I don't have a source of sweet potato slips anymore so I'm thinking about growing my own and need your help. How long does it take to grow slips off a sweet potato and after removing the slips from the potato, how long do you leave does it take the slips to grow roots before transplanting? Any information will be helpful and I thank you very much. R.H.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 21, 2002

Answers

When your slips are long enough 12 to 18 inches, just cut them off the potato and place them in the hill with each end showing. We would lay them out as kids about 18 inches apart, Dad would come behind us with a smooth notched stick and press them in to the ground.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), March 21, 2002.

Mitch has got it right. There ain't nothing to it. Just hang your tater in a jar of water, propped up with some well placed toothpicks, and it will sprout runners pretty soon. Keep the water level up and watch it grow.

-- charlieS (charliesap@pldi.net), March 21, 2002.

do you do this with a whole sweet tater, or just a peice? never done sweet taters before,, am thinking about doing them this year

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), March 21, 2002.

A whole sweet potato with 4 toothpicks half out of the wide mouth jag with water in a sunny window sile. Keep the water up, take the slips as soon as they get big enough, leave the others until they grow long enought. Plant them as they grow, use the biggest best shaped potato you can find.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), March 21, 2002.

Okay, I got that down, but how long does it take? I want to time it just right for when I can plant here in my cold creek valley. I live right next to a cold spring creek and it keeps frosting right up to about the first week of May. I'm about two weeks behind people who live up on the hills.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 21, 2002.

I agree with the advice other people have given. One thing you have to be careful with though is some sweet potatos from the store are treated so they don't sprout. THese won't work, you might have to find someone who has grown them at home. Matthew

-- Matthew Kidwell (matthew5513@yahoo.com), March 21, 2002.

Hi, I bought some sweet potatoes at christmas time from walmart and wanted to do the same.So I cut my potatoe in half, used the smaller pointy end.I put the cut side into a vase of water,propped up by toothpicks and it started to sprout in a week.as the slips got to 5 or 6 inches they had roots growing out of the attached end.Thats when I started breaking them off and stuck them in a pot of potting soil.I put the potatoe back in the water and it has three more plants on it now .Pam

-- pam (pams65@hotmail.com), March 22, 2002.

R.H., do not put them outside until all danger from frost has passed, take them directly from the plant to the soil. I do not know how long it takes for roots to start, there is no mid step needed.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), March 22, 2002.

I'm in Zone 5a and have had better luck with placing the sweet potato in sand, the way you might root a cutting. The shoots may be taken when they reach the appropriate length.

Here's a suggestion from Organic Gardening Mag: You may never need to buy potato stock again. Place several slips in a rich soil (I use 50/50 compost and soil)and grow indoors like a philodendron all summer and through the winter. In March,cut individual lengths add root in water or sharp sand until time for planting. Keep a few indoors to perpetuate the process. One caution; Ive tried to put the potted plant outdoors and repeated lost it to a variety of bugs before late summer!

-- Don Mruk (mruks@crystal-mtn.com), March 27, 2002.