Potato Slips.....Now what

[lakngulf]

I got a couple of sweet potatoes to put on roots and slip.....Now what do I do?

[Mr green]

Plant them in soil. Preferably in the ground or in large containers.

Edit: Remembered this video I saw recently, its about propagation of sweet potatoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be_5Ub7_xl8

[Gary350]

I would slice the potato to try and get 2 plants per slice. Plant each piece in the center of a 50 foot row and make each vine grow 25 ft in each direction. Keep out grass and weeds let each vine grow 25 ft in each direction from the mother plant. Put a small shovel of dirt on the vine every 4 ft this will grow satellite potatoes at each spot. Fertilize each spot and mother plant too about every other week and let it grow until frost kills it. The mother plant will make 5 times more potatoes that each satellite spot. Each plant will produce about 75 lbs of potatoes. Sweet potatoes love full sun all day and the hotter it gets outside the better they like it. Give them water if you want, I usually never water sweet potatoes are suited for hot dry weather and do fine but water makes larger potatoes.

I don't care much for sweet potatoes but I plant them to give to the homeless shelter about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.

[RadRob]

Sweet Potatoes don't need part of the tuber to grow so don't cut it. Let the shoots/slips grow to about 10-12", break it off the potato and put it in either water or a light potting mix to grow roots, keep the mix watered but not soggy. New shoots will grow from the potato and continue the process till you have enough to plant and wait till the soils warms enough to plant outside. Sweet potatoes like heat so there's no rush to get them planted. I won't put mine out for at least another month and we have similar weather. Once the plants get established it will grow like weeds so when you have a long vine that gets out of hand just clip and plant it, you'll see roots developing at the leaf nodes of the vine and all you need is 1 node with roots and it will grow a new plant. It really is that simple to fill up an area.

[applestar]

Yep. Endless supply of slips/cuttings/(I heard they are called... Now what was it? ...draws?... In the South) once you can get them started.

Have you tried different varieties Gary350? I prefer the dry fleshed Japanese and Korean baking/roasting whole varieties. They turn out like baked russet potatoes -- all fluffy inside and kind of nutty in flavor. This is the kind that also make good French fried sweet potatoes. I tend to run the moist varieties through the food mill and use for baked goods and soup, or cut up and roast.

Unfortunately, so far all of my preferred types require long growing time and I haven't been able to grow them successfully. I'm trying different season extending techniques, and will be trying growing in a very large tub next. I may give in and use a black (IRT?) plastic mulch....

[Gary350]

Yep. Endless supply of slips/cuttings/(I heard they are called... Now what was it? ...draws?... In the South) once you can get them started.

Have you tried different varieties Gary350? I prefer the dry fleshed Japanese and Korean baking/roasting whole varieties. They turn out like baked russet potatoes -- all fluffy inside and kind of nutty in flavor. This is the kind that also make good French fried sweet potatoes. I tend to run the moist varieties through the food mill and use for baked goods and soup, or cut up and roast.

Unfortunately, so far all of my preferred types require long growing time and I haven't been able to grow them successfully. I'm trying different season extending techniques, and will be trying growing in a very large tub next. I may give in and use a black (IRT?) plastic mulch....

I have grown from plants I bought at the Amish garden store and plants I grew from a grocery store sweet potato. If you cut the slips = vines off the potato before they make roots they sometimes die. If you put slip in water you need to change the water every day other wise water gets stagnant and slips die. It takes 2 weeks or more for the slips to grow roots. It is less work for me to just to cut off a potato piece and plant it with the slip. Lowe's has a 9 pack of sweet potato plants $3 wow that is for someone that wants 500 lbs of sweet potatoes. I only want 2 plants this year 100 lbs of sweet potatoes will be plenty for the homeless shelter.

This year I am going to do water melons like I do sweet potatoes 1 plant in the center of a 50 ft row and cut off all the vines but 1 in each direction. Cover the vine with dirt every 4 feet. When the melons get big it will be a problem to cultivate between the rows.