SWEET POTATOES

[Westi]

Hi Everyone

Advice needed.

I have 3 sweet potatoes in pots all which have sprouted
and the slips are about 6" or more. I checked the web but doesn't give
a whole lot of detail for the next step.
Do you just cut the stalk of the slip off and pot on? or
Do you take a bit of the sweet potato with it? and
Weather allowing when do you plant these out - when they reach a particular size or just a particular time?

Last time I grew them I planted the whole sweet potato which was
reasonably successful with 2 really good sized ones harvested and lots of baby ones, but not that economical considering how many slips I had.

Thanks in Advance
Westi

[Mike Vogel]

You will certainly need to keep them indoors until there is no danger of frost, Westi. The soil temperature needs to be at least 12 degrees C for them to thrive. I would get on with warming the soil now an hope to plant out at the beginning of June, or maybe a little later. In Dorset, especially the south coast, where I lived for a short time, you should be safe enough in late May.

I would encourage roots to grow before separating the slips from the parent tuber. Maybe make a nick where the shoots emerge but don't cut right through; then replace in the compost/soil. This should encourage the roots to form. Then you can separate the rooted shoots [slips] happily enough, although it won't do any harm to keep a bit of the tuber with each slip.

I intend to get my beds ready during April. A good lot of well-rotted compost will do them a power of good. Then i plant the slips under ridged soil so that only the leaves show. I should add that, although I gto a good crop in 2007, last year I got zero. But it was a cold summer and only 3 of my slips survived long enough to get round to the planting out stage.

Good luck
mike

[Westi]

Cheers Mike

Much more comprehensive - fingers crossed for good summer!

Westi

[goldilox]

My sweet potato is happily sprouting away in my propagator. I just pull the slips away from the potato and plant them in a small pot of compost. Sometimes they already have roots attached, but they always root nevertheless. I leave them in the propagator until they have definitely rooted, then gradually wean them out.

Last year was a bit disappointing, but we still had enough for 3 or 4 meals.

[Malk]

Goldilox, when you put them in the propagator do you just put them inwhole or do you put them in some sand/soil.

I have mine sitting in a box of sand in the greenhouse. Will that work?

[Westi]

Hi

I have potted on 19 slips from the 3 mother plants last
week and although one looked a bit sick it has now perked
up. There are some about a foot long and sprawling along
the window sill.
I put the whole sweet potato in a pot of compost in the
propagator. I didn't think anything was happening as saw
no shoots so had a poke around and the pots were full of
fine roots so left them. It was about 2 weeks after this that
the shoots came up and then took off. I did water them lightly
though. I put mine in 7th Feb.
The slips are not in the propator and seem happy.
Note where I am though and my windowsill is south facing so
double benefit.

Westi

[goldilox]

Hi Malk,
Yes, like Westi says, I put the whole sweet potato in the propagator sitting in a plastic container (ice cream or such) on a bed of sand. I just keep this moist and the slips keep on growing.