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

cut off the rotted part i'd suggest without the luxury of vision. if the slips are long enough at least 2"s say remove them and that part of the tuber. see our presentation, we never use the tooth pick method. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens growing sweet spuds and pines

I measured in my deck is 24 inches off the ground. First step up is 13 inches. The pot is 22 inches high. The green fine trails down to the tech which if I am OK get on the deck with the easy to get it to VINE. The purple VINE does not trail down the 13 inch pot. It looks like just sell used at the top of the plant I’ve been eaten. I thought possibly a deer because it would be the right height to eat the leaves on the top. It’s just that we seldom ever get deer in our backyard playing on the main road. Once this winter we saw their foot prints come in the back gate, and turned around When they saw there was no other way out and Went back down the driveway and down the main road (Warwick Avenue).

Larry, I have a couple of thoughts on the yellowing leaves, but I don't know that I have any solutions to recommend. Like Carol, I think it might be heat stress or drought stress. However, if you had several inches of rain in a fairly brief period recently, then it likely is something else--possibly fungal disease or maybe something bacterial, unless..... Unless you planted them in a nematode infested area. In that case it might be nematode damage. Another thing I can think of that might cause the yellowing foliage would be fusarium wilt, but if that is what it is you'll know pretty quickly. Usually it hits the plants one day and all you notice is yellowing leaves, and then within another day or two you see the yellowing leaves followed by wilting and plant death. There is not a cure once fusarium hits. Generally I do not see diseases on sweet potatoes except following a period of very heavy rainfall, and then I'll see one of the rot diseases that causes the stems and/or leaves to turn black and rot. If the plants looked bad when you planted them, then the best thing to do at that time would have been to dip them in a fungicide recommended for sweet potatoes. Sometimes that can prevent further fungal issues from developing. Sorry, I feel like I'm not being very helpful. What I likely would do would be to gently dig in the soil near the most yellowed, most wilted plant and see if the soil is either excessively wet or excessively dry. I'd try to push back the soil from the crown of the plant where the foliage emergences from the ground and check for any sign of disease on the stems. If Daconil still is labeled for use on sweet potatoes, you could try spraying the foliage of your plants, or you can use copper as long as the label doesn't warn against using it in excessively high temperatures. If the problem is a fugal disease, that likely would keep it from spreading from one plant to another. Sweet potatoes are prone to many diseases that cause leaf spotting and yellowing but I think they must be more common in humid areas because I just don't see them here in my area where it usually is hot and dry with relatively low humidity during sweet potato season. George may have some ideas for you since his climate and weather in general are more like yours than mine are. Finally, if you see this disease hit and then move up a row of plants, one after another, in a straight line, that would seem like it might be cotton root rot, which I had trouble with in Texas, and for the first couple of years here. Cotton root rot's name can be misleading because you don't have to have grown cotton in a specific area in order for your plants to get it. It is soil-borne and affects several thousand different plants. I think there's only a really slim, almost miniscule, chance it would be CRR though. Dawn