Last year I planted 8 slips, totally ignored them and ended up with about 40 tubers. I have rocky soil, so a lot of them were quite...creative. I think 24 skips would probably get you what you want even accounting for reasonable losses. Sweet potatoes store a long time in ideal conditions, but a whole year seems unlikely, but slices dehydrate nicely and sweet potato au gratin is very tasty. (The ugly ones also make great dog treats.)

In NW Phoenix you can get seed potatoes at Sunrise Nursery, 59th Ave and T-Bird. Just south of T-Bird on west side of the street. I bought 3 varieties: Yukon Gold Red La Soda and Red Russet I think you should start them now. It's my understanding that the sweet potatoes like our hot temps. White russets do not do very well here. I'll attach a link that has a bit of info. HTH. Mary Here is a link that might be useful: Potato Gardening

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

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.