Update on Growing Sweet Potato Slips

Peggy shows the healthy crop of roots
formed when the slip was grown from
the pointed end of the potato when
it was submerged.  Sweet potatoes are
not tubers, they are just expanded roots,
so a healthy initial growth of roots should
help produce a larger harvest of 
sweet potatoes.  When planting, make 
sure to spread the roots out well as
contorted and tangled roots will produce 
contorted and tangled potatoes

The sweet potato slips we started on February 4 are ready to go into the ground (as soon as it warms up just a little more).  This answers a question we got – how long does it take to grow sweet potato slips.  The response is — about two months. So decide on the date you want to plant your sweet potatoes and then count back two months for the date on which to begin your starts.  Sweet potatoes can be planted up through the middle of June and still produce a crop. They prefer to wait for planting until the soil reaches 70 degrees, or until the pecans and hickories begin to leaf out. The slips will hold in plain water changed every other day for quite some time and will continue to grow before planting.     

We’ve been growing sweet potato slips for several years and this year we made at least one new observation. There actually is an up and down when you place the sweet potatoes in water to grow the slips. Sweet potatoes usually have a pointed end and a rounded “butt“ end. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which. The preferred end to go in the water is the pointed end of the potato with the rounded or butt end up.

Left:  water container holding slips after they are
detached from the potatoes at abou 6” to 8” long. 
Center:  sweet potato submerged with pointed end
down.  Right:  shoots emerging from sweet
potato submerged with pointed end up.  These
will need to be removed and held in a 
separate container of water to grow  
roots before planting. 

Shoots will emerge from the pointed end regardless of whether it’s facing up or down.  If it’s pointing down the shoots will grow up out of the water and will also grow roots while they’re submerged so when you detach them from the potato, they are ready to put in the ground. 

Shoots growing from the pointed end when it’s pointed up and out of the water will need to be removed from the potato and placed in a separate container of water to grow roots before they are planted in the ground. So growing the slips with the pointed end of the potato down in the water is the preferred method because it skips a step, but either way will work.