Growing – Starting Slips

by sweetpotatosociety | May 24, 2018 | Growing

Sweet Potatoes are grown from slips. Slips are the sprouts that grow from the eyes of the potato. Growing your own slips is easy but will take a few months so make sure to start early, at least two months before planting. This year I started mine near the end of March and planted my first slips near the end of May. But the different varieties sprouted at different times. Luckily, they continue sprouting. It’s very cool to watch.

Starting the process

These slips are growing!

So beautiful…

Oh hey lil sprout!

Well at least ONE is working!

Rooting the sprouts

MY SLIP JOURNEY
So I started with five varieties, inserted three toothpicks into them to hold them up, and put them half submerged in large glasses of water. (Thrift stores are good places to find random large glasses – you need a fairly wide opening.) I experimented with one Jewel Sweet Potato, two Garnets and one ‘Mennonite’ grown one (all purchased from my local food co-op). The last one is a Beauregard variety that I still had from last year.

You definitely want organic or all natural. Sometimes conventionally grown potatoes are sprayed with something so they don’t sprout in the store. The BEST thing to do is get your sweet potato from a farmer’s market or use one from your previous year’s harvest.

Then it’s a waiting game. They sit there, looking silly sticking out of the water glasses, all dry and ugly. But eventually they begin to come alive. Oddly and sadly, at first only ONE of mine sprouted, the Jewel Sweet Potato. And sprout it did! The two Garnets never produced, and eventually around late May the Mennonite grown one finally sprouted. I had also sprouted a piece of a potato (Beauregard) from my last year’s harvest. I cut off the top small bit of a large potato and placed in water.

This year I’m also trying slips purchased online. I ordered mine from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (six Carolina Ruby variety and six Red Japanese variety). They arrive in the mail pretty wilted and sad-looking and cost more than buying plants from a garden center, but if you want to try several different varieties, it’s a great way to experiment!

ROOT YOUR SLIPS
Once the slips are five-six inches tall and have a few leaves and lots of stringy roots, pluck them off and place them in water to continue to “root.” You can actually plant them right away after removing the sweet potato, but I like to add another week or two to the the roots get strong. Once they’re looking good, you can put them into the ground if it’s time, or plant into a little small container and let it grow in potting soil for a a week or two.

So, to synthesize:

Instructions

Step 1

A couple months before your planting date, start your process. Place whole sweet potatoes half submerged in a glass of water (prop up with toothpicks).

Step 2

Patiently wait for the potatoes to sprout. Soon enough the little shoots will reach for the sky and roots will fill the bottom half of the glass.

Step 3

Once a shoot has a few leaves and looking healthy and strong, pluck it off—usually a little twist will work—and place it in water to continue to grow alone. Plant slips in potting soil to establish even further if you’d like to.