How To Grow Sweet Potato Slips

        We are approaching the dead of winter, here in Kentucky, and we are getting excited about the garden. We have not done much in the past few years because we were driving back and forth to Windsor for Maid-N-Meadows. But this year we will be home and gardening is back on the "joy" list!
       Sweet potatoes are grand foods because they store over the winter, don't need to be frozen or canned, and they can just go in the oven and come out ready to eat! Homestead convenience food! But my favorite thing about them is that if your stored taters start going bad, just cook them a little and feed them to almost any farm animal. Chickens are crazy about cooked sweet potatoes. So if your family does not eat them, all the hard work in digging them up is not wasted as they can feed your critters and save on the feed bill!


        We try to start in early January by picking out some sweet potatoes with a lot of "eyes" and place them in a jar of water. Buy some organic sweet potatoes or get some from a friend from last fall's crop.

          Sweet potatoes like to grow in at warm temperatures. (Over 80 degrees Fahrenheit.) To get a faster response, put your taters somewhere warm. We put ours on top of the kitchen cabinets because it is the warmest room in the house and of course heat rises. Within a week you will have some roots growing!

        Once leaves develop, move your potatoes to the warmest spot possible that also has some light. They don't need a lot of light, but a little light will keep the starts from getting leggy and more and more will grow!
      Some people say that you can get as many as 50 starts per potato. That is a lot of starts!

       Once a start develops enough to have about an inch to two inches, plus a few well developed leaves, they are ready to grow their own roots. Take a pair of sharp scissor or a knife and cut  where there is a sucker starting. There should be 2 strong leaves because that is where the baby plant will get its energy to live until it is planted.

 Then soak the cut end in water. Soon roots will grow. I usually trim off any leaves that would be submerged in water, because I think they would turn black and rot.  

Lots of little roots on these slips!

       Meanwhile, your potatoes will develop more and more starts. Just keep those cut starts in water and moderate sunlight and there will be a small army of tater slips before you know it!
       Wait about a month after your area's last frost before you plant out your slips. Sweet potatoes really like it warm/hot. We build a slightly mounded row for our taters so that they grow in a loose soil and are easier to dig up.

 Plant them in the late afternoon and water them well to give them an opportunity to get well established before they are hit with blazing hot sunlight. After that they will vine prosperously.

 They will grow until frost!
      In fact, if your vines get hit with frost and you can cut the plants off from the roots before the frost melts, your sweet potatoes should be fine! We then just try to get the taters out of the ground before the next frost.
     Sweet potatoes are really easy to grow and maintain well over the winter. They are such a super easy staple! Give them a try and tell us what you think!