[matuyama]

17th Feb - is it too late to start a sweet potato off for slips? I will have some ground spare on my regular potato bed and had limited success with slips bought online last year but were so expensive.

Am I too late? I live in Cornwall, UK.

I think you'd have a fair chance of still getting slips in time to plant, I started mine in the 2nd week of January and I have 3 sweet potatoes that already have 10-20cm slips, so I could actually already use those. In fact I'm currently worrying about what I'll do with them until the end of May..

I didn't soak them but rinsed them repeatedly, not sure if that helped in any way.

[troy]

Hi trillium   last feb (2012)  i started my potatoes and they are in the kitchen planted up as slips , i am finding it difficult to keep them alive   out of 7  i only have 3 remaining , and today i notice that one of the leaves is going brown . since i have got them this far i am keen to see a end results. Any advise on caring for them would be much appreciated ,and what are the next steps    for putting them outside .

[Trillium]

Slips are very frost and cold sensitive so check that the window they're in (?) isn't too cold in evenings. The potted soil needs to be a little damp, not overly damp and a bit of fertilizer would help as well.

The slips cannot go outside until you can give them 75F temps or better so they'll likely need to stay inside for a while longer.

Check the above and let me know what you find.

[Touché Turtle]

Yay! I've got a leaf!

My poor sweet potato has been through the wars. It too AGES to produce roots, then had some roots and no slips for over a month. Strangely the roots started growing upwards! Then I did some research and realised it was in the jar upside down... 

So I did a little re-arranging and laid it down in a dish (still supported on sticks) so the roots could be poked down into the water but the 'top' could be a bit out of the water. Finally I have a shoot and two tiny leaves. Still hoping some of the other eyes now in the open air will start to sprout. But I'm glad I didn't give up.. its been going since the new year!

[Herb]

I have 1 slip that is about 2 inches long now, and another 7 or 8 developing.

Its sat on a warm window sill.

[ThatsNice]

What colour should roots be? I'm guessing white but I have a greenish looking shoot, maybe a slip sprouting but under the water?!

[Herb]

My roots are white, and my slips are red - so not sure!

[ThatsNice]

Just had another close look. It's definitely a slip, redfish with definite leaves all heading north! Do I just leave it to sort itself out or try turning the sweet potato the other way up?!

[ThatsNice]

Redfish?! * red'ish, lol!

[JayG]

They are reddish to start with, but soon green up (as in pics in reply #19 in this thread) - with any luck they should finish up as in reply #12. 

Mine only produced roots underwater, is the level a bit high perhaps?

Probably best to leave it as it is - it seems to be heading in the right direction anyway!

[ThatsNice]

JayG, this is sprouting from the very bottom of the potato. I've probably got it upside but at least it's doing something!

[ThatsNice]

Just searched this pics. 100% not roots and is a slip! It's a very long banana shaped white fleshed sweet potato, so it's only ever had the very bottom submerged.

[Trillium]

You'll always get the fine white rootlets at the bottom sprouting first and eventually the actual greenish/red top leafy sprouts will start to appear.

[matuyama]

Some of the leaves on my slips are turning yellow/spotted, as if they have some kind of fungal disease. Anyone had this, should I be concerned? Could it be from the chlorine in the water? It's not all of the leaves, just a few of them..

[Ema]

when to pull the slips off?