Monday, May 18, 2020

Growing Sweet Potato Slips

Hi my sweet friends!

Remember when you were back in school and we would sprout

a potato in a jar to make a cool house plant?

Did you know that it's a great way to start sweet potatoes in your backyard?

The starts are called slips and it's easy and cheap!


You need:

1 sweet potato-

Scrub potato with a brush-
Sometimes potatoes are sprayed with chemicals to prevent sprouting!

Use organic if you can

I used  just 1/2 of one

a few toothpicks

a jar

and water





Put the toothpicks around the middle of the sweet potato.

Set in the jar, fill with water.

That's it-

After a week or so you will see roots and buds starting to form.



See the tiny bud forming-



See the tiny roots-




One potato will give you plenty of slips.

After several weeks your potato will look like this-




Gently break off the stem at the base of the potato.


Then put it right back in the water and let it develop roots.


Bonus: The leaves are edible!




It doesn't take long.
  



These are ready to be removed from the potato.




The roots will grow.




And when the roots look strong,

they are ready to plant.






My sweet husband made a planter for my slips.


He used old scrap pallet wood. 


The filled the box with planter mix.


The sweet potatoes will be contained in the box,

 it will be easier for me to harvest.


I don't mind if the vines grow over the top.

Where the vines touch the soil, they will set roots and

the potatoes form off the roots.






After about 100 days......we should be able to dig up some

delicious sweet potatoes!




Since our quarantine we have been spending more time in the garden.

It's a great time to experiment with growing more of your own food-


I hope I have inspired you to give this a try.

xo Lisa S



31 comments:

  1. My husband and I were just saying on the weekend how we should've planted sweet potatoes but neither of us knew how. Now we do, thanks to your awesome tutorial! Do you think it's too late to start rooting some for this planting season?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marie
      No , I don't think it is too late. I wish I could give you some of my slips- I have way too many. I hope you can get some growing. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorites :)
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  2. I have done this before just to see how long the vines would get and wow! The vines (slips) would grow everywhere. It made for a fun project with my grandchildren too. Thanks for sharing. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is fun to see the vines grow so long!
      I can't wait to see if I get a lot of sweet potatoes this year.
      I am going to let them grow in a few different places.
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  3. I've done this with white potatoes, but never with sweet.
    Great idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Michele,
      When you plant the sweet potato you only plant the slips you won't need to plant a chunk of potato layered with soil.
      Let me know if you give it a try.
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  4. This would be fun for kids!! Thanks so much for linking up with me at my #UnlimitedMonthlyLinkParty 12, open May 1 to 26. All party entries shared if social media buttons installed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dee
      The kids love to see how long the vines grow. I can't to see who grows the biggest Sweet potato- yum!
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  5. Great tutorial, and I love the planter--your hubby did a great job! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Cecilia!
      I will tell my sweetie-
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  6. Wow! This is amazing. I have been spending time on the allotment and I am growing quite a few things, but I never thought of sweet potatoes. I will give it a try, it looks quite easy :).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you are going to plant some sweet potatoes!
      I hope it goes well for you. Thank you so much for visiting.
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  7. I love sweet potatoes and I also love the look of the vines because they are so decorative. I'll be giving this a go for sure, thanks for the tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! I hope you have great success!
      I'm so glad you stopped by,
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  8. I tried growing sweet potatoes before but as it was sitting in water the end of the potato just rotted instead of sprouting. Glad to see you were successful with yours! Thanks for sharing with us at The Blogger's Pit Stop!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Roseann
      With all this talk about GMO's maybe your potato was sprayed to prevent sprouting. If you want to try again, scrub the potato and use organic. That will help.
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  9. I am so loving this! I hope it's not too late to try this! Thank you so much for the great idea, and for sharing with Charming Homes and Gardens Party!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kim
      I don't think it's too late. It's definitely worth a try.
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  10. I tried planting sweet potatoes last year with no luck. This looks so much more fun! Going to try this and keep it in a separate container like you did.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pamela
      That's too bad. I wonder what went wrong. Give your slips plenty of time in the water to grow strong roots. I think the box will help control the potatoes, I didn't want to be digging up the whole yard ;)
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  11. Congratulations, Lisa. Our Menaka has chosen your sweet potato post to be featured in the next Blogger's Pit Stop.
    Kathleen

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh thank you so much!
      I appreciate the feature. Thank you for hosting.
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  12. Great gardening project and thanks for the reminder of how we did this in school. It brought back some great memories and is very useful too. #HomeMattersParty

    ReplyDelete
  13. You make this look so easy! I can't wait to give it a try. Pinning it for next year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is easy! I'm glad you are going to give it a try-
      Thank you for pinning. I'm so happy to have you visit.
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  14. Hi Lisa, I've been living in apartments for the past 17 years, and will soon be moving into a house with a garden! I've always wanted to grow sweet potatoes (I love them, they're so tasty!), so thank you for this, it will come in handy! Have a nice weekend! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheryl
      I'm so excited for your move! Congratulations.
      Gardens are so relaxing and good to come home to.
      Thanks for sharing with me-
      xo Lisa S

      Delete
  15. Lisa,
    I love this tutorial on sweet potatoes. I always thought you planted them like white potatoes. No wonder mine didn't come up. New plan - yours. Congratulations, you are being featured on over The Moon Linky Party. I hope you stop by.
    https://www.eclecticredbarn.com/2020/05/over-moon-linky-party_31.html
    Have a nice week ahead.
    Hugs,
    Bev

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Bev
      Thank you so much for the feature! Yes, the sweet potatoes grow a bit different. Let me know how your crop turns out ;)
      I love to bake the potatoes in the oven or steam them whole

      - yum!
      xo Lisa S

      Delete

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