I put a store bought sweet potato in a bowl of water (covering about 1/4) for a couple weeks. It only produced about 4 slips, which I planted in a container. It grew vines with pretty green and purple leaves which I kept for aesthetic purposes. When winter came, it looked like the vines had all died and I assumed the experiment failed. But when I started to dig out the vines to plant something else, I found the container was FILLED with various sized sweet potatoes! I was so surprised!
Liked the video immediately because he said “this video took one whole year in the making”. Props, because one whole year of video making is some real commitment and dedication. Super educational and informative.
Here in NZ we bury the whole sweet potato in light free draining soil in a warm place. When they produce the tipu (slips) they always have roots, being under the earth, and so we just gently pull them off. Being buried they also have a long stem before the leaves form, and this we bury/plant under the ground in a J shape, with the lower tip of the J pointing North, in the northern hemisphere it would point south. So its the same basic way, but this way enables the growing of a long stem and roots so it doesnt need to be trimmed and rooted in water. The tipu/slips can be planted straight away, or put in water if you arent ready to plant them out yet. Planting with a J means the sweet potatoes form nearer the surface, rather than deeply, so are easier to harvest. Both ways work, clearly from the magnificent harvest you have.
I grew up calling them tipu’s and we grew a lot of them. They grow rampant and climb/cover a lot of ground with foliage. Staple source for Kiwis… My favourite.
I'm in Christchurch amd I usually cut one potato horizonally and put both halves on top of the soil/sand mixture about 1 cm deep only. I have just harvested this year's as we had minus 1 last night. I am trying both ways for this year's slips. One half way in the soil and one completely buried with a germinating mat under them.
I grow frommy own slips. I've tried cutting one horizonally and using both halves to create my slips the root in water before planting. I've also put a whole one halfway into the soilto grow myslips butthis year trying a fully buried and and one half buried to see which provides more slips. I'm not getting very fat sweet potatoes yet I fertilise with a seaweed fertiliser every 1-2 weeks during growing.
This first year of gardening I did indeed plant sweet potatoes indoors in planting mix and was amazed at the speed we got huge slips. Those we planted outdoors.
I started a light colored sweet potato in water back in 2/2021. It set sprouts all year. In fact, I still have the potato in the jar of water . It has two small shoots. I have started a few new sweet potatoes this year in potting soil and will see how they do. From my water rooted sweet potato I did grow many sweet potatoes. the biggest was 4lbs 10 oz!!!! It was delicious!
@ Deborah Marlewski. I also started my slips in water, then experimented with the soil starts. Personally I preferred the soil method. I got a lot more sprouts from the soil. Good luck with your project and have another bountiful harvest.🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
@@kenp8991 just put the bottom of the sweet potato in water. Eventually the potato will set roots. Then it will begin to form sprouts from the potato. Once these sprouts are 4-6 inches long, pull them off the potato and set in water. These will also set roots. Once roots are formed you are ready to plant your sweet potato slips.
@@deborahmarlewski6786 I took cuttings from my sweet potato vines and they rooted. I saw where they had rooted in the soil, so I pulled them out and stuck them in water and had more slips. I also use the tiny sweet potatoes that didn't mature for starters. In my 3'x5' raised bed, I got quite a few pounds of potatoes just by winding try he vines around the bed and burying them. It's like buried treasure of when it's harvest time.
Couple years ago I noticed a sweet potato on my counter was sprouting. I did not have any idea what to do but guessed to but each slip in water to root and later planted them. What fun!
Your video is the one I watched last year to figure out how to plant my sweet potatoes. I grow slips in the soil in aluminum foil loaf pans with holes poked in the bottom. I grew slip’s for months! I planted out beds each time I got enough slips. I had a continuous harvest from August through December and overwintered some plants indoors. I greatly appreciate your work! Congrats on your harvest!!
I'm really glad to see your kids involved in your videos and growing foods. It's something that's not taught as their electronic devices usually tend to be the center of most kids'lives. Gardening is a forever skill.
