It is really late to just now be putting sweet potato slips in the ground., and I realize it is not your fault they are so late. Depending on the variety, sweet potatoes need roughly 90-140 days to produce a good crop, and they need for the soil temperatures during that 90-140 days to remain above 55 degrees. I believe that Texas A&M says that sweet potatoes should be planted no later than 150 (or maybe it is 155) days before your soil temperatures in autumn begin falling to or below 55 degrees. For me, here in southern OK, that would mean I need to put them in the ground in early June at the latest, which means that your're running roughly 4-6 weeks behind for my area. Since you're a lot further north and west, I'm not sure how much that changes things. I would assume your soil temperatures cool down earlier than mine in the fall, but maybe not too much earlier because our first average frost dates are not too different from one another. In the life of a sweet potato, 4-6 weeks is a significant amount of time. Sweet potatoes are a tropical crop and the tubers themselves can suffer chill injury if exposed to temperatures below 55 degrees. I hope that the varieties you chose are on the shorter end of the DTM spectrum as that will increase your chance of getting a good yield.

If I were planting them this late, I'd try to put them in a spot that is in full sun now and that still will be in full sun in October and November because they're going to need every bit of sunlight they can get, especially as we move into autumn and daylength shortens dramatically compared to what it is right now. Then, I'd keep them well-watered in their first month of growth since the weather is already so very hot right now. If they are completely bare slips with no roots formed at all yet. they will need to be watched closed to make sure the soil is staying moist enough for them to form roots. Whether they arrived with some roots already formed or not, expect daily wilting in the temperatures we're having now. That would be normal and don't let it freak you out. The key will be to check them in the evening and to make sure they recover from the wilting as the sun begins to sink low in the western sky. Remember that wilting often occurs because of high temperatures and does not automatically indicate that the plants need water.

If your weather will stay sunny and warm deep enough into autumn, I think you still could get a good harvest, but if it turns cold and rainy too early, that wouldn't be a good thing. Were it to occur, you might be able to baby along the sweet potatoes in the cooler weather by putting up low tunnels over them using plastic or medium-weight floating row cover to help hold in the heat at night. Be sure to open up the ends of the tunnel every morning to allow good air flow so disease doesn't set in.

Really, all you can do is plant them and water them and get them off to the best start possible at this point. Then, there's nothing much you can do except hope for cooperative weather. The time you'll need to be extra-careful with them will be at harvest time. Due to their late start, you'll be harvesting late and that's not a really big deal except it complicates the curing process.

Sweet potatoes need to be cured, at a bare minimum, for 7-10 days at air temperatures of 80-90 degrees and a high relative humidity, preferably 85-90%. Curing is important not only to ensure that the sweet potatoes store well, but also to ensure their flavor develops well. Normally, I cure them outdoors on tables set up on the covered patio. This gives them a pretty warm location, particularly with heat reflecting off the wall of the adjacent garage. Usually in fall the humidity is decently high, unless we're in extreme or worse drought and the dewpoints and RH values are staying low. I suspect you may have to cure yours indoor someplace this fall unless your part of TX stays really hot deeply into autumn. If cold weather comes early or if I harvested the sweet potatoes late, I either cure them in the greenhouse, closing it up well before sunset to hold in the heat as deeply into the night as possible, or I cure them indoors. Curing them in the greenhouse requires special attention and a fan running 24/7 to make sure they don't get too hot on sunny afternoons and start to shrivel up or rot.

Now, here's a special note about Thanksgiving: If you want home-grown sweet-potatoes for the Thanksgiving holiday, research the varieties you chose and find out what you can about their estimated DTMs. Target the ones with the shortest DTMs and use those for your Thanksgiving meal. I'd mark them by hammering a stake into the ground and tying something bright to it----I often use surveyor's tape to mark a plant or plants that I need to "remember" for some special reason. Keep an eye on them in September and early October, and harvest the tubers a good 2-4 weeks before Thanksgiving to give their starches time to convert to sugars, which is an important part of the curing process. Cure them indoors to ensure the starch-to-sugar conversion occurs.

The good thing about getting a late start with sweet potatoes is that they can be harvested and used at any size the gardener wishes, so it isn't like you won't get a harvest. It is just that the harvest is likely to be lower than it would have been if you'd planted them 4, 5 or 6 weeks ago. That's likely the reason that SPC sent you extra slips----to try to ensure that you'd get the same overall yield even if it takes twice as many slips to get it. Now, cross your fingers and hope for a long, warm autumn....or even a long, hot autumn.

