Sweet Slip Success

I've been growing sweet potatoes for just a few years now and have enjoyed them immensely.  This past year provided a solid stash of taters that we're still eating from just a week shy of the Spring Equinox.  It has been incredibly satisfying.  They have stored very well this time around.  Thankfully, our basement is not heated and hovers around 50F all winter.  Apparently, this is the perfect temperature.  I don't have any rotting or wilting sweet spuds to speak of. 

I was very careful when digging them this year.  Not many injuries to the skins and I held off on removing any dirt.  I stored them in large bins in single layers separated by newspaper.  We still have several layers to work through.  For the first time, several of the stored sweet potatoes put out sprouts.  I've tried, for several years to grow my own 'slips' from the previous years' harvest and have failed miserably.  I tried the kindergarden style toothpick method in a glass of water.  Also, the planting of the potato in the sand.  I've also tried just putting them in regular potting soil.  I was met with rot every single time.  This year, things were looking good since we had sprouts.  I tried the kindergarden method again but without the toothpicks, and it worked like a charm.  Mind you, it took several weeks in a warm greenhouse to get that sucker growing, but it did.

The stem grew long enough that I was able to take two cuttings and left a few inches on the sweet potato so that it could grow out some more.  The cuttings are rooting in a glass of water now.  I will plant those once they root and allow them to grow out a bit.  Once I have a full plant (closer to our June planting time), I will take cuttings again and allow them to root.  These will be the 'slips' that I plant out into our garden.

I'm very excited and our local garden center probably will be too.  I'm THAT customer that calls them almost daily in late spring to find out if/when their slip shipment will arrive.  They're a HOT item in our area and they move quickly, so it's easy to miss out.  Many online sources for slips are just insanely expensive so I was determined to make this happen on my own.

I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, but things are looking good for another excellent sweet tater year!

Sweet potato sprout (post-cuttings)