# Propagating sweet taters



## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

As in all endeavors that are undertaken as we enhance the natural world with our cultivation efforts, a chronological sequence must be respected if we are to propagate sweet potatoes......

First, we must dig last year's crop, which, of course, I did....last year.










Next, of course, we must make a selection from the stash.










I don't necessarily use the biggest, but generally look for a well-formed specimen. I simply pierce the upper third of the seed potato with a welding rod to facilitate suspending the potato in water while allowing the tp third of the potato to breathe and produce slips. A coat hanger would do for the purpose, as would any other number of means.










I dislodge the slips when they are 6 inches tall or more, and place them in a jar of water....I wouldn't use tap water, were I in town. Rain water would be great. Sweet potato slips will root in very pure water and grow for months with no further fertilization. Some folks use them as a winter foliage indoors, and the leaves are quite edible, raw or as a potherb.

I let my slips root fairly extensively while still in the jar........










.......... and, depending on the weather, either set the well-rooted slips directly in rich and well-hilled rows in the garden, or, if it's still threatening nights below 40, I'll pot them inside to be set out later.
If the vines grow like mad, which they do, and get ahead of you in their length, they can be cut into lengths, 6-12 inches or so, each, and placed in water just like the initial slip that is dislodged from the parent potato. 
All will root and grow just fine. 
When dislodging a slip, grab it with thumb and forefinger and gently force it to one side and it rather rips out of the potato, leaving a small crater behind.
A potato thus continually defoliated will continue to produce slips for a long, long time. Don't be tempted to plant that whole potato when you are through making slips from it, lest you just like the foliage, such as to shade a compost pile.  It won't make no taters.

Well tended slips, however, will make taters, size 10 1/2 and bigger.......


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

What is the growing season for them?


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

As long as they can get.

I'm in the upper third of Illinois, and my season suits me fine.
A good start indoors and very black, well-drained dirt helps considerably.
I cut the foliage off mine the morning after the first frost, and dig them when it suits me after that.


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

NNY might be a bit short, depending on the year. Those pics make me want to try. Those are some yummy looking taters. Always looking for brightly colored veggies and fruits.


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

do you know the variety name you started with??


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

I wish.

All I recall is that I got my starts about a hundred years ago......
They were "leftovers" looking rather forlorn and abandoned at a greenhouse in a town about 20 miles away, in mid June. 

Just goes to show what can be done with a little love, I reckon.

They _are_ a delicious shade of orange in the center... and, by far, are best baked in the dying embers of a wood fire, then slathered in freshly shaken, home-made butter and maple syrup.:sing:

Tab......don't hesitate to try 'em. The worst that can happen is good taters, a little smaller. Start your parent taters in water _today_. 

Seriously.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

super thread !!!! my sweet taters last year done well and i tried a few white sweet taters and they grew huge but grow deeper than the orange ones do..or at least last year they did.


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## used2bcool13 (Sep 24, 2007)

Can you only do sweets this way? Can you grow white or russets this way?

I love all of your posts forerunner, hope your fam is well.

Thanks


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

I think now you have what is called a "landrace"; repeated plantings and choosing the best performers to replant gives you a plant that is more adapted to your own growing conditions.

LOL!! Your 'taters look like they have been lifting weights..very "muscular"..not smooth like the store bought ones.


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## InvalidID (Feb 18, 2011)

I was just getting ready to look into this. Your timing could not be better for me.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

I use the same soil conditions for my regular potato crop, but have done nothing special nor started anything inside like I do the sweets.

I do know that I've had enough volunteer taters (read....the boy harvesting missed a few.. ) come up after a cold winter that I've come to see taters as being pretty tough cookies. I've also planted them in the traditional time frame only to have cold and wet continue to where I was genuinely concerned for their survival....only to see them go right ahead and poke through and thrive when the weather finally straightened out.

For either crop..... extremely rich and very well drained dirt are a must (if we go by my rule book).
I hill both types of taters to where they look like mountain ranges extending through the gardens. I do almost all the hilling when I set my sweet taters out, and hill a little more every couple weeks for my regular taters. As I'm "weeding" between the rows, I'm hilling a little more around the plant base. Regular taters like that.