TAMU usually recommends using a starter solution (aka as a root stimulator) to get sweet potatoes off to a good start, but I've never done that. In your case, that might be something that would help your plants get rooted and growing as quickly as possible given that they are being put into the ground so late. Let me see if I can find one of their "how to grow sweet potatoes" fact sheets and link it below.

Good luck. I hope this late start doesn't have too much of a negative impact on your crop.

Dawn

Sweet Potato Info From Texas A&M University

I've never used anything on their roots, and they always do well. I have planted mid season varieties as late as July 18 and had decent roots. But, again, it does depend on conditions. So far, this summer is looking REALLY good for sweet potatoes, especially, in my opinion, for late planted ones. We have had heat and we've had rain. I just planted my last ten feet for the season, last week, and they are starting to perk up pretty well.

If they don't produce very well, because of conditions and late planting, by all means, set aside some roots for starting slips in 2016. I'll include a link for how to start your own.

Sandhill has had a truly challenging season so far. I spoke with Glen Saturday and it had been raining and with a high of 68 F! (Kind of made me wish I could visit and cool off for a while!)

Yes, Dawn makes an excellent point about giving your sweets time to cure. I think that, probably, my most common mistake, is to wait too long, trying to squeeze out every possible day of growing season, before I start harvesting. But late harvested sweet potatoes are often damaged by cold rains, even before frost. I don't believe they grow all that much those last two or three weeks. So, I hope, this year, to start harvesting right at the end of September.

Good luck! If everything works out, you should be very happy come fall!

George
Tahlequah, OK

Thank y'all so much. There were recommendations on the web for using black plastic but we are so hot here until September I didn't want to cook them.

Great point about marking with a stake. I had ordered the misc. asst and wow I am so happy with what they picked for me. Some early and most midseason. I plan to plant the earlies separately. I will be planting in 4 different areas but all are full sun. I have some already going pretty good from my own accidental starts so I will have some in September from those hopefully. Sweet potatoes are my favorite since its really the only starch/carbs I get. Love to fry with cinnamon and apples for breakfast. They sent me quite a few whites which I have been wanting to try.

all the slips have massive roots. So far I unpacked, cleaned off the dead rotten leaves, and put each variety separate in a pot of moist soil till I can plant out tomorrow night. Misted and set outside in the partial shade. tomorrow I will move to sun. I was planning to mulch around them to help with moisture but would that be good or no?

Kim, I probably wouldn't use black plastic for the exact reason you mentioned, but you could use it if you could put an inch or two of mulch over it to keep the plastic from being hit directly by the rays of the sun. Using black plastic is a two-edged sword. It absolutely would keep the weeds down, but unless covered with a thick layer of mulch, it would cook the soil and, hence, could cook the roots too. Another down side to using black plastic (maybe not a big concern this year as long as the rain remains plentiful) is that it could interfere in how much water reaches the plants. With it being this hot, I'd rather let all the rainfall or irrigation reach the roots instead of having a lot of it run off black plastic or puddle on top of it.

Mulch generally is good, but keep it back an inch or so from where your plants come out of the ground. When the ground and/or plants are wet, having mulch right up against the sweet potato plant stems can lead to rot or fungal diseases. Also, by leaving a little space between the mulch and the plant stems you'll be able to keep an eye on any little varmints that might start eating the sweet potato stems right at ground level.

I'm glad they have massive roots. That will help them a lot.

George, I hate to hear that it has been such a tough year for Glenn and Linda there at SPC. I've always marveled at how many seed lines they maintain as well as how many breeds of rare poultry they raise and don't know how they manage to do it all in a good year, much less in a bad year. I hope their weather improves and the second half of the summer is better for them than the first. Right now, though, I'd love to have a high of 68 degrees. That sounds so incredibly nice.

The heat index numbers this week in NE OK are ridiculously, almost off-the-charts high. I look at the maps and can't believe my eyes. Y'all be sure and stay cool there.

Dawn

Yes, it feels as hot as I've ever experienced, even though the actual temperatures aren't so extreme. Guess it's the humidity. Last night we had to shear a sheep which we had missed earlier. By the time we finished I could literally wring sweat out of my cloths (mixed with lanolin and sheep poop). We started after 8 PM too!

