Thought I would post an update. I ended up with six plants that I transplanted out to the garden around the July 4 holiday. Made two hills and planted three plants per hill. Plants grew nicely in spite of having a rather cool summer. Initially after planting out some unknown insect creature did serious damage to the foliage but it stopped, never reoccurred, and the plants recovered. I know deer love browsing on sweet potato vines so I placed the hills inside my electric fence to protect them from this potential issue. Dug up plants yesterday, harvested 16 pounds of sweet potatoes. I was very happy with the results considering it was a rather cool summer. Biggest mistake I made was that the potted plants got root bound, with roots circling inside the pots. Really had no choice as I could not plant sooner due to heavy rains and cold temps in June. I broke the roots up as best I could when I planted but still got a few goofy shaped tubers, which is no big deal to me. Had sweet potatoes for dinner last night, they were nice but a bit on the bland side. Was not surprise at this because last winter when I bought the original one for rooting I bought a few extras to try and thought those bland as well. Was the whole thing worth it? In the end probably not, but it did not take much effort and it was a fun experiment. It was the first time I succeeded in rooting a store bought sweet potato. I am still against purchasing slips mail order, so if I cannot purchase slips locally at the proper time then starting them myself is the only option. -Tom

I believe Beauregard is the gold standard. Plenty of vendors will tell you that this plant or that plant taste better than or the same as Beauregard but I have never known that to be true. I have had some Beau's that tasted just like regular sweet 'taters but when they're good, they put all others to shame. They taste like you've already made pie or casserole with them! like they've been injected with cinnamon and brown sugar fresh from the soil. Stokes Purple's are a wine red very tasty sweet potato. I believe they do not sell plants of it to the public. I think that one family farm owns the rights to it and they do all the processing and production of products that include it (and they make a million things with Stokes County Purple Sweet Potato!). But they are reddish purple - not that there's anything wrong with that. Okinawa Purple and a few others are bright kid's-toy purple and the color only gets richer when you cook with it. The flavor is sweet like a normal sweet potato - very good roasted and slathered in butter. The tubers offered in the stores are most often from Hawai'i where it is a favorite vegetable. To import them from the islands they are treated with radiation and will rarely sprout vines. I bought my tiny cutting while up in Philadelphia in March from a small Asian Plant shop. She said she imported seeds from Australia since she could never get viable plants here. My plant is doing just fine out in the garden. I should have slips (babies) and at least a pie to bring to the fall swap.

They were started in the house. I kept back some of the best looking sweet potatoes from the most productive hills last fall. I kept them as close to the optimal temps as possible. By spring, the start to sprout on their own. Around early to mid April, I put a layer of potatoes in the bottom of these tubs, then I cover with potting mix and dump a 1/2 gallon of warm water all over to wet the mix and set them in a warm place, my germination chamber, or near to it. They start to sprout and push up more and more. When the temps even out, I take them out to the hoop building to grow, get more sun and sprout more. I just keep the mix moist. This week the temps are in the mid 80s for highs and 60's for lows. No holes in the bottom of the tub. I am just careful with water and I have never had any rot before. It is really simple. I also sell the slips at my market booth. I usually just take the slips, root them and put them in another tub or just take that whole tub. When someone buys some, either pull them up or pull out of the ground, put in a moist paper towel and put the towel and root ends into a plastic bag to stay moist. I will have 4 varieties to grow and for sale this year. Jay

O M G....several of us in this area have proclaimed their wonder!!! But yea!!! I haven't been there in a couple of weeks so I'm so grateful for this info! Our attempts at growing our own have been less that desired. Do you know if they are the Beauregard slips? Those are the ones that do best here. I'll be checking them out tomorrow! Thanks for the "heads up" on this one! K&K is a wonderful source for us in this area. I think they should give us OK GW peeps a discount! We bring them a LOT of business...and for good reason. They are a great business with great people and they have a wonderful stock that works for us around here. I almost always buy any seed I need from them because it's always fresh. Thanks again for the info!