Sweet potatoes........................ GRRRRRR

[Ridgerunner]

@Smart Red I put mine in water. You can see the roots at the bottom of the potatoes and even a slip stating down there on one of them. Eventually the slips on top will get roots too. I think yours might do better if you put them in water and keep them in a warm spot. The water does not go all the way to the top of my potatoes but is pretty close.

Eventually I'll cut the vines into 8" or 9" lengths, strip the bottom couple of leaves off, and set them in water. They will root and the original vine will send out a sucker and keep growing. I had over 40 slips off of two sweet potatoes last year doing it this way.

Watch your water. It will get kind of nasty so you might want to change it out every now and then. There's just something about that stagnant water smell in the house.

You can see where rats chewed the tops of some of mine last year, look at the one on the left. The potatoes healed and stored fine and are good to eat but I was not pleased. I've never had rats that bad before. I've taken five out of that part of my garden in the last month and a half to try to thin them down even though the garden is pretty dormant.

 

[Smart Red]

Will do, ridgerunner.

 

[Devonviolet]

Thanks @Ridgerunner, for talking about doing your slips. I have done that in the past. But, we have had major water issues, since last Dec., due to all the rain we have been getting here, in NE Texas. I wanted to get slips started, but it didn't register that I needed to get my slips started NOW! DUH! I'll have to get some SP the next time we go to town.

 

[Devonviolet]

The ONLY thing I could come up with reviewing some of the files I've saved is your soil. The sources all say, "Loose, and WELL DRAINED". You said that you planted in wet soil. Did it puddle a lot? Maybe it was too wet?
"Loose soil is more critical than almost any other factor when it comes to growing sweet potatoes successfully."
http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/outdoors/gardening/how-to-plant-and-grow-sweet-potatoes
I transplanted Lily of the Valley from where it had outgrown the bed next to my house. The ground rises to my 100yo house, so ALL beds drain well. I put several to the north of my garage, where it doesn't dry out well, and they survived, but didn't look very healthy.
Maybe check your bed and mix it with about 1/2 aged manure/bedding from your chickens?
Good luck. I just LOVE sweet potatoes, but I've only grown them once.

Were you talking to me, @ducks4you? If so, I didn't actually plant them in soggy soil. Yes, we have soggy clay under our sandy loam. However we haven't planted yet. We have 2X8X16' boards to build a 16" high planter box. I want to try a 4X4' vertical tower/planter box (as described in a previous post). But, I would also like to plant some SP in that planter box also.

Thanks for that DIYnetwork link. As I said, we grew a small patch of SP only once, at the Community Garden in PA. So, I'm going to take a closer look at that link, and hopefully pick up some tips, to help me succeed. I can't eat white potatoes [in very allergic], but I can eat sweet potatoes. We eat a lot of them, so I am hoping for a bumper crop this year.

 

[Devonviolet]

Okay, I finally got to the grocery store & bought 3 SP. Many of them had ends that were starting to shrivel. So, I tried to find firm SP with lots of eyes & ends that hadn't been marfed when they were dug up. They look similar to yours, in size & shape, @Ridgerunner. I'll try to get a photo later.
Later: Here are the sweet potatoes, I'm hoping to get slips from.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I thought my slips were getting a little big so I decided to give them a haircut.

I cut about 8" off of one of the slips

Then took off the lower leaves

After I was finished the slips on the potato were a manageable size

 

[Ridgerunner]

I could not add the last photo to that post so I'll do it here.

I have these slips to set in water and root. A few of them might die but most should root and be ready to set out, plus I have all those still on the potato that will sucker and give me more slips.

 

[ducks4you]

I have to report that, of the three sweet potatoes I have stored in that funky green plastic bag, two are sprouting slips!!!

SOOOOOOO excited!!!!! By the time it's really warm I should have some to plant!

 

[Devonviolet]

Wow! @Ridgerunner! Your slips look awesome!

That's great @ducks4you! Talk about a bonus!

I checked my three sweet potatoes, and they are putting out some tiny roots. So, I'm on the way. No buds yet. But, experience tells me they are coming . . . eventually. But that's okay. We still need to get our planter boxes built, with hardware cloth in the bottom, because we have a pocket gopher that is all over our yard.
We have tried to catch it, but so far he has evaded us. So, we decided to put wire under the SP plants. I'm also hoping the potato tower will succeed. That would be another way to thwart that pesky gopher.

 

[Smart Red]

Great and timely tip. My sweet potato slips are getting big enough to start toppling over. Now I can cut the length off and double my numbers.