I LOVE white sweet potatoes. Two of my absolute favorites are Brinkley White and Grand Asia. Brinkley White is quite sweet when cooked properly. Grand Asia isn't as sweet. But when cooked a good long time, it is still quite tasty; and, it outproduces most other varieties, probably by two to four times. Grand Asia will produce huge roots. But a late planting should produce smaller, sweeter roots. It's one variety I would choose, if planting late.

George

We got white delight, white bunch, Dingess white. Dingess pink tint, and white travis There are several cream varieties too. I am going to get those babies in tonite by moonlight if I have to. The only color I didn't get was red but I have two tags I cant read so maybe one of those will surprise me. I don't know anything about different varieties but I have never met a sweet potato I didn't like. Some have been dry or stringy from the grocery store but they were still appreciated. Our famous sweet potato guy here sold out last year before I got any.

Last year I grew some decent sweets cured them just right and they lasted all winter in the house. This spring I tried to sprout in pans of soil, didn't work so I threw the whole mess outside in a raised bed threw mulch on top and wow slips! I have been pulling them and planting for over a month. Most have not made it thanks to hungry bunnies we have since run them off. But several are nice long vines. So I guess the best way to get slips is get mad and ignore the potato...

The reason they probably didn't sprout for you, at first could be one of two things, or both. First, they might have been stored in too cool an environment. This damages them. I once lost all my "seed" this way and had to start over. Secondly, it may not have been warm enough when and where you tried sprouting them. Some people will actually place their "seed roots" in an incubator for a couple of weeks before they plant them in trays. This seems to get them ready to sprout.

George

George, I bet the sheep were thrilled to be sheared and I bet y'all were equally thrilled to have that task out of the way.

I've been running the sprinkler in the yard for a hour or so a day so the chickens can cool off in its mist. The wild birds come and join them and we have a big sprinkler party for about an hour a day. It is amazing how much better the "rain-cooled" air feels in that area where I've just run the sprinkler for a while. So, I'm not watering the lawn or trees.....but I'm watering the birds.

Kim, I still have some sweet potatoes stored upstairs from last year's crop, and there were so many left that I skipped planting any this year.

One of these days, if you don't have it in your mix this year, you'll need to grow the Bugs Bunny variety for the littleman. It is one of my favorites, and not just because of the name. The year that I grew it, I got it from Gary at Duck Creek Farms here in OK. He generally ships from mid-May through mid- to late-June, so his shipping fits my planting calendar pretty well. Glenn Drowns also offers Bugs Bunny on his sweet potato list.

Dawn

I bet that too cool was the problem. Unless my grandson is here I keep the house around 62 in the winter. I tried the potato in water year before last and never got one slip but probably same the same reason too cool.

I am excited on this new sweet potato venture. I am going to keep track of which ones do what so next year I can get an earlier start LOL and I will try the bugs bunny too

I tried to sprout a purple ula this year, it rotted. I bought some sweets at sprouts, they rotted. The other day I was in the spare room and I see a green plant. What the heck? A forgotten sweet potato was reaching for the window. No soil, no water, just the window. Then the bag from Aldi's was full of sprouting potatoes. I have about 5 that will go in late as well. We will see.

Amy, That's how I sprout sweet potatoes. I forget the last few in storage from last year's crop, or one falls out of the plastic bin and rolls into a back corner of the pantry or whatever, and I notice it when I see the green sprouts reaching for light. There's nothing wrong with a little accidental success!

Dawn

Ok 3 days later they are tucked in. I ran out of daylight twice. Trying to remodel a camper move pack and garden is keeping me busy!

Yay! At least they are in the ground now. Kim, you sound like you're staying too, too busy.

I only run out of sunlight in spring. In the summer, I run out of heat tolerance before I run out of sunlight.

In the summer, ideally, I need to be in bed BEFORE it is dark as I get up around 3:20 AM. Chores are done by headlamp, summer, fall, winter and spring."
I just snuck out to the garden and put up a trellis for some beans, weeding a little bit, and ... Man! It will take longer to recuperate from it than it took to be out there working! Hot!

I usually get up really early too but my schedule is so wacky right now I am more a newborn. sleep a few hours awake a few. This heat is wearing me out. I have been painting and remodeling in a hot camper for too long. I want to go back to the garden!

