How can you start them? does it have to be slips or can you plant tubers?
sweet potatoes
- Thread starter Randy Langelier
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2013
- Messages
- 122
- Reaction score
- 18
Tubers should work well.
If you have an extra large flower pot, you might be able to start growing it indoors. Make sure it's a big pot, though. The sweet potato needs extra room to grow.
If you have an extra large flower pot, you might be able to start growing it indoors. Make sure it's a big pot, though. The sweet potato needs extra room to grow.
I have tried growing both tubers and slips, and got tubers each time. After I harvested them I noticed that the tuber I had planted had gotten a lot bigger, but it was pale and looked woody. I could not help but think that I would have gotten more of the smaller sweet potatos if the original tuber had not taken some of the nutrition! And, I did not want to eat the pale looking tuber that I had planted.
with normal spuds you can cut the tuber into sections. Is this possible with these also?
I THINK so, but then you will still have the problem with the PIECE of tuber getting bigger and bigger! This might not bother you, but for some reason it BUGGED me!
I have only grown sweet potatos once and so I am no expert. The sprouts I broke off of a sprouted tuber could be rooted in water for a few days, planted, and then watered a couple of times a day until they were rooted. This required a bit of fussing over because the slips, once planted, dried out so quickly.
Planting the sprouted tuber was easier, and the young plants did not wilt so quickly, but then the sprouted tuber got bigger and I think it was at the expense of the new tubers.I am not certain because I did not get a big yield. Sweet potatos like a long, hot, wet growing season and we are not hot for very long! I can, and did, water but the roots were still smallish when I harvested them.
It was very nice to have single-serving sized sweet potatos, but I cannot say that the yield was very high.