As for cold climes, starting the sweets in pots inside as house plants would be the best, then set them out when all danger of frost is past. A green house would be a great permanent fix if one were so inclined.... and setting the sweets out in rich dirt, on a slight slope that faces south, covered with plastic for a cold frame effect, would be a great start to get them up to speed as quickly as possible. Then, depending on weather, the worst that can be is smaller taters.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

InvalidID said:


> I was just getting ready to look into this. Your timing could not be better for me.


Blame Shanzone. She's the one that started it. :indif:


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

So do you share some of your potatoes for those of us that inadvertantly ate all of ours... All six of them?


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

I would be happy to, CL. PM me an address.


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## rags57078 (Jun 11, 2011)

where do you get the taters from to make the starts ? can you buy them at the groc store ? only need a couple by they way yours look 

Thanks
rags


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

I keep mine from year to year.

I can't say for certain, but I would expect that store bought taters may just sprout slips if exposed to light. It would take a week or two to find out.
If you have any better seed suppliers in the area, especially, say, one that makes a big deal when there regular seed tater crop comes in...... you might ask if they have access to seed sweets.
Time is growing short for our zone, but a couple or three weeks won't kill anyone, I don't suppose.


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## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

I have heard that if you use those from the grocery store..check to be sure they have the pointy end still left ( some have been cut). If you do this I would buy only organic ones..the ones I got came from a roadside local farmer..they did great..


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

We got our excellent tasting deep red-orange variety of sweets originally from our local grocery. Saved one out a few years back and have kept them going. You can actually can get 30-50 plants off from one tater!!! Keep the spouts picked off and they'll keep going as long as you keep the mama plant damp. Last year sweets were one of the few crops that did well in our drought....watered once with soaker hose and then too busy trying to save the rest of the garden. Wasted my money on 100 lbs. of seed potatoes but the sweets came thru so we plan to grow twice as many this year instead of giving away plants so freely. We never had frost until late Nov this year so ours got really big. Two Garden Way carts full to our surprize. Did mulch heavily when planted which may have keep them going thru the drought. 

That's a fine crop, Forerunner. We like to sort ours by size and use the littles for stock. Store ours in unheated upstairs bedroom as no root cellar. They keep all winter.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Mutti....... just make four times as many sprouts, and keep giving them away freely. 

I suppose I should throw in my planting regimen.....

As stated, I'm already working with phenomenal soil. I'm not quite sure how that got started, but......

I have four young'uns bucket brigading compost as I make the tater hills, and the hills end up being at least half fresh compost each year, which might explain part of the overall soil condition I have to put up with. :shrug:

After I hill 14-16 inches of material, I use my hoe handle and level to about 10-12 inches high, and make my tater holes 16-18 inches apart. In each hole goes a sprinkle of kelp meal, a sprinkle of bone meal and a cracked egg. Eggs for this purpose do not have to be refrigerated previously. :whistlin:
After that, the tater slip goes in and a boy comes along shortly with a quart of water for each plant. Sweet taters can be planted deep, with just a few top leaves sticking out. Any portion below ground will root.

I use the kelp and bone meal on just about everything, and I use the cracked egg for all of my transplants. The egg gives a super nutrient base, plus a slug of moisture for those first roots to sink into that ain't going anywhere for some time.
The shell obviously leaves a rather lasting spot of calcium, etc. for the tater and whatever grows there next. Be sure to put the egg at the bottom of the hole no matter what you are planting. An egg set too shallow can attract the occasional scavenger......and, regardless, when probed into later, will be found to have attracted a fist-sized wad of euphoric worms.

The funny thing about using eggs, is, by the time we are setting out starts, our hens have us swimming in them......

For sweet tater crop maintenance, I have employed both, the regular vine trimming method, and the hands off method. If you allow the vines to do their own thing, at every point where a growth tip touches the surrounding soil, it will root in and try to make a tater crop, theoretically robbing the main hill crop. I've certainly seen plenty of evidence of little crops starting, but my taters grow huge whether I trim the vines or not.
Incidentally, cows, goats and horses love a routine offering a sweet potato vine trimmings...... not too much to start or at any one time--they are rich fodder.

