Sweat Potato have you started your slips yet?

Raymond James · #1 01/02/14, 08:55 AM

So who has started slips or is getting ready to?

I think I am way to early but looking out the window at the snow and thermometer saying 5 I decided today was the day to think spring.

I have one sweat potato from the grocery left. I put it in a jar with water, tooth picks inserted to keep part of it above the water and the rest in the water.

I will start some more sweat potato slips in mid February using the potato to grow my slips.

Planning on putting a couple plants in the greenhouse this summer, so maybe I am not too early, and let the leaves/ vines run up on a section of cattle panel. The rest will be planted in the garden one it is hot out.

Paquebot · #2 01/02/14, 02:46 PM

Middle of February for starting here. Experimented with some a month earlier last year and they got too leggy. Best to have them off the mother tuber and into water just long enough to show a little root forming. For that matter, don't even need any root as long as soil moisture can be maintained.

Martin

COSunflower · #3 01/02/14, 10:21 PM

Martin, our last date of frost is using about the middle of June...when should I start mine? How long of a growing season do they need? Thanks!!!!

Paquebot · #4 01/02/14, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by COSunflower

Martin, our last date of frost is using about the middle of June...when should I start mine? How long of a growing season do they need? Thanks!!!!

Minimum growing season is 90-100 days for Beauregard and Covington. Centennial and Georgia Jet also in that range but can usually use another 15-20 days. In your short season, may have to resort to something to cover them early and again in the fall. You can still start in February. If slips develop too many roots, snip them off and let start new ones. You don't want a lot of roots or you may get a lot of small tubers. Steele uses a method where the tubers are buried and the slips grow up through the medium. There may be roots over 3" of the slip and I'll snip the slip right above them and plant them as rootless.

Martin

COSunflower · #5 01/03/14, 12:56 PM

Do they transplant well? I'm setting up a shop light over some planter steps that bf made me so thought I could plant the slips in pots when they are ready. Or can they be grown successfully in buckets? I could set up another light over some buckets and then put the buckets outside when warm enough.

Paquebot · #6 01/03/14, 06:41 PM

Slips are easy to transplant. They don't even need roots as long as the soil is kept moist. When transplanted for 6-pack sales, they are broken off at about 2" and into each cell. For garden planting, I like about a 6" slip and put 4" of it in the ground.

Tubers are a part of the root rather than formed separate. Therefore they are deep-rooted and would not be happy in buckets. Besides, with all of the work and expense involved, it would be what I call 10/2. $10 worth of effort for $2 worth of production.

In cold weather zones, advice is to make the mounded rows several weeks prior to planted and cover them with black plastic. When slips arrive, or safe to plant, cut slits where the slips are to go. Plastic is then left on all through the growing season.

Martin

COSunflower · #7 01/04/14, 01:07 AM

Thanks Martin!!!

Paquebot · #8 01/04/14, 01:28 AM

The thing is that they are so easy to grow and yet so demanding. When growing, their vines may go off 6' or more in all directions and yet they do not want any nitrogen. Slips don't even need a single root to become a massive plant. They need a lot of potassium and time. Two 36' rows got a combined 4# of muriate of potash plus 120 gallons of fine-shredded pine boughs. Watering was by flood irrigation by allowing the water to fill in between the rows. That was all more than sufficient for a great harvest and finally something good off O'Henry after 5 attempts to grow a white sweet potato.

Martin

COSunflower · #9 01/04/14, 11:01 AM

Would wood ashes work for potassium?

Paquebot · #10 01/04/14, 11:27 AM

Sweet potatoes like acidic soil in the 5.5-6.5 pH range. Wood ashes would definitely be out.

Martin

PrairieBelle22 · #11 01/07/14, 06:25 PM

My last frost date is April 20. Does starting the slips around mid January sound right?

How do you know how many potatoes to put in water? How many slips will you get from each potato?

And are the potatoes in the grocery store ok to use?

Belle

Paquebot · #12 01/07/14, 07:48 PM

Most of Oklahoma would have a planting period from 22 April to 5 May. End of January sounds good for starting slips.

Number of slips per tuber is an unknown. May be only a dozen or may be 3 or 4 dozen. They'll keep producing more as the early ones are removed.

Those in the stores are good to use but must be a variety which is suited for your area. The purplish-pink ones should be OK for OK.

Martin

ROSEMAMA · #13 01/08/14, 04:17 PM

The is a little old farm lady here (97 y/o) that used to snip off part of a vine when she dug in the fall and made it into a houseplant over winter. Late winter she would take slips off of that for the garden.
I'm trying it this winter (fingers crossed), because (1) I don't have good luck keeping tubers (either home-grown or store bought) for the whole winter, and (2) I'd like to see if I can keep this going without having to buy any kind of new starts each year.
And if it doesn't work, well I'm not out really anything...

COSunflower · #14 01/08/14, 10:29 PM

Let us know if it works!!!