How To Grow Sweet Potato Slips
What is a Sweet Potato Slip?
Several years ago my wife and I had to learn how to grow sweet potato slips ourselves. We were at the store buying some plants for our garden and forgot to pick up some sweet potato plants. By the time we made it back to get some, they were sold out. As was every store in our area. We went home and did some quick research and decided to use the two organic sweet potatoes that we planned to cook for dinner to make sweet potato slips (We also later successfully used non-organic sweet potatoes, but we wouldn’t recommend it.).
The starting material for sweet potatoes differs from other potato crops. We produced sweet potatoes from vegetable stem cuttings, or ‘slips’. A slip is simply a sweet potato sprout. You sprout slips from sweet potatoes saved from the previous year’s crop. It sounds simple enough, but how do you grow sweet potato slips? Read on to learn more.
How to Make Sweet Potato Slips
You can start sweet potato slips in water or in dirt. Both methods work. Starting a slip from a sweet potato in dirt is supposed to be the more rapid method, but we usually prefer to start them in water on a window shelf. If using a sweet potato from the store, use an organic one which are not treated with chemicals to retard sprouting.
A single sweet potato can grow many slips. ten or more slips which means ten or more plants that will each produce about multiple sweet potatoes.
The first method of starting in water is like starting an avocado plant from a pit. Submerge half a sweet potato in water, root end first. Use toothpicks or wooden shish kabob sticks to keep the entire potato from becoming submerged.
Not sure which end is the root end? The rooting end will taper more to a point and will probably have small roots showing. The other end of the sweet potato will be more rounded and larger.
Place the sweet potato in water with the toothpicks and the right level to keep one half to two-thirds of the potato out of the water. Monitor the water and refill as needed. In a few weeks you should see the beginnings of roots, in about a week more sprouts should start growing.
The other method of starting slips is to place a sweet potato lengthwise on a bed of seed starting soil mix or potting soil burying half the sweet potato in the soil. Keep the soil moist and in a warm place or atop a germination mat. In a few weeks you should see the beginnings of roots, in about a week more sprouts should start growing.
Planting Sweet Potato Slips
However you started the slips, once sprouts are about 6 inches tall, it’s time to move onto the next step. Gently remove the sprouts from the sweet potato by twisting or cutting them off. Remove the lower leaves from the sprout and place the sprout in water back on the windowsill or other warm area that has plenty of sunlight. You can also choose to use a grow light. Refill the water as needed. Switch out the water about once a week to keep water fresh. You should see roots in 1-2 days. Discard wilted or rotten slips.
Once the roots are about 4 inches long, it’s time to plant. Plant after the ground has warmed and all danger of spring frost has passed. Plant your slips 10-16 inches apart and 4 inches deep. If planting multiple rows, the rows should be 3-4 feet apart. Planting slips farther apart in a row can sometimes promote an earlier harvest or larger roots.
Watering
Water the plants well when first planted. Sweet potatoes are tough plants and are drought tolerant; however, for the best quality and greatest quantity of sweet potatoes the plants should receive timely and sufficient watering. Maintain even soil moisture during the first two weeks after planting. After establishing the plants, the sweet potatoes should receive approximately 1 inch of water from rain or watering per week.
Fertilizing
Proper nutrient management begins with a soil test. This test will tell you what nutrients the soil needs, in the absence of a soil test, you can just feed them with a natural fertilizer that is rich in phosphorous.
Pests
Like most garden plants, sweet potatoes have their share of pests. We use the ‘Back to Eden’ method which a sustainable organic gardening method with minimal human intervention. You can learn more about this method in this video:
If you aren’t using this method yet, then the best way to control weeds in the home garden is by shallow hoeing, hand removal, and mulch. A layer of mulch 1 to 2 inches thick should suppress most weed species and help maintain even soil moisture during the growing season.
Deer love sweet potato leaves and will graze on sweet potato plantings if there is no barrier. Deer repellents and fences can deter deer but may not eliminate feeding completely.
Diseases in sweet potatoes are not common in home gardens. You can minimize disease by rotating crops to avoid planting sweet potatoes in the same space within the last two years.
How Do You Know When Sweet Potatoes Are Ready To Harvest?
Sweet potatoes are usually ready to harvest around the end of September depending on when they you planted them. Unlike most crops, sweet potatoes never truly ripen or reach a stage of maturity. Young sweet potato roots form in the first two weeks of planting and continue growing larger and larger. Sweet potato varieties vary in days to maturity, but most range between 90 and 120 days.
You harvest sweet potatoes in the late summer to early fall before soil temperatures drop below 60°F. Carefully place a shovel or garden fork into the ground far enough away from where the vine enters the ground to avoid cutting through the sweet potato and damaging the skin. Excessive skinning or cuts shortens the storage time of the sweet potatoes. Try not to harvest the sweet potatoes when the soil is too dry as the can cause increased skinning. Once you harvest your sweet potatoes, remember to save a couple to start slips for next season’s garden.
How to Cure Sweet Potatoes
You should cure sweet potatoes immediately after harvesting them. To cure them, place them in a greenhouse or garage with temperatures of 80 – 85°F and if possible 85 – 90 percent humidity for 5 – 10 days. You can place them in a plastic bag to increase humidity. Curing helps to heal wounds that occur during harvest, preventing shriveling and reducing the risk of rot during storage. Curing also makes the sweet potato more palatable by converting starches to sugars and improving aroma and texture. When the sweet potato feels firm and moist, the curing is finished and the sweet potatoes are ready to move to cooler temperatures for storage.
How to Store Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes should be stored in a dark, cool place like a root cellar or even a crawl space. Just remember to protect them from rodents. Temperatures should remain between 55 and 60°F. When stored below 55°F for extended periods of time, sweet potatoes can experience chilling injury, resulting in hard cores and altered taste when they are cooked. If sweet potatoes are stored above 60°F for extended periods, sprouts may begin to appear on the potato. If stored properly and in a cool enough location, you’ll have great tasting sweet potatoes for months.
Bible Quotes
Genesis 2:
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Isaiah 61:11
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Spirit of Prophecy Quotes (Ellen White)
It would be well for you to lay by your perplexing cares and find a retreat in the country, where there is not so strong an influence to corrupt the morals of the young. True, you would not be entirely free from annoyances and perplexing cares in the country; but you would there avoid many evils and close the door against a flood of temptations which threaten to overpower the minds of your children. They need employment and variety. The sameness of their home makes them uneasy and restless, and they have fallen into the habit of mingling with the vicious lads of the town, thus obtaining a street education….
To live in the country would be very beneficial to them; an active, out-of-door life would develop health of both mind and body. They should have a garden to cultivate, where they might find both amusement and useful employment. The training of plants and flowers tends to the improvement of taste and judgment, while an acquaintance with God’s useful and beautiful creations has a refining and ennobling influence upon the mind, referring it to the Maker and Master of all.5 { AH 141.5} (Ellen White, The Adventist Home, E. G. White Vol. 4, page 328, paragraph 1)
BOOK ABBREVIATIONS by Ellen G. White (See EGW Abbreviations tab under the FAQ menu for a full list)
Disclaimer
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