Deep mulch seems to curb the plant's tendency to root in away from the primary crop. ...and, as Mutti mentioned, does wonders to alleviate some of the pain of drought.


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## rags57078 (Jun 11, 2011)

never done sweets before , so the pointy end goes up ? do you cut the bottom end off ?


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

There is no right or wrong as to which end is up in the start pot.
If your tater has already begun to set sprouts, up the end with the most of 'em.
Otherwise, I stick the ugly end in the water so it doesn't have to look at me.

Don't cut the tater anywhere as that just leads to early mother tater demise.


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## rags57078 (Jun 11, 2011)

Thank You


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

Seed potatoes come in early Arpril around here. Guess it is off to the organic produce section. I have a sw facing wall where I have threatened to place cold frames. This sounds like a great experiment. Good info on the topic, thanks.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

Thanks for the info! I was wanting to look into this myself.

OT, but is the boy in the top pic your "little" son with the glasses?? My, has he grown!!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Well, I got mine planted now. Feels strange,we haven't even really had winter.


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## bourbonred (Feb 27, 2008)

Ditto on the strange. What weather this year. I'm starting the seedlings, but wondering if winter won't just come late. Thanks for the reminder to get the sweets started. Last year they were my biggest success!


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

I wanna see _*pichers*_, come harvest.....an' that goes fer _*all*_ of yuhz.


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

If the net is still allowing sep!


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

Forerunner said:


> I wanna see _*pichers*_, come harvest.....an' that goes fer _*all*_ of yuhz.



I will post some...but promise in advance not to laugh!!!!


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Can't do that...... there's nothing funnier to me than a truck load of huge sweet taters. :grin:


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

Truckload? Let's have a realistic expectation for me...a wheel barrow full!!!


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## Ohiogal (Mar 15, 2007)

Thanks to this post I just put a tub of these out in my greenhouse last night. This is my first Spring for having a greenhouse, so its all new to me. 
I learned a valuable lesson, when impaling potatoes on a stick/coathanger/welding rod be SURE to wear gloves. I managed to slice my middle finger nearly to the bone last night having one of them slip. Ouch.
However, I look forward to seeing what becomes of these poor things that are now dangling with their hind ends in water.
BTW, a BBQ skewer works really well as the stick.
I'll post my pic if I can get home in time this evening to snap it before dark.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Yup......I was compelled to offer that warning to my youngest son as he was setting our taters up for starts a few days ago........ ouch.


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

Ouch! Hope you heal quickly.
I used a couple kabob spears for mine! Surprisingly enough I lost no blood!


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## CountryWmn (Aug 7, 2011)

shanzone2001 said:


> I used a couple kabob spears for mine! Surprisingly enough I lost no blood!


Ha Shan, I used the same on mine after reading this thread last night.


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## Ohiogal (Mar 15, 2007)

Thanks, the finger is sore, but not open or bothering me much today.
The dilemma I faced was "how" to force this metal thing through a stubbornly dense potato and not impale myself on it or beat the poor potato on something hard, thereby pre-mashing it before it got a chance to grow new shoots for this season.
I ended up using a hammer on the end of the BBQ stick, and putting the tater between my two feet - shoes on of course.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

mine are dupas in water too...now, to wait patiently :bored:
and be even more patient...i put a few avocado seeds in to root for some greenery


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## Ohiogal (Mar 15, 2007)

Things are going along just....swimmingly!


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## Ohiogal (Mar 15, 2007)

And just had to add this one - my first greenhouse crop, garlic, turnips & oak leaf lettuce.


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

Great pictures! 
Thanks for sharing...you know, a picture of you hammering a stake through sweet potatoes you are holding between your feet would be really funny, but I don't want you to stab yourself again!!!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I just used my corn cob holder thingies, instead of going all the way thru.


