Chaman I always start my roots that way. Don't have any real documented proof, but I believe that they are less prone to have rotting problems when started in potting medium (vs. water) and intact (instead of cut). "Horizontal" put more of the root in contact with moisture and thus, likely to grow sprouts. That's just my reasoning. But there are people who have done the toothpick and water approach for MANY YEARS and they get sweet potatoes! Glenn Drowns, at Sandhill Preservation Center, has been doing quite a bit with sweet potatoes. He has the most extensive collection of varieties, available for sale, that I know of. But he, being in a Northern environment, has also been doing a lot to learn about the plant's requirements. Probably the #1 thing I've heard from him, over the years is that the sweet potato requires HEAT to grow and prosper. Glenn often counsels folk not to plant their starts until the nights and soil are warm. Starting slips in the garden early does not give better results than starting late but with plenty of warmth. Last year he started some varieties towards the end of July and still got good results. I started my last planting here on July 18 and found that two out of three varieties did not plump up quite as well I would have liked. My theory on this is that here in OK we have a number of weeks in the summer, when temps are so high, and we get no precipitation, that a lot of plants just sit there, rather than growing. Still, I would not hesitate to plant any sweet potato (here) anytime in June or early July. Sweet potato vines are incredibly resilient! I do not know why I do lose a slip or two almost every year when planting. But most of the time I put them out and water them (from a can), mainly for my own sake, not for theirs. When we lived in the high desert, in Hidalgo, Mexico; we helped a private school with agronomy. We used flood irrigation, as it rained infrequently. Anyway, I once saw a student harvest sweet potatoes and drop a vine in an unused garden plot. That plot received no irrigation or rain for four months. The vine was crisp and brown. When someone irrigated that plot the vine grew sprouts and rooted again! This was a native variety so folks, don't try this one at home, unless you just want to satisfy your curiosity. In my opinion, sweet potatoes are one of the most neglected and most useful crops a person can grow, and, I believe Northern gardeners really should try them. If one has a really short season or cool nights, then go with earlier varieties and use black plastic mulch. George Tahlequah, OK

Hi - Sorry for late response. Had an unexpected medical issue in my family on Tuesday, got back last night. Larry - good grief - what a photo!! I had no idea. I believe I could get all the slips I need from two good sized potatoes. I'd do that but I want to grow several varieties - a few that did especially well last year, and a few that underperformed that I'd like to try again. Dawn, Pete agrees that I need to get my head examined! I've been relying on what I read, not on personal experience, so I'm limited. I read a post by Farmerdill that he starts planting sweet potatoes in early May and continues into June. His weather is similar to ours re: temps. I don't know how long it takes for sweets to make slips, so decided I'd probably be on safe ground if I started them in late March. The potatoes in the photo don't appear to have changed since I posted that photo and questions last week. Maybe they are smarter than me, know we are still running at least 20 degrees below average - highs and lows. The cool temps will continue this week, at a minimum. I think you're right about a cool April. On the rare occasions that we have sunshine, I put everyone out on the deck, keep an eye on the wind. I've given them a couple of light doses of fertilizer. Some of the Feb started peppers are looking better, but the tomatoes are very leggy. I'm thinking about whether I need to repot them in deeper containers. Planted a lot of seedlings, so the thought of repotting them is daunting. Maybe I'll just repot the leggy ones. George: First, thanks for the info re: abundant slips. I didn't know what to expect. Doesn't sound like a shortage of slips is a common problem. I'm not very familiar with diseases of sweet potatoes yet. Are fungus gnats a common problem in your area? It sounds like you have a solution to that problem, but the gnarly roots are caused by something else. My sweet potatoes looked pretty good when I harvested them, but a fair percentage developed what appear to be fungus-related problems. I think scurf and black rot. Some shriveled up - I threw them away, did not compost them. When I researched sweet potato diseases, the number of fungus related problems was sobering. The solution to most fungus-related problems is crop rotation and planting "disease-free roots treated with fungicides." I don't have more available land - this was the first time anyone grew sweet potatoes or anything else on this land. Guess I need to learn how to treat roots with fungicides. You have gnarly roots, I have funguses (fungi?). It's always something. Our vegetable gardens will keep us sober or drive us to drink! Take care, Pam

Kim, The only place I can think of that might still have slips in his part of TX (and it is farther south than he is) is Mike's Garden Center off Hwy 114 in Southlake. I don't remember what exit they are, but I think it is the one just before White Chapel Road. I saw sweet potato slips there about a month ago, but haven't been there since. They often have them through at least the first week in June. I haven't grown sweet potatoes from Glenn's Sandhill Preservation Center, but have grown from slips from Duck Creek Farms and they did great. You can look at Gary's list of varieties for this year and see how he categorizes them in terms of them being early, mid-season or late-season varieties. His descriptions normally make it clear if they are early producers or not, and with some varieties he describes the number of days it takes to get a nice harvest. With other varieties, if you Google them you can find out how long it takes each variety to mature. Since you're so far north and starting late, if I were in your shoes, I'd grow some early types this year. Since your FIL is much further south, I think he could plant any type in the next week or two and expect a great harvest. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Duck Creek Farms' 2013 Sweet Potato Varieties

Larry, you certainly can make cuttings from your existing planting. You don't even have to wait for them to grow roots. Just snip and plant. Keep them watered for about a week, and you're good to go. Krista, I too have some good memories of purple fleshed sweet potatoes. I lived, with my family, in Mexico, for nearly 14 years. During the last 8 plus years we lived where I could grow sweet potatoes. I obtained starts of Red Wine Velvet (our family's heirloom) from Sandhill Preservation Center. But I also set about finding native Mexican "varieties," growing, and collecting them. I put "varieties" in quotation marks, as the locals hardly thought in terms of "varieties." The purple skinned, white fleshed "variety," which was the most common, was called "camote morado," meaning "purple sweet potato." But they also had a rarer purple fleshed sweet potato. I obtained a start after a couple of years search. I was able to grow it for several years. But when we returned to the USA I couldn't bring any sweet potato material back (by law). So, I lost several varieties which I really liked. George