How is everyones sweet potato doing, have you any slips yet? I've got lots of roots & what I think may be slips but they are right at the base of it & at the side but under the water.
Janet
Mine's been sitting in the water for months and it's doing nothing. :(
The other half would love to have some sweet potato growing on the plot, but i'm in the dark as regards growing this.
1. What are sweet potato slips
2. Where to get them
3. When to plant
4. Any chance of some pics of the slips.
All advice would be great.
two of mine are romping away with loads of slips but 2 not will still have more then i have room for
I've got ten slips in 3" pots at the moment from 2 potatoes.
spudly i will try to answer your questions ;
1 - a slip is a growth that is produced on the side of the sweet potato similar to the chitting process on normal potatoes but the growth is broken off and planted instead of the whole potato.
2 - to get slips you have to put a sweet potato pointed end down in a grass of water, then it will produce white roots in the water then leafy growth on the top these are the slips. when these reach 3" long break them off and put in a pot of compost and keep the compost wet until there is signs of new growth.
3 - plant out after risk of frost in the ground and make sure the plant does not touch the ground as it's part of the bindweed family and will start re growing where it makes contact resulting in lots of small potatoes rather than big ones.
harvest before the first frosts.
4 - sorry no pics as camera broke.
For info and pics try this
Growing sweet potatoes (http://downtheplot.com/batatas.php)
It's been weeks since I suspended two tubers above water. Roots started forming on one of them at the end of last week. No sign of sprouts yet. Maybe it's not warm enough on the kitchen windowsill. Anyway, as Eristic says, we must be patient!
Thanks for the replies Carlseawolf & Eristic. Great help :) :) Just reading the link, i think i will leave it until next season to give it a try.
Mine rotted into mush.....................must start another!
Quote from: Doris_Pinks on March 24, 2009, 09:13:59
Mine rotted into mush.....................must start another!
mine too :( will try again next season
Quote from: carlseawolf on March 23, 2009, 21:07:39
3 - plant out after risk of frost in the ground and make sure the plant does not touch the ground as it's part of the bindweed family and will start re growing where it makes contact resulting in lots of small potatoes rather than big ones.
harvest before the first frosts.
So, is growing up a wigwam the best option? I have 3 good shoots and many more on the way on my potato. I wanted to grow them undercover. I have a perspex cube about 1 metre high. I was planning to just plant them under there, but I could fit a short wigwam under? Or, would planting through weed supressant membrane be a better idea? Then it could just trail? What about the spacings for the plants?
sparkly - i was thinking along those lines myself or black plastic to cover the ground.
I just let mine sprawl over the ground and it has never rooted or produced tubers anywhere other than on the main stem. If you want to grow up wigwams, you'll have to tie the shoots in as they don't twine or cling of their own accord.
Thank you , all of you , that is for this information. I am going to attempt this now as I think I have the idea now how it all ends up Thanks once again
Mine took absolutely ages last year but it did a great deal faster when I scrubbed the sweet potatoes very well to begin with.
Anybody tried growing these in buckets or big plastic bins?
Was wondering whether black plastic would give them a bit of a boost in terms of absorbing more heat? Aren't they also a bit of a devil to dig out - heard they go down forever.