[harrylee]

I am trying to grow sweet potatoes for the first time this year. You don't just toss a sweet potato in the ground like a regular potato. You have to grow slips, which you then plant to get the tubers. I started about 3 weeks ago and it is slowly coming along. Hopefully, I will have some slips by June 1 when they can go in the ground.

 

[harrylee]

good luck - i bought slips one year - had pretty good success for Maine - would have been better if the summer lasted longer

That is the problem I see me having with this, short growing season. Gonna give it a shot anyways.

 

[harrylee]

Slips are growing slowly.

 

[harrylee]

I am trying to grow sweet potatoes this year. Research has told me that I needed to grow slips from a Sweet Potato and then root and transplant them into the soil in spring. I have been doing this and they seem to be coming along. Have a bunch of roots on the bottom and slips growing out of the top. However, something that is concerning me is that the potato is going soft in the middle and seems to be rotting. Anyone know if this is normal?

 

[harrylee]

I am going to cut off the long one and put in water to root. The others I think need to be longer, so will leave them for now and hope for the best.

 

[harrylee]

I cut off the long slip and it is rooting in water. The whole bottom of the sweet potato has rotted, so I cut off the top part of it and set it in a dish of water. Hopefully the other small slips will grow and root...Shall see

 

[harrylee]

I cut off the long slip and it is rooting in water. The whole bottom of the sweet potato has rotted, so I cut off the top part of it and set it in a dish of water. Hopefully the other small slips will grow and root...Shall see

Well, had to give up on that. It all seemed to rot.
I am trying again with the sweet potato in dirt method. Just starting to sprout now.

 

[harrylee]

Coming along now......

 

[harrylee]

I am growing slips with a sweet potato in potting soil. It is going well but I have 1 slip that is over 2 feet long and the rest are just a couple of inches. This one seems to grow an inch a day while the others do nothing much. i noticed this one is below the dirt surface. I figure it gas roots, so took a knife and cut it away from the potato a couple of days ago. It is still growing.
Question is, can I cut the top off and try and root that? Will that affect the bottom part? Will cutting that from the potato the way I did help the others to grow?
I also have a cold frame outside, nightime temps still at about freezing at night. If I plant that long slip in there now, will it kill it?
thanks