I put mine in dirt last week! Fingers crossed that I’ll grow my own slips! Last year I bought 12 slips and grew over 90lbs in a raised bed! I sounded just as excited as you all!! ❤️ so glad gardening season is upon us 😁
Looked more like a scorpion lol. I am a massive fan of growing them in soil. I made a similar video last year about growing slips and had the same findings., I grow loads of slips every year. Such a fantastic harvest and a brilliant video Brian. Excellent stuff. Oh just for ref I dropped your channel into the resources section in my book ;) catch you soon matey
@@NextLevelGardening I am hoping at the end of April mate. not long after yours. I am waiting on the foreword but ts coming from Dr Elaine Ingham and she is a busy lady so I don't want to rush her. I will hold it off if I need too
@@simplifygardening You chose the perfect perfect person to write the foreword for your book. I know nothing of her writing ability/style (etc), but she has a very important message for all of us and I really think the best thing for all the world would be for her to be a featured guest of EVERY farming, gardening, and homesteading (and prepping) channel on UA-cam and even on other platforms. Her message is vital to the future of food production. Thank you for seeking her input.
I started growing sweet potatoes by just cutting the chunks with sprouts off an organic sweet potatoes left too long in the cupboard and sticking them in the ground. I was away 7 months during the lockdown; when I returned, the garden was half taken over by sweet potatoes plants. I let them grow. Like you in the video, when fall came, I got at least 75 lbs harvest. Now I can't stop them from coming in each year. I moved some to under my fruit trees where they can have the run of the place. This provides double benefit as it keeps the area under the trees free from weeds, and the vines look beautiful (triple benefit I guess when you count the harvest). Suggestion: add a digging fork to the video. My soil has a lot of clay; the digging fork makes it way easier to get them out.
You are such a good teacher! I’m looking at foreign sweet potatoes…wondering what a slip was ! What a teacher. I’m now ready to start growing some slips…..yoo hoo. Thanks for the good info…
I’m growing sweet potatoes for the first time. We live in Saskatchewan, Canada. I used the tooth pick in water on a heating pad. From 6 sweet potatoes I’ve gotten 32 starters. I do have them planted in pots in dirt. So far I’m really thrilled to see what they will do!
In my experience: Sweet potatoes are amazingly easy to grow, great for fledgling gardeners such as myself. If you have a Whole Foods near you, they should have at least 3 and maybe 5 varieties, I suggest growing some of each. We had our first season (Japanese sweet potato) get well out of the area they volunteered to grow in our compost heap. And apparently they will set new roots and produce potatoes wherever the vines lay on the ground long enough. Our first harvest was like a treasure hunt. Apparently we had missed some roots or small potatoes, and they ran rampant across a bigger section of our back yard the second season, we just did not have the heart to stop them, but... Harvesting them was a search and destroy mission that second fall, with another huge harvest. We did get our yard back, and this year I will plant them in well contained areas in pots with a trellis for those vines. As for water sprouting them: It seems that it all depends on the potato. I started this spring with 6 organic Hannah White sweet potatoes. I currently have 5 in water, one was rotting and has been discarded. Of the 5 after 2 weeks I have one producing abundant roots and several slips, and the rest are just sitting there, all wet and doing nothing but growing a few roots or none at all. In my experience it depends on the potato, not the method nor the amount of light, of growing slips. I may well do an experiment of methods with multiple potatoes in each group. 😜
Let me tell you how dad did it.make a small bed about 4x6 place a thin lake of straw on the ground, then lay all your small sweet potatoes on the straw, then cover the 🥔 potatoes with more straw, then cover with soil. Cover bed with plastic the plastic will form monster that will water the potatoes 🥔 an sit back an get ready to have fun.
For the most delicious way to prepare sweet potatoes, and so easy, is to wash your sweet potatoes, then split them in half lengthwise, and lay them cut side down on a parchment lined cookie sheet...nothing else! Bake them at about 400 to 425 degrees until you see the dark syrup start to bubble out from under them. Place them on a plate, flesh side up, add butter and eat the best sweet potato ever! I learned this from video I watched, and I don't know WHY they taste so amazing cooked like this, but they do! So, if you like sweet potatoes you just gotta' try it and see for yourself! And also, I love to have cranberry sauce sometimes with sweet potatoes, because you don't need to wait for the holidays and those two things are so good together! And thanks for your interesting and informative videos! kristi
Definitely, I will be growing them again this year. My challenge will be finding a space large enough since the 10 gallon grow bags didn’t give the tubers enough space (planting one slip per grow bag). Two slips gave me 15 pounds of potatoes.
In The Philippines we raise the sweet potatoes for the vines. We cut the tops about every week and cook them like spinach. We do get huge roots as well. We plant the rooted slips about 18 inches apart. We can harvest the vines for about a year. I also root the tubers in straight water. We do get a lot of rotted tubers and l will try your vitamin C method the next time l set the tubers for sprouting. Thank you for sharing.
