size potatoes in Sept. Also cover plants with lots of soil leave them in the ground all winter then dig them up next year.