Grand total of 235 slips not counting mine I accidentally sprouted. The leaves were pretty well rotted when I got them so most of them did not have any leaves at all. But now they are all mostly sprouting new leaves. yay! Some of those little stems were only 2" but if it had a root I planted it. Cant wait to see who does the best of 21 types.

I'm always amazed at how bedraggled a slip can look, and still make it. Twenty-one varieties! Wow! That's a LOT!

it is. When I spoke with SPC before they shipped they said they would double my order and I assumed 10 varieties 200 slips. Well its exciting to be trying out all these different types. I have a master list of plantings in case the tags/stakes get relocated.

Somehow my sweet potato plants always seem to eat my plant tags. I'll start looking for a tag to see the name of a certain variety and it won't be there. Then, when I dig sweet potatoes the tag mysteriously appears several inches down deep in the soil. I don't know how the tags "sink" into soil that isn't being cultivated during the growing season, but it happens.

ok update
235 plus 24 minus bout 50. Not really sure if its grasshoppers bunnies or fate but I am fine with it. the survivors look amazing and so happy to have at least 50 since that was my original goal. many are vining some are bushy. Cant remember where my master list is but hopefully I will find it before I have to start digging them up. Some varieties completely died out. And some varieties I didn't lose one slip. Those are the ones I like! Hardy and vigorous, will see how they produce.

My garden has done it's own thing and is a little out of hand. LOL

And my sweetpotatoes have eaten the sidewalk and have stretched about 6 feet in all directions.

I hope Larry doesn't have a heart attack when he sees my garden. His is always neat and mine loses that feature about June. LOL

Yes. But where's the Johnson Grass?! (Major feature in my August garden).

Carol, I think your garden looks nice. Mine is not neat this year, We have been caring for my 90 year old mother, who has to have someone with her all the time and a lot of trips to the doctor.

My peppers and okra still look pretty good. The deer have eaten nearly all of my sweet potatoes, but I have grown some of the largest cantaloupe I have ever seen. The one with the yellow tape measure on it is about a foot long and over 26" around it. I did not install my watering system or electric fence, so with no time to weed or water thing look pretty bad around my house.

George, I don't think I have any Johnson grass, but I have every other kind and lots of weeds. Some years I am able to keep it pretty clean (but not orderly), but this year I have not kept up very well.

Carol, Personally, I love the out-of-hand garden. I call it the garden jungle look. My garden was a jungle until the rain stopped falling. Now it is a half-dead and very parched garden. I just haven't been willing to water heavily enough to keep it in that jungle state. I hope today's and tonight's forecasted rainfall helps save what is left of the garden, which hasn't had real rainfall in 41 days. It did get .01" on two different days, but that's not enough to keep the jungle happy. The radar-indicated rainfall maps shows we've had a tenth or two-tenths more rain in that 41 days, but it must have evaporated before it reached the ground because we didn't have any rainfall in the gauges or on the ground.

My only problem with a garden jungle is that you cannot see the snakes, not that I want to see them, but I need to see them before they see me.

George, I have Johnson grass, although it is withering and dying in areas where I haven't watered. It is a feature in my garden in July and August of every year, though I wish it were not. Sadly the Johnson grass is big and green and healthy in the areas where I have watered.

Larry, I've seen some gardens that look pretty bad, and yours is NOT one of them. Lots of folks around my part of the county plant in the spring and never weed and only occasionally water, so that by August their garden is either 100% dead and producing nothing, or there is head-high Johnson grass hiding whatever crops might be left.

I realize your garden is not up to your usual standards, but it still is growing and producing, and I know that you never will regret the time spent caring for your mom.

I have more weeds in the lower half of the garden than usual because I never could get to them in the rainy season and once I lost control, I was afraid to walk down there for fear of stepping on a snake. If we get good rainfall, I'm going to be brave and weed the upper half of the garden, except for the grass-infested zinnias which might be harboring snakes. There's no way I'd stick my hands in there to weed at this point, so the zinnias will have to tolerate growing with weeds. Then, once the top half of the garden is cleaned up, I'll use the string trimmer to mow down as many weeds in the lower half of the garden. I had sweet corn and squash down there earlier in the year, but now it is only flowers, herbs and weeds.

I never planted edible sweet potatoes this year because of the perpetually wet soil through early July, but have a few ornamental ones in pots, and I haven't even managed to water them enough since the rain stopped falling in order to keep them looking very happy. Hopefully rain is returning and things will perk up. It appears I have some sweet potatoes growing in the compost pile out back, but the deer regularly eat them down to the ground.