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

Ok, updating, could not find any organic sweet potatoes so I used what could be found. They took forever to root, lost some to mold. Out of six am down to three. They have tons of roots finally, but not. one. single. lousey. measley. shoot!!!! So, will try to order some sprouts and after this will probably never buy them again. I cannot imagine what they were treated with to overide any ability to sprout. It must have taken three or more weeks to get a few roots. Bleah!
Anyone else care to update?


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

oh, well after a certain fella sent me 2 taters to use for shoots; they up and rotted from the skewer point in the middle to both ends...got nada shoots..they DID great as a trap for those vile stink bugs tho....


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## MollysMom (Apr 20, 2010)

I tried this with store bought sweets and they are growing well. One I had given up on and just left in the water now it has sprouts. So far I have 15 sprouts to plant with lots of roots.


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

Hey!!!I was going to throw them away and found two little, bitty shoots, eight weeks of soaking.....
Bee, did the taters get chilled in the mail?


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## Ohiogal (Mar 15, 2007)

Don't feel bad...first batch, as pictured, rotted. FAIL.
Second batch, now in individual Mason jars using toothpicks, rotting. FAIL.
I think I'll just pick up some slips at the local garden store, they could use the business.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

This thread has deteriorated to full scale depression status. :sob:

My slips are doing well and the first round will be going in the ground this week. :shrug:


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## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

I tried to get some slips off a couple of Boniato -- "Cuban Sweet Potatoes" -- this year, but it just didn't seem to want to sprout. I poked skewers into it on three sides, about 1/2-2/3 of the way up and submerged it in water. After several weeks I finally gave up and tossed it. I wonder if it had been treated to prevent sprouting? Or if I could have done something differently?


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

Forerunner..YOU are depressed???? If there was anything more depressing than taters turned slime it was all them stinkers using them as watering stations.....add to that the total loss of tree fruit due to deep freeze!! But I won't give up!! "Wait till next year!!"

bee


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

My two sprouts are now three and growing . After doing some research on the nutritional value of sweet potatoes am even more determined to try them. The plan is to put some in containers so if this crazy weather lasts all season the micro environment can be controlled to som extent, and some in a small garden plot so if they grow, they can go crazy! Hope springs eternal with gardening, no depression, maybe some disapointments but it keeps the mind nimble.
Bee, are your trees a total loss? Estimates around here are about 40%. We are still having frosts though so expect that to rise.


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## Mrs. Jo (Jun 5, 2007)

I'm trying this. I had gotten a big old box of sweet potatoes and the last few are getting a bit old on me. They have a few buds/eyes, but when do the little buds becomes sprouts? How long does that take? I'm wondering if I'm going to have enough time this year for them to grow.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Don't let this crazy weather fool you.
There's time yet for a good crop of sweet taters. 
They like long seasons, but only to grow bigger.
Medium sweet taters is still sweet taters.

If you've got little buds showing, green sprouts are on the way.
All the sunshine and warm temps you can provide will be to their benefit.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Thanks for this thread! We grew some sweet potatoes last year from plants we bought, but this year I'm trying to grow some slips from the taters themselves. I didn't realize you could get the little sprouts off and plant them - I think I would have just planted the rooted potato after it got started.


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## belladulcinea (Jun 21, 2006)

I have some very small slips resting in saucers with water. Got them going 2 days ago and already have at least 1 inch roots on each one! Planting time isn't to far away! LOL


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## Mrs. Jo (Jun 5, 2007)

This will so cool! Thank you forunner for putting this thread out here!


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## Deena in GA (May 11, 2002)

I've missed this thread until now. Gotta try this. Thanks!


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## Packedready (Mar 29, 2011)

I have a sweet potatoe that has sprouted about 8 sprouts so far. It is a store bought potatoe, if I had known I was going to do this I would have been picky about the sweet potatoes that I bought in the fall. I bought a box from Costco that was excellent, I would have saved one. I will have to wait to see what the quality is.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

I put two sweet potatoes in water in February. One has leaves and one is just now showing swelling of buds. I impale with tooth picks and put into flower vases. I've discovered they do better when in green glass vases instead of clear glass. I have no clue why but over the years the green glass always produces and the clear usually rots. 

