Sweet potato slips - growing advice please!

[plot51A]

After reading a thread here a while ago I put a couple of sweet potatoes (Sainsburys basic best!) over a jar of water to see if I'd have any luck producing slips.

They both have lots of roots and slips growing fast, the longest now about 3.5" long.

My questions are how long can I leave the slips on the mother potato? Once removed, do I have to root them first or can they go straight into growing medium?
Presumably they need a fair bit of warmth and frost protection. Can I grow them in sacks, buckets or pots like ordinary potatoes?

All and any advice is most welcome. Many thanks!

[plot51A]

[allaboutliverpool]

At 3.5 inches, they are ready for potting.

You have got them going very early and you will have to keep transferring them to bigger pots until they are ready to go out.

See my web page for the 2008 lessons and results.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_Vegetables_sweetpotatoes.html

Last year was worse, I think the weather was not good enough and all I got was green tops and very few sweet potatoes.