Dawn

Finally houzz let me in. And i am on my phone. I have been enjoying lurking but so wanted to post picture of my oklahoma nugget sweet potatoe. Not the biggest but I think one of the prettiest leaves. Carol I did not show those pix to my sweets they would be so jealous.

HaHa, we will see who is jealous when harvest time comes. I have so many things competing for the same space that the potatoes may do nothing. I was out there today fighting my way through them and moving some around a little so I could harvest other things. The trellis shown in the 2nd picture above is now so overgrown that I can't walk through it and I had to make my way to the end of the garden and come back up the row (once a sidewalk). I had a huge zuchetta squash that I couldn't see until I came from the other direction. Between it and the Seminole squash vine they are taking over. I picked cucumbers Thursday afternoon and made pickles. My vines have lasted all summer and look like they are dying, but that is today's haul except for the big ones which I had already given to the chickens. I didn't take a basket to the garden with me but grabbed a plant tray so I could bring things inside, so that will give you an idea of the size of the squash that I couldn't see through the vines.

Dawn, I can see 3 squash forming on my Seminole plant and they appear to be the right thing this year. Maybe I finally got the right seeds.

My cucumbers are still producing like mad. I haven't had time to harvest any decent ones but the pigs don't mind. This week will be better for me I will have more time to be in the garden.

I never did get my zuchetta planted. I just didn't have any place left that it could take over.

Carol, Yay! After all these years of trying, you've got what looks like the real thing. That's so funny that it took so long. I have to say that last year I grew the larger-fruited strain of Seminole that somebody is selling separately from the regular size (maybe Southern Exposure Seed Exchange) and I got exactly what you had a couple of years ago with the really large Seminoles. I'm still more partial to the smaller-fruited ones though because they are the exact size for Tim and I for one meal. The larger-fruited ones might be the exact size for a larger family though.

Kim, There's always next year!

Dawn

Dawn, they are still growing and the largest is now about softball size and the shape is almost round to almost pear shape. I have only noticed about four squash, but as huge as the vines are I'm sure their are a lot more that I just haven't seen. What is your favorite way to cook them? Al didn't like the others I grew, so I will be happy to have a smaller one because I may be the only one to eat them. Winter squash (except spaghetti squash and pumpkin) is about the only vegetable he doesn't like.

That does sound like the right shape and size for the original strain of Seminole. I don't know that I have one specific favorite way to cook them, though I do like to cut them in half and bake them. Then you can season them with whatever spices you like and a little butter or margarine and eat them right out of the shell (or scoop out the meat and mash it and serve it in bowls or on plates). I use Seminole pumpkins in virtually any recipe that calls for sweet potatoes, pumpkins or winter squash. They are very versatile and make great pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake or pumpkin muffins. You can use them to make candied yams at Thanksgiving and no one really will realize they aren't yams. They make a great pumpkin soup. I'm going to link an old thread below where I posted a couple of winter squash recipes that I sometimes use for Seminole (or any other winter squash). Then, within the thread linked below, there's another link to a different thread with a couple more recipes, including one dish I made after finding the recipe in Amy Goldman's marvelous book "The Compleat Squash". It is too early and my brain isn't awake yet, but when I think of other squash recipes that aren't included in the thread I'm going to link (or the thread linked inside that link), I'll come back and add them here.

I did a search and think I am in the correct forum.There is a lot of good info here and this may have been covered. This spring I purchased organic sweet potatoes from WF's in Texas. I left one in a basket in the butler's pantry counter so it was in a low light, air conditioned area.It began to sprout and I ignored it. I took it to N. CA, left it on the kitchen counter and it continued to produce lots of leafy stems. Eventually, I took some cuttings, rooted them and planted them in a raised garden, automatic drip.I gave some away.Now, I have this mother potato continuing to spout like crazy and I don't know what to do with it. Give it to the deer? Plant the entire tuber?Stick it on top of the soil?Toss it?Will it or the cuttings ever produce?One of the posts does not recommend a September planting, but here we are in September wondering what to do.Thanking y'all in advance.

Dogstargem, I am not real familiar with the climate in Northern California. But I would say you need about 100 days of warm weather (warm to hot days and nights which are above 60 F.) to produce a crop of roots from a planting.

You could grow this root like a house plant and take cuttings in the spring. I've done this on occasion.

George