We never plant our sweet potatoes until the last of May and at that cover them for the first week. We also cover them with blankets at the other end of the season to get them thru the first light frosts. We usually have a frost then a couple weeks (or more) of warm weather and the sweet potatoes will really fatten up if you can keep them going longer. 

The only problem we've ever had with growing sweet potatoes is voles and those nasty varmits did major damage. Since then I lift up the leaves/runners and check often to make sure nothing is tunneling.


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## Murramarang (Dec 18, 2011)

This is neat - and they are going on the list of things for me to try! Thanks for the neat notes.


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## RubyRed (Sep 24, 2011)

Here's my experience with sweet potatoes so far. They did seem to take forever before the slips started showing. Matter of fact, I almost threw them out until I noticed the hairlike roots starting on the bottom. They are store bought. I wish I would have bought more to start because I have yet to find any sweet potatoes to buy at the store now. All they have are yams. I had to throw a few away due to mold that did not start.


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## AmberLBowers (Nov 28, 2008)

Forerunner, I planted my slips yesterday using your eggs trick since my hens seem to be on the same increased production schedule as yours  DH thought I was nuts but I just said "But Forerunner said so...":gaptooth:


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

AmberLBowers said:


> Forerunner, I planted my slips yesterday using your eggs trick since my hens seem to be on the same increased production schedule as yours  DH thought I was nuts but I just said *"But Forerunner said so..."*:gaptooth:




In certain circles, that can get you in more trouble than it's worth!


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## RebelDigger (Aug 5, 2010)

Forerunner THANKS! :bouncy: I had some huge taters I bought from a local guy (I mean huge, 2 pounds plus each--I weighed em on a postal scale). I put a piece of straightened coat hanger wire through the top of one and hung it in an old Coffee Mate plastic tub. I just kept it on the kitchen counter, next to the sink and kept the water topped off.

Today, I just finished picking off the slips (loose term, most of em are vines a foot long some more) and have 14 off the one tater with lots of roots. They will go out in the garden this week. Left one small one on the tater and put it back in the water.

I plan to use the "egg trick" since my girls are also in overdrive. I have bone meal but nothing else. What about rabbit poo? Got lots of that thanks to Moe and Petey, my angoras. 

Hoping here in Mississippi I can grow them as big as the parent tater and that should be plenty for me and DH over the winter. Man, I have really got to get started on the root cellar now.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

If you mix that rabbit stuff in a little deeper and rather sparingly, it should do a lot of good. That said, take the excess and start that compost pile for next year. :thumb:
Your growing season should certainly make you some monster taters.....


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## RebelDigger (Aug 5, 2010)

Forerunner said:


> If you mix that rabbit stuff in a little deeper and rather sparingly, it should do a lot of good. That said, take the excess and start that compost pile for next year. :thumb:
> Your growing season should certainly make you some monster taters.....


Yea, when we moved I had to leave my compost pile -- so sad. Last summer, we were so busy working on the house I just did not garden that much and did not get a compost pile started. I tried, but the critters stole it and scattered what they didn't take, so I need to build something to hold it. I have been simply empyting the rabbit's shredded newspapers and poop into a garbage barrel and emptying the barrel out in the garden area when it fills up. So, instead of empyting this time, I will use it in the area where the taters are going.

The good news is that Mississippi is known for it's sweet taters so if a newbie like me at growing them, has a hope; it is here.


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

Is there a top and bottom to the potatoes you use for starters? I have 2 and both are making roots,. but only one is making slips.

The one that made slips had dark colored bumps on it where the slips grew out of it, but the one that is only making roots has only white bumps, like it is trying to make only roots.

The white bumps are the full lenth of the tuber, not just under water.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

All sweet potatoes do not root and leaf at the same rate. I have two in my kitchen window that both came from last year's crop so same exact variety etc. One rooted immediately and is leafed out. The other is just now growing roots and the leaf buds are just starting to swell. It was the same last year but both finally produced a bounty of starts. I kind of like one being behind in case the first starts planted in the garden get frosted off.


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

Bumping. As I look over at the potatoes just starting to sprout over in the window . Lots of good info in this thread which turned into some yummmmmy eating!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I like to bury my starter potato in a five gallon bucket of damp sand with good drainage. Then I just cut vines off and divide them into slips. I root the slips in damp sand too. Normally have more than enough for me and to share.