I did your dirt method to start one last year Never grew sweet potatoes before because I'm in zone 4 ..Wow it started great, i planted outside when warm. the vine was beautiful, and to my surprise, I had huge sweet potatoes in the fall !! starting my this years crop now!!
Grew sweet potato slips for the first time following your method! I now have too many for me to manage... 😄 ...but I'm excited for the day I harvest my own sweet potatoes 😁
Even though this video shows to be 2 years old it was exactly what I needed‼️. My sweet potatoes are pushing up out of the ground now and it is mid September here in Eastern Oklahoma and I had always been told to wait until the first frost to harvest or dig them. I planted the slips along the garden fence and started them upon the fence as they grew. The fence is now covered with beautiful green leaves, which I did not know were edible, and a few leaves have started to turn yellow and I have been removing them. I cannot wait to start digging them to see how I did‼️. Congratulations on your new home and land. May God richly blessed you 🙏🏼🩷
I’ve rooted and now have several stems that are three inches long. My swt. potatoes are Japanese purples! I’m looking forward to these beauties growing and they will be in pots this year. Thanks for all of the content you share. You are now my go to inspiration and information channel!
Yes, I am growing sweet potatoes, and potatoes. Got seed potatoes today. And thank goodness you tried 3 different mediums. It's gonna be great!!! Thank you very much
I’m growing sweet potatoes this year from slips from Johnny’s Selected seeds. Thank you for covering how to grow your own slips so that I can hopefully use the sweet potatoes I grow to start slips for next years garden 👏
I am in Melbourne Australia and I grew them in big black pots, got such a fantastic harvest last year I did two pots this year! Can’t wait to see how many I get this year, and all from watching this channel! Thanks Brian
I planted sweet potato with my students. I didn’t realize I needed to pull the slips off to root. I will be doing that next week with my class. Thank you!
Thank you for the great video on getting the sweet potatoes started. I'm in zone 7 and have my potatoes in clear containers with soil. Will try an experiment this year to see which will give me more potatoes at the end of the year. Planting the whole sweet potato into the garden with its slips still attached or planting the slips on their own.
I will be planting SP (sweet potatoes) again this year. It was a fun vegetable to start and harvest. Can't wait to expand our SP area to grow 3x as much- we LOVE sweet potatoes!
Yes, potting sweet potatoes today. Successfully grew slips from organic, store bought & purchased last year. Will purchase & use home grown slips this year as well, because I like different color potatoes. 😁
I have been starting my own slips for the last 7 years since I retired. I first saw how to grow slips while I was waiting to pickup a load sweet potatoes in Calif. for one of the big grocery chains. I saw some low tunnels in a field close to the parking lot of the packing shed and wandered out to checked them out. They were covering sweet potatoes that a 5 man crew was picking slips to take back to root. I have started 5 different varieties in potting mix on the 15th of February. I have had real good luck with growing them and extras I trade with family and neighbors. I grow in raised beds and this will be the second season that I will also use grow bags.
What a GREAT video! I'm getting my slips anyday now in Zone 5b. Next year, I can start my own, thanks to you and your son's very detailed information. This is my first year doing sweet potatoes and am trying a Japanese version that is supposed to have a shorter growing season, and growing them in an old horse trough. I am so excited to try this!! Still have to work on getting a higher Phosphorous fertilizer. Thank you!!
Awesome!!! We will be trying to grow sweet potatoes for the first time this summer. We are in zone 3 and our last frost date is June 2. I've ordered some Coventry sweet potatoes from a local seed company. They're the only company I've found that carries a cool climate variety. We'll be getting 5 slips sent to us when it'll be safe to plant them in our area. I'm planning to plant them in grow bags set near the south side of the house for a sheltered microclimate. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do. Especially after seeing how crowded that bed was!
@@nsmellowyellow1 No. Unfortunately, we have had a terrible growing year, beginning with a long, cold spring followed by flooding. Much of our garden is at least a month behind, and some things are not really making it at all. The sweet potato plants are much smaller than they should be. So far, we have not had frost, so I'm leaving them as long as possible before I dig them up to see what we've got. I have low expectations right now.
@@kimadams2995 Well, I finally took a look, after we had our first frost. I got a handful - literally one handful - of tiny sweet potatoes. They were smaller than most fingerling potatoes. People on local gardening groups have posted photos of their successful sweet potato harvests, so I k now it's not our short growing season that's at issue. We just had such a terrible spring, we had quite a few losses in the garden this year.
