Sweet Potato Growing--need help

[ducks4you]

I missed the 4 day window to buy slips from my local FS, the ONLY place locally that solid them in 2012!!! So, I planted store s.potatoes. ONE grew.
Anybody else an expert on this? I was watching "MidAmerican Gardener" this week, and they had an expert who grows 65 varieties and he saves them for next year at the end of the season. I'd like to do that, too. LOVE sweet potatoes for eating.

 

[897tgigvib]

I understand that sweet potatoes and yams are very different, but can they both be started from organic store bought ones? If so, how?

 

[ducks4you]

It's funny. DD left one on her apartment counter several years ago. It sprouted and grew for a good YEAR without watering or soil. I think they are treating the grocery store ones, now.
I'd just like to grow/eat/keep for next year.

 

[897tgigvib]

I can ask, but I don't think they treat things with chemicals at the organic whole foods coop in ukiah.

 

[seedcorn]

I missed the 4 day window to buy slips from my local FS, the ONLY place locally that solid them in 2012!!! So, I planted store s.potatoes. ONE grew.
Anybody else an expert on this? I was watching "MidAmerican Gardener" this week, and they had an expert who grows 65 varieties and he saves them for next year at the end of the season. I'd like to do that, too. LOVE sweet potatoes for eating.

Too late to order sweet potato slips already? We don't get them till middle of May.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yams are a tropical root that we generally cant grow. Maybe somebody way south but not most of us. A lot of things get called yams but true yams are way different from true sweet potatoes.

Ive ordered sweet potatoes from Steele in the past and been happy with what I got. They ship them when it should be the right time to plant in your area.

http://www.sweetpotatoplant.com/

Sweet potatoes are a warm weather crop. They just dont do well at all when the ground is cool. They have different maturation times. The further north you are the more you need the ones with shorter maturity days. Its not that they mature in 90 days versus 110 days, just that some mature earlier than the others.

There are different ways to start sweet potatoes. Heres how I did mine a few years ago.

I put the sweet potato in a cup of water. No toothpicks to hold it up or anything like that. Just leave a little sticking up out of the water.

Dad had his own method. He always used the same pit. He dug a pit, put a layer of fresh chicken manure under it, cover that with a few inches of sawdust, lay a layer of sweet potatoes on that, then cover that with more sawdust maybe 6 deep. He had a frame around it and covered that with cheesecloth to sort of act like a mini greenhouse. Keep as much heat in as he could. I think that was probably the reason for the fresh chicken manure. It would create heat as it composted. The sawdust is a good insulator to keep that heat in plus it is real easy for the sweet potato slip to force its way through. And when it rained it really stayed damp.

Something really important to remember. Sweet potatoes need warmth. If it is too cool in your house they will rot instead of sprout. Hot air rises. Some people set them in top of a refrigerator or something really tall to get them as much heat as possible. I put mine on top of a tall bookcase after they sprout. I have a hot box I made for sprouting seeds by building a box and putting the old style Christmas tree lights in it to provide heat. Im using that right now to start my tomatoes and pepper. When I am ready for sweet potatoes to sprout, which will be another month and a bit, Ill set those cups of water on it to keep it warm.

Some people go to some trouble to root their sweet potato slips before they transplant them. I dont. I just break them off and put them in the prepared row. If you keep that just a little damp, they will grow. Its amazing how tough they are.

If the slips get longer than I want them to be when I set them out, I just cut them back to maybe 6 to 8. No big deal. They sucker like crazy.

To show how tough they are, one year I cut the top off a slip that I felt was too long and just stuck that top in the ground. We got a couple of rains so the ground stayed damp. That cutting without any roots whatsoever grew and produced sweet potatoes.

Some store sweet potatoes are treated to stop sprouts. Not all are but some. So you might want to get them from an organic place or farmers market and chat with them about that.

As an aside, most commercial orange sweet potatoes you buy are Beauregards. These are fairly early maturing.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I missed that about storing them. They are different from regular potatoes. Sweet potatoes like it dry and fairly warm. Its dangerous for me to try mentioning a specific temperature purely from memory, but I think around 60 degrees and low humidity is the way to keep them. And in the dark. Keep then out of sunlight.

 

[ducks4you]

Ridgerunner, that is REALLY helpful advice, AND I have chickens, so I can do this!
Seedcorn, I was talking about last year, not this one. I kept checking FS last year...they didn't have them, then, they didn't have them...then, they didn't have ANY left.
I try to use local venders when possible, but I might resort to ordering from a seed company.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ridgerunner, that is REALLY helpful advice, AND I have chickens, so I can do this!
.

Ducks, my problem with this is I don't know when you should try this outside. Even with the chicken manure, the ground has to warm up some for this to work. Dad had it down exactly when he woud start the sweet potato bed. My brother and I have discussed it but we can't remember exactly when he started. It was probably one of those things that when he thought it was time, he'd do it.

I've got sawdust from untreated wood and some sweet potatoes left over from last year that look like they'll be good for another couple of months. I plan to try it this year just to see if I can get the timing right, but I'm also going to start a couple of sweet potatoes in the plastic cups just to be sure.

 

[Nyboy]

It's funny. DD left one on her apartment counter several years ago. It sprouted and grew for a good YEAR without watering or soil. I think they are treating the grocery store ones, now.
I'd just like to grow/eat/keep for next year.

LOL sounds like my kitchen counters!!