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## justincase (Jul 16, 2011)

can I plant taters in the same garden where other veggies are growing? I read someplace that they suck so many nutruents out of the soil that you should never plant them in the same place is this true or false?do i need to rotate them every year into another place> sorry I am fairly new to this but determined to have stuff grow this year.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

I don't concern myself with nutrient wars, but sweet taters will send foliage ten feet in every direction, so give them plenty of space for that. I even trim mine back to three feet of foliage a time or two over the summer, a few plants at a time, and feed the trimmings to cows, horses and sheep...... 

Back to the nutrient question, you were aware that compost is your friend ?


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

And how do the taters grow now?

Just saw this and thought I'd bring it back and check on the status, and so new people could read it and learn.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

This has been the slowest year on record, for me, starting my seedlings, and my sweet potato slips, as per the long, cold, wet spring.

Recent heat has set things into full swing, though.

Of course, there was that incident a few weeks ago when my ram jumped a fence and helped himself to the sweet potato vines that were just beginning to show some vigor. 

All is well now, after some resetting of vines and caging up the entire patch, just in case.

I do look for half or maybe two thirds of my normal crop.

Homesteading is about perseverance, you know.......


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

I started some slips from my own tators {thank you} and also ordered some bush type slips. Have to check on the company because they seem to be good folks. I requested the slips early for my area and planted about half in tubs in the greenhouse (another YIPPEE!) . It is schizo weather, hot/humid, cool/wet, so the ones outside are behind. Have more slips to plant so they will go in the greenhouse. They went into mostly compost which may not give me many tators. This is a learning expirement for sure.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Good compost makes the best sweets.

Regular taters don't appreciate the soil quite so rich, but sweets generally take whatever you give them, so to speak........


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

As an experiment one year dh and I planted a sweet potato in a 5 gallon bucket. We ended up with a bucket full of sweet potatoes but the bucket really wasn't large enough for full production. However, it was easy to harvest -- no digging, just dumped the bucket. If you only have a patio or deck, you could try growing in buckets.


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## Tabitha (Apr 10, 2006)

Thank you so much forerunner! Around here they say not to fertilize sweet potatoes. I have never had any luck with them. This year I have a long row and they look lush. I hope they will be growing good below too. I have an old variety that someone gave me, they are "white", not really, and more mealy and sweet than the orange varieties. DH grew up with the white ones and does not care so much for the red ones.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

My pleasure.


Don't fertilize sweet taters ? 

That would be like denying a working man a beer, come evening. :smack:















:sob:


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## bama (Aug 21, 2011)

Bumping this up with a question.

I cut my sweet potato before setting it in water. It has some leaves/vines, and just one or two hair like roots. Will it live? Or did I totally mess up in my ignorance?


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

More roots should develop, but you certainly don't need to cut the parent.

Give it some time.

Meanwhile, just as soon as the shoots are 4-6 inches, you can twist them out of the parent and put them in their own glass with water, and they'll set their own roots.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

SquashNut said:


> Is there a top and bottom to the potatoes you use for starters? I have 2 and both are making roots,. but only one is making slips.
> 
> The one that made slips had dark colored bumps on it where the slips grew out of it, but the one that is only making roots has only white bumps, like it is trying to make only roots.
> 
> The white bumps are the full lenth of the tuber, not just under water.



I just saw this....don't know how I missed it before......

There _would_ be a top and bottom to each tater, as it grew from the parent plant, but that won't make any difference as slips are propagated.
Either "end" will make slips or roots, only depending on which is submerged in the water.


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## dablack (Jul 21, 2011)

Just a note to all the novice sweet tater growers out there (like me). We have a parent tater putting off slips and we have a glass jar where I'm putting the slips. The slips will keep growing but then die off. I finally figured out that our house is kept too cold for them. I'm going to find a spot outside. I think they will do a little better. 

Then I gotta find a spot to plant them with something that looks like dirt (not our normal red clay and iron ore rocks). 

Austin


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