I live in Newburgh N.Y and this is my 3rd year growing sweet potatoe slips. I always start then on their side in plastic container in potting soil. I water them good and put the whole container ontop of my hot water heater in my furnace room. Once they start growing I take off about 10 slips a day. They love the bottom heat. And I add water about every other day. That's the fastest way to start them. Just love them.
Thanks for this comment. I've scoured this and several other videos and you're the first person to add that one needs to actually water the dirt. That is so helpful.
I have new raised bed this year. First time sprouting and planting sweet potatoes. So excited now after watching your video!! Thanks for the excellent tutorial. Will hope to see great harvests for both of us!
I agree with Jolene. Very informative. Now I’m very excited about trying these myself because you have gone through the whole process and not just given me snippets during the growing process. That’s very frustrating when I get just snippets and not know how to do the whole process. Thank you so much.
Jolene, I must say I agree!! Brian is the best. He goes from point A to Z without mincing words! He is clear and easy to follow! I have four slips in the ground, I am months late… But the experiment is grand for next season. Thank you Jolene and thank you Brian!
I've been starting my slips in potting soil for the last few years; since I started growing sweet potatoes. I save the "too small to eat" sweet potatoes from my harvest, and use those to grow slips. I live in northern Indiana, plant outside in May, harvest in October or November. Since I have a tiny garden, I trellis the vines so they don't take over the whole garden, and so the vines get more sun. One comment on the video, you can put all of those slips directly into damp potting soil.
Yes and yes-- Not only sweet potatoes but this year I am trying yams. A few weeks ago. i purchased two different yams from our farmer's market. One is showing signs of slips, -- Ray Delbury Sussex County NJ USA
This video came at the perfect time! We just bought some organize sweet potatoes to start our slips and I wasn't very confident in which way to do it. Thank you so much! We're really excited to get this project going.
You clearly inspired me to grow my own sweet potato slips this year. I got 6 organic sweet potatoes to try. Like you I am going to use the potting soil method for sure.
I live in Canada and didn't used to think I couldn't grow them here. But once I learned to start the slips early from organic sweet potatoes, I found I could grow them just as big as what you harvested down south.
Great work! As you see, the vines are super vigorous! Plant the slips out without any roots and they'll still take lol! Planting them out before roots develop also encourages root spread and reduces the amount of curved and circular tubers. Love seeing more people planting sweet potato, keep up the great work!
Yep. Most folks don't know you do NOT have to put the slips in water and wait for roots. Just stick the bare slips in the ground, make sure they are watered well (but don't turn the bed into a bog of course) the first week or so, and done.
I'm so excited to grow sweet potatoes this year! I grew them in water when I was a kid for the fun of it but never took it to the next step to plant the slips. Thanks for the helpful video!
@@sillyme8302 That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing that. We get blinded on our deck in the evening because of the sun in the west. Growing sweet potatoes on poultry netting would be an easy way to cut down on the glare and heat.
I have grown out many sweet potatoes to sprout. I have also had just a many rot on me. I will try to also sprout the sweet potato with the largest end down. I have put a half dozen in a small plastic container. I will also try the vitamin "C" idea as well. I did not realize that l could just cut off the rotten part of the sweet potato when trying to sprout them. Your methods seem to be far better than mine. Thank you for sharing such great success. I grow the sweet potatoes for their foliage, not the tubers themselves. The tubers are an added blessing. Thanks for an awesome channel and this awesome video. Stay safe and stay blessed!
OMG loved your video and will do same -realize I just didn’t start my sweet potatoes early enough last year -had tiny potatoes and paid for each plant ! Thx for sharing 🤗
It took me two months to get slips - not sure why. Now that I have the slips, my wife and I are looking forward to growing our own sweet potatoes. Greta video and updates.
Should you trim the vine of leaves if it gets overwhelming? I heard someone say that they had mountains of leaves but not many potatoes. I started one in soil about two weeks ago and I don’t have any roots yet. A couple of new bumps on the potato though. I love Tammy’s excitement 😁
My mom uses the long vines to plant the next batch. She pulls most of the leaves except for the little growing tip, th m buries de long vine so that it becomes part of the root system. This way she gets several sweet potatoes from each plant
I’m going to try my hand at growing sweet potatoes this year and I’m SUPER excited! I lived in the Adirondack mountains for years & had a successful garden up there. Now I’m in east Texas & I‘ll be wingin it! Idk how the heat will affect it. Wish me luck!
Wow, this clip is awesome. I learned so much. Turned out my sweet potato was upside down in the glass of water. Instead of putting them in the right position, I popped them straight into potting soil. I can't wait to get some vines, hopefully it works. Tammy's harvest was insane!!!🙂
Sweet potatoes have to be the easiest thing ever to grow. I use the toothpick method and have always had great luck. I like to grow them inside as a houseplant. The vines are so pretty.
Well dang! I'm going to go pick up an organic sweet potato today and start. Love the idea of the sideways bottle. Did you cut drain holes in them or just be careful not to over water. We have been popping our compostable materials into the future garden space all year so Yay. Thank you for this. I've grown them for plants when I was young but love to eat them, so this is perfect.
I would just go ahead and plant your first sweet potatoes. not too deep. Cut off the first slips and root them for a few weeks to propagate them. You can keep doing that for a few months and you will still get new vines and potatoes out of the original potatoes! Sweet potatoes are so easy.
I used the cup method in florida. Got a ton of slips. Got a harvest last year put of the ground. Took the slips off the potatoes. Replanted them and they have now taken over one of our garden beds.
I’m growing potatoes for the first time EVER!! I’m starting wit purple and Yukon but I’m doing sweet potato next yeah since they take longer. Sweet potato plants are soo pretty. Your videos always have the most perfect timing for me, thank youuuu!!!! 🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠 (would love to hear tips on storing veggies and fruits like potatoes, onions, garlic and stuff 😁)
Potatoes are a different plant than sweet potatoes. Cooler weather tolerant. Harvest when the greens die. Not as much weight in the roots. Sweet potatoes really get going in the warm weather. They kept going until you cut the vines or it freezes. You will be digging up potatoes from places you didn’t even plant! Invasive food.
I purchased sweet potatoes from Whole Foods and one started sprouting almost immediately. I stuck it sideways in seed starter soil and I ended up with 16 slips. I'm patiently waiting to harvest sweet potatoes maybe in April. I dug around a bit beneath the vines and I can see baby sweet potatoes have formed.
After two months of curing 'em, home grown baked Hannah variety sweet potatoes as a side dish for dinnner tonight. Wow. tastiest dang sweet potatoes ever. I picked some early when they were still kind of small but they taste sooooooo good. Now I am going to harvest the rest of the patch.
Amazing harvest! Thank you for taking the time to document this entire process. These beginning-to-end videos are the best for inexperienced gardeners like me! May I ask when did you start growing the slips? (I live in the LA area so should be able to follow the same time table.) Thank you so much!
I love Tammy's enthusiasm for the sweet potato harvest! I honestly was not planning on growing sweet potatoes, but I may give them a shot now that I have seen how! :)
Hi & thank you for all your sharing tips, few questions. Can you use Azomite dust inside the planting hole instead of crab n lobster? Also where you stated 8 was too many for that particular planter, what is the proper spacing for sweet patatoe slips to yield a good crop? Love your channel & Thanks again.
Thanks to your info, I grew purple sweet potatoes in two medium sized pots. I started late spring but I still got MANY slender DELICIOUS SWEET POTATOES. EVEN THE EXTREMELY SLENDER STICKS WERE SO DELISH!!! Just scrub the skin with a brush in water bucket , rinse and cook with skins on. Eat with skins on… yum!! Doing it again this year in a humongous pot about 3 feet by almost 3 feet high. Thanks again!
That’s awesome! I started mine in January with the half into soil method. The slips are growing crazy. This will be my first year. How far apart should I plant them? Do I have to wait until my last frost has passed or are they okay in some cold? Great video, thanks for the info. 👩🌾
Sweet potatoes are a warm weather crop, wait until after your last frost to plant. I grow mine in zone 5b. My biggest sweet potato I didn't weigh, but it was "as big as your head".
I started with one sweet potato with lots of "node spots" on it. I put it in the fridge for a week or so, then in some potting soil. It grew sprouts similar to yours. I took each of those sprouts and cut them between each leaf creating a bunch of slips each about 2" long. I literally stuck them in the ground (Zone 10a) I prepped to grow them in, covered everything but the leaf in a few inches of mulch and watered them in. I watered every day for about a week, then weaned to every other day, then occasionally. They all took off gangbusters. I love sweet potatoes 😂 I just grew some in a black costco tub and the entire foliage ended up growing up and over the chicken pen, it was awesome! Fun experiment, I think they're ready to harvest 🤞🏼
I am in Virginia and I grow sweet potatoes in large buckets on my deck. The first year I harvested the largest Sweet potatoes and left the roots and small tubulars in the buckets. The following spring new plants started to sprout on their own before I planted new plants.
Thank you for this video! I live in South Carolina, and I'm starting to plan my garden. I am confused about one thing. You said sweet potatoes need more phosphorus, and you used Neptune's Harvest Crab and Lobster Fertilizer. But the number on it is 5-3-0. It's higher in nitrogen. Explain please!😊
I started my slips similarly last year (love the Vit C tip! I had some rot😐), and had a huge patch of leaves (I did use some in stir-fry). But almost no harvest 😥 Like 1" diameter by 4-6" long. (In Sacramento, so frost only Dec-Feb as a rule, but not alot of heat fall/spring.) Question: My husband grew up growing prolific sweet potatoes (in Belize, central Am). He said the vines (like grapes) will root wherever they touch soil (creating more roots, = more harvest). I mulched w/straw, and tried to push away and lightly cover parts of the vines with soil, but didn't seem to take... I know our soil is poor (alkaline, clay), though we amended a lot w/compost, peat moss, etc. Suggestions? I'm discouraged to even try again this year!
Diane My soil is clay..... So I built an entire bed from scratch. Layered... Cardboard Leaves Sticks Shredded paper Leaf mulch Compost About 12 " deep. I. Had a very huge harvest, some very large. Just awesome!!!
This is exactly the video that I needed to find today!! I forgot about a purple sweet potato in water and it’s gone crazy. I love being able to see what the next steps are. I really appreciate you putting all of this in one spot for me, and for taking the time it took to do it! They’re rooting now!!
Just a little note on sweet potato harvesting. I live north of you, in Central CA. I don’t dig sweet potatoes until needed, as needed. We eat them all winter, anything we don’t eat is fed to the animals. Leaving them in ground is not just due to lack of storage, and time on my part. Where they are “stored” they have excellent insulation, and perfect humidity control, when dug for a meal, they’re moist and creamy, not as dry as when “air-stored”. Interestingly, my sweet potatoes left in-ground don’t suffer insect damage until spring, -I’m not sure why, but any left in ground by mid February or so, are used for slips, or are eaten by insects.
You are a great teacher. Thank you. I ordered slips this year because I tried the water method last year and had no luck. I got sick of waiting for the slips.
It was 18 degrees here in NC this morning but I have my sweet potatoes on the counter and juice bottles to cut in half to get them started. A bit late maybe but I've also got a bathroom full of baby chicks. Lol. As always Brian, your videos are perfect timing. 💞🐥🐥
I love sweet potatoes but didn't want to worry about growing them. Then I found out that the leaves are edible and nutritious, too; so I've changed my mind. :)
Great Video! It always feels like Christmas when I harvest my sweet potatoes :) This year I have realized the importance of worms in root vegetables. I have about 2 million worms that i farm in my barn for castings, but as I breed more, I am putting them in my sweet potatoes in the garden. This year I had the most unbelievable harvest! I believe it is due primarily to the worms composting, loosening & aerating the soil. :)
I put in 14 slips in a 30 x 15 area. They grew in my very heavy clay and it took me 3 to 4 days to dig them out. I got more than a wheelbarrow full. Only growing a few slips to give to friends. After giving around 30 sweet potatoes away and what we already ate, I have too many. I'm going to can about 10 quarts and 10 pints and give the rest to Second Harvest Food Bank. Harvest of sweet potatoes, not too sweet, but too many! God bless and keep growing.
![Turn ONE Sweet Potato Into 100 LBS Of Sweet Potatoes By Growing SWEET POTATO SLIPS! [Complete Guide]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0igp5IzO21g/mqdefault.jpg)
![Turn ONE Sweet Potato Into 100 LBS Of Sweet Potatoes By Growing SWEET POTATO SLIPS! [Complete Guide]](/img/tr.png)
I put a store bought sweet potato in a bowl of water (covering about 1/4) for a couple weeks. It only produced about 4 slips, which I planted in a container. It grew vines with pretty green and purple leaves which I kept for aesthetic purposes. When winter came, it looked like the vines had all died and I assumed the experiment failed. But when I started to dig out the vines to plant something else, I found the container was FILLED with various sized sweet potatoes! I was so surprised!
Liked the video immediately because he said “this video took one whole year in the making”. Props, because one whole year of video making is some real commitment and dedication. Super educational and informative.
“I probably have too many for this bed but I’m going to do it anyway” - said every gardener 😂
😂😂
The squirrel planting the macadamia nut in the grow bed was so cute to me lol 🥰
Here in NZ we bury the whole sweet potato in light free draining soil in a warm place. When they produce the tipu (slips) they always have roots, being under the earth, and so we just gently pull them off. Being buried they also have a long stem before the leaves form, and this we bury/plant under the ground in a J shape, with the lower tip of the J pointing North, in the northern hemisphere it would point south. So its the same basic way, but this way enables the growing of a long stem and roots so it doesnt need to be trimmed and rooted in water. The tipu/slips can be planted straight away, or put in water if you arent ready to plant them out yet. Planting with a J means the sweet potatoes form nearer the surface, rather than deeply, so are easier to harvest. Both ways work, clearly from the magnificent harvest you have.
Wow! That's cool
Great tip!
Thanks!
I grew up calling them tipu’s and we grew a lot of them. They grow rampant and climb/cover a lot of ground with foliage. Staple source for Kiwis… My favourite.
I'm in Christchurch amd I usually cut one potato horizonally and put both halves on top of the soil/sand mixture about 1 cm deep only. I have just harvested this year's as we had minus 1 last night. I am trying both ways for this year's slips. One half way in the soil and one completely buried with a germinating mat under them.
I grow frommy own slips. I've tried cutting one horizonally and using both halves to create my slips the root in water before planting. I've also put a whole one halfway into the soilto grow myslips butthis year trying a fully buried and and one half buried to see which provides more slips. I'm not getting very fat sweet potatoes yet I fertilise with a seaweed fertiliser every 1-2 weeks during growing.
This first year of gardening I did indeed plant sweet potatoes indoors in planting mix and was amazed at the speed we got huge slips. Those we planted outdoors.
I started a light colored sweet potato in water back in 2/2021. It set sprouts all year. In fact, I still have the potato in the jar of water . It has two small shoots. I have started a few new sweet potatoes this year in potting soil and will see how they do. From my water rooted sweet potato I did grow many sweet potatoes. the biggest was 4lbs 10 oz!!!! It was delicious!
Wow thats crazy it's lasted so long
Water rooted sweet potato…hmm🤔…sounds interesting…please go on.
@ Deborah Marlewski. I also started my slips in water, then experimented with the soil starts. Personally I preferred the soil method. I got a lot more sprouts from the soil. Good luck with your project and have another bountiful harvest.🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
@@kenp8991 just put the bottom of the sweet potato in water. Eventually the potato will set roots. Then it will begin to form sprouts from the potato. Once these sprouts are 4-6 inches long, pull them off the potato and set in water. These will also set roots. Once roots are formed you are ready to plant your sweet potato slips.
@@deborahmarlewski6786 I took cuttings from my sweet potato vines and they rooted. I saw where they had rooted in the soil, so I pulled them out and stuck them in water and had more slips. I also use the tiny sweet potatoes that didn't mature for starters. In my 3'x5' raised bed, I got quite a few pounds of potatoes just by winding try he vines around the bed and burying them. It's like buried treasure of when it's harvest time.
Couple years ago I noticed a sweet potato on my counter was sprouting. I did not have any idea what to do but guessed to but each slip in water to root and later planted them. What fun!
I live in Mcminnville, OR
Your video is the one I watched last year to figure out how to plant my sweet potatoes. I grow slips in the soil in aluminum foil loaf pans with holes poked in the bottom. I grew slip’s for months! I planted out beds each time I got enough slips. I had a continuous harvest from August through December and overwintered some plants indoors. I greatly appreciate your work! Congrats on your harvest!!
I'm really glad to see your kids involved in your videos and growing foods. It's something that's not taught as their electronic devices usually tend to be the center of most kids'lives. Gardening is a forever skill.
I put mine in dirt last week! Fingers crossed that I’ll grow my own slips! Last year I bought 12 slips and grew over 90lbs in a raised bed! I sounded just as excited as you all!! ❤️ so glad gardening season is upon us 😁
It's fun right!?
Awesome! How big was the raised bed?
@@2A4BDGV 4’ x 16’ open at the bottom
@@tiffanyhooley5052 thanks so much! Looking forward to lots of potatoes :)
@@NextLevelGardening I planted sweet potato this year,let see how many I get.🙌🏻🌹
This was a fun video to watch as well as extremely informative
Looked more like a scorpion lol. I am a massive fan of growing them in soil. I made a similar video last year about growing slips and had the same findings., I grow loads of slips every year. Such a fantastic harvest and a brilliant video Brian. Excellent stuff. Oh just for ref I dropped your channel into the resources section in my book ;) catch you soon matey
Saw that. Great video! .Yeah.. soil for me. Wow thanks Tony. When does the book come out?
@@NextLevelGardening I am hoping at the end of April mate. not long after yours. I am waiting on the foreword but ts coming from Dr Elaine Ingham and she is a busy lady so I don't want to rush her. I will hold it off if I need too
I thought so too!
@@MichaelRei99 Absolutely the way to go. and Brian proves this just as I did with practical exercises.
@@simplifygardening You chose the perfect perfect person to write the foreword for your book.
I know nothing of her writing ability/style (etc), but she has a very important message for all of us and I really think the best thing for all the world would be for her to be a featured guest of EVERY farming, gardening, and homesteading (and prepping) channel on UA-cam and even on other platforms.
Her message is vital to the future of food production.
Thank you for seeking her input.
I just watched your video, it's march in Alabama. I run a small farm and will keep you updated in 6-8 months
I started growing sweet potatoes by just cutting the chunks with sprouts off an organic sweet potatoes left too long in the cupboard and sticking them in the ground. I was away 7 months during the lockdown; when I returned, the garden was half taken over by sweet potatoes plants. I let them grow. Like you in the video, when fall came, I got at least 75 lbs harvest. Now I can't stop them from coming in each year.
I moved some to under my fruit trees where they can have the run of the place. This provides double benefit as it keeps the area under the trees free from weeds, and the vines look beautiful (triple benefit I guess when you count the harvest).
Suggestion: add a digging fork to the video. My soil has a lot of clay; the digging fork makes it way easier to get them out.
Holy Sweet potatoes, Batman! That is a lot of sweet potatoes after being neglected for 7 months! Your soil must be perfect for them. Very cool!
You are such a good teacher! I’m looking at foreign sweet potatoes…wondering what a slip was ! What a teacher. I’m now ready to start growing some slips…..yoo hoo. Thanks for the good info…
I’m growing sweet potatoes for the first time. We live in Saskatchewan, Canada. I used the tooth pick in water on a heating pad. From 6 sweet potatoes I’ve gotten 32 starters. I do have them planted in pots in dirt. So far I’m really thrilled to see what they will do!
Wowwww. I will try this way to grow sweet potatoes with soil. Fast growing and easy to get seedlings. Thank you for this video.
In my experience:
Sweet potatoes are amazingly easy to grow, great for fledgling gardeners such as myself. If you have a Whole Foods near you, they should have at least 3 and maybe 5 varieties, I suggest growing some of each.
We had our first season (Japanese sweet potato) get well out of the area they volunteered to grow in our compost heap. And apparently they will set new roots and produce potatoes wherever the vines lay on the ground long enough. Our first harvest was like a treasure hunt. Apparently we had missed some roots or small potatoes, and they ran rampant across a bigger section of our back yard the second season, we just did not have the heart to stop them, but... Harvesting them was a search and destroy mission that second fall, with another huge harvest. We did get our yard back, and this year I will plant them in well contained areas in pots with a trellis for those vines.
As for water sprouting them: It seems that it all depends on the potato. I started this spring with 6 organic Hannah White sweet potatoes. I currently have 5 in water, one was rotting and has been discarded. Of the 5 after 2 weeks I have one producing abundant roots and several slips, and the rest are just sitting there, all wet and doing nothing but growing a few roots or none at all. In my experience it depends on the potato, not the method nor the amount of light, of growing slips. I may well do an experiment of methods with multiple potatoes in each group. 😜
Let me tell you how dad did it.make a small bed about 4x6 place a thin lake of straw on the ground, then lay all your small sweet potatoes on the straw, then cover the 🥔 potatoes with more straw, then cover with soil. Cover bed with plastic the plastic will form monster that will water the potatoes 🥔 an sit back an get ready to have fun.
L no p
@@ronaldhagan2373 thanks!!
@@ronaldhagan2373
I'm going to take your advice! Monster water should do great! 🙃
For the most delicious way to prepare sweet potatoes, and so easy, is to wash your sweet potatoes, then split them in half lengthwise, and lay them cut side down on a parchment lined cookie sheet...nothing else! Bake them at about 400 to 425 degrees until you see the dark syrup start to bubble out from under them. Place them on a plate, flesh side up, add butter and eat the best sweet potato ever! I learned this from video I watched, and I don't know WHY they taste so amazing cooked