Growing Your Own Sweet Potato Slips

Sweet potato slips being grown by
MG Evelyn Gonzalez

You still have time to grow your own sweet potato slips for summer planting. In addition to the cost savings, one of the advantages of growing your own is the ability to plant different varieties of sweet potatoes than those usually found in plant nurseries and big box stores. Many varieties of sweet potato slips can be ordered from online companies, but they are even more expensive and don’t always arrive in the best shape.

To grow your own all you need is a sweet potato. A number of groceries in town stock several varieties. I recently found four varieties at Whole Foods. Smaller potatoes work better. You’ll need a jar or glass for each potato you want to sprout, some long sharply pointed toothpicks, your selected potatoes, and water. The potatoes should be small enough to fit in the jar or glass vertically with some space around them. In other words, the potato needs to be somewhat smaller in diameter than the opening in the glass. Insert three or four toothpicks evenly around the circumference about halfway up the potato so that it can be suspended in the glass with the toothpicks resting on the rim, and half of the potato below the rim and half above. Fill the glass with water, insert the potato and set it in a sunny window. Change the water every two or three days.

After several weeks sprouts will begin to grow out of the top and from the sides of the potato. When each sprout reaches about 6 to 8 inches, simply break it off flush with the potato and place the sprouts in another glass with water where they will form roots and continue to grow. You will also get some sprouts below the water level that will develop roots before they are pulled from the potato. These can be pulled off with the roots attached and  placed in the holding glass of water. When you have as many sprouts/slips as you want, and the ground is nice and warm, plant them in the garden or an open area and in about three months, you will be able to dig your own sweet potato crop.