How do you cut your own sweet potato slips?

14 years ago

I have read all sweet potato posts/threads in Garden Web, but we still have questions.

From reading previous threads on the subject it seems that water roots and soil roots are different so soil roots need to be grown separately. We found out after they were already soaking in water and held by toothpicks, with greenery overflowing, so it is too late now. We also read (from these forums) that cutting the sweet potato in pieces is not the thing to do. Now we have sweet potato starts and we were thinking about cutting a little cone around the slips and plant them. Is this right? any other advice on how to start them on the ground? We are thinking containers, in a hot and sunny spot. We seek primarily information on how to cut the slips out, and what to do with them. If this is the way I understand it the same sweet potato (mother) that was used can be reused again and again? like a bottomless source of slips? Here are some pictures, perhaps it will make it easier to answer our questions this way. They do look nice, don't they? We are pretty excited about growing them.

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cabrita
Original Author

14 years ago

Thanks so much for all the advice and information grandad, toogreen, farmerdilla and wayne. It sounds easy indeed, now I wonder why we did not try this before. In the worst heat of the summer, only the okra looked good last year. I cannot believe that plant, flowering when it is 107 F!!!! crazy plant (I love it). This year we are adding cow peas and sweet potatoes to the hot weather vegetable clan. Why not? might as well take advantage of what grows well here and now. We cannot grow parsnips or cherries, so we might as well grow sweet potatoes.

We have several roots (tubers?) starting, I only showed one, but we have white sweet potato and red sweet potatoes. They have different types of leaves, as shown in Farmerdilla's picture. Farmerdilla, your picture is nice, thanks for posting it. We might do a bed just like that, still have a few recycled pieces of lumber to use for garden beds. I think that 500 slips is a bit much for us, we might do from 12 to 20 slips. Since each averages about 6 sweet potatoes, this should give us plenty for feeding two not too large people. Besides, we are also growing other 'starchy' root crops, regular potatoes (to be harvested soon), jerusalem artichokes, chayote (the root is edible) and some weird tropical ones (elephant ears types).

I take it that the level of development shown in the pictures I posted is just about right for taking the slips? not too large but large enough? or perhaps they could be 'harvested' as slips a little younger? We still have them in water but we will plant them in the ground, or in pots, this coming weekend.

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Comments (10)

grandad_2003
14 years ago
Cabrita, when I planted sweet potatoes I just clipped off the slips at about 10 to 12 inches, took off all but the very top leaves, poked a hole in the ground and stuck the slip into it, and packed the soil around the plant stem. That's all. I usually then watered the plants. It was always amazing to me how plant slips could survive the intense Louisiana heat.
toogreen
14 years ago
Your situation looks great.
I do not know how many slips you want, but I do know that if you search the site for SWEET POTATO SLIPS, there is one guy who tells how to use hundreds of slips.

For myself, I have about ten slips going.
If I had your potato, I would cut each of those sprouts off, leaving about half an inch of purple growing part. Then I would put the potato back in the water to let it grow more. It will.
Then I would take the cuttings and stick them in cups of dirt. haha. Done.
But I am sure that there is a better way. I think that each leaf stalk will easily form roots if left in water. So by my method, I would get maybe 10 cuttings. You could get 50, I think. Do you want 50? Ten does it for me. I have never had a situation as good as yours, and I got a lot of sw potatoes last year.
Have fun. Experiment. It looks like you could handle some failure and still have a great year.
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g'day kate, i usually cut the tuber into 2 across the middle and stand both cut ends in some water and keep it that way, don't need a lot of water just enough to keep the ends moist. slips will appear and when about 4"s long i cut off that section of tuber where they are and in some cases you can divide if enuogh slips appear, then simply plant that cut section enough to cover it by about the same depth that it is thick. so lots of slip will be sticking out of the ground, water well untill they take. now the sections of tuber still left will grow more slips so you repeat the process until there is not enough tuber left. roots will appear in the water end of the tuber but you do not need roots on the section that contains the slips. doing it this way will give you lots of growing material without the need to buy lots of tubers or slips. and yes if you want and the slip end of the tuber has no roots you can stand them in a jar of water until they root, but not absolutely necessary. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
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Sweet potatoes do not like cold ground. For this reason they should be planted after your soil temperatures have warmed up. planting them in raised beds with black plastic covering your beds will certainly help. Also selecting varieties that are early maturing varieties will allow you to plant a little later when the ground is warmer and still make a good crop. For rooted cuttings, 2 weeks or so will give them time to push out new roots. You may take your slips directly from the tubers or you can take tip cuttings from the vine tips. For rooted cuttings a 2" cutting with at least 2 nodes stuck in a half peat half perlite mix and put in a high humidity area under mist and preferably bottom heat. For unrooted cuttings your vine tip cuttings should contain at least 4 nodes (approximately 8-10" long) be sure to trim leaves back to a central stem. One thing to consider is that the tubers over several generations pick up viruses that affect your yields. For this reason all of our plants start out from tissue culture where they are screened for viruses.
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I grow slips and have found that sometimes there is no method to the madness. This year I have some cut and some whole. They are all from the same source, and all in the exact same area, yet they all grew at different rates. Like yours some are huge, while others are very small. Some of mine that were cut in half even have different growth rates from their other half. I just think it is random. This is what I will say, if you cut your potatoes you increase the risk of fungus growth around the cut. I don't think it matters, but I have noticed they tend to rot quicker around the cut (obviously). I will be planting mine today as well. I just break them at the base and hope it has a few roots growing there. I'll trim the bottom few leaves and plant them about 3 inches deep. It seems to work for me. From what I understand sweet potatoes are not too picky. You could probably through a potato on some soil and it will eventually root.
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No one seems to have answers for you so I'll give you my thoughts. Container planting for veggies isn't one of my favs for suggestions, never had much success with that method other than possibly a small cherry tomato plant for minimum production. That being said, a max of one plant per 5 gal container is your best bet, I say this because later on when the pepper or sweet potato plant grow large it will keep you pretty busy watering the plants. Also black containers aren't the best color as they will get very hot in the summer sun and roast the roots on the inner wall, so it's best to shade the container portion. And 25 gal containers? would not like to move those when the time comes. Sorry for the dismal report, just too used to planting veggies in the ground where moisture, temperature, and daily attendance is less cumbersome (though weeding part is easier). Good luck!
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farmerdilla
14 years ago
Good photos. I simply grab the potato with one hand, and grab the stem of a slip with the thumb and forefinger of the other hand and pull the slip off the potato, (That is why they are called slips) I then use a dibble or a trowel, make a hole in prepared soil that holds the slip up to the tip (leave a couple inches above ground), drop in the slip, pressed dirt around it with the dibble, pour a bout a pint on water around each plant and go home to bed. I am going to do 250 more plants today after supper. I rarely ever lose a plant and I do about 500. No need to root, they do that very nicely on thier own. {{gwi:55661}}
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
14 years ago
cabrita,

When starts are grown in a water jar, they usually don't have roots on them while in the jar. For the very finest starts....shave a sliver of flesh with each start and put those in 2 inches of water in a warm place. They will root beautifully in about 6 days and are very hardy when set out.

When starts are started in sand, they will root heavily right there and are ready to break off and plant. I start any early ones in water and later ones in sandy soil.
toogreen
14 years ago
Uh yeah.
See what I mean? People are cranking out 500 at a time.
My experience is that they do die, but the conditions have to be very bad. For me, caution is starting them in a cup or poly pot.
I did what farmerdilla did and lost maybe 3 out of 20, and they went down fighting. I bought those slips. I have had better luck with my own.
You will have a good outcome. Just do it, you'll see.
farmerdilla
14 years ago
I like for my slips to be a bout 6 inches. longer is ok, but 12 inch ones I cut in two and plant both halves. You only need one or two potatoes (they are roots not tubers like the Irish potato) to get 12-20 plants. Once you pull the slips off they will keep coming back several times.
toogreen
14 years ago
You know, farmerdilla is the real expert. I think he has great pictures of sweet potato adventures all over this site. Just do a search. He is enthusiastic. Oh. I learned from farmerdilla, by the way... two? years ago?

My humble situation now is 10 small plants going. I have two potato halves producing slips. I guess I cut slips at 1--2 inches because they grow back faster that way, and I am rushing to be in time for the season. It is not ideal, but I have one potato that produced all those plants, so... I get points for economy. The slips start slowly, but they catch up.

Enjoy the weather. Yes Okra is wonderful. Have to warn you about the JChokes. I am a JChoke survivor. They ahem... overproduce and are persistent little devils.
thomascox14
14 years ago
What do i do if i bought sweet potato slips and i cannot plant them for 2-3 more days because it is too wet?
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
14 years ago
Keep the bottom ends in water in the shade.

How do you cut your own sweet potato slips?

cabrita
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How do you cut your own sweet potato slips?

cabritaOriginal Author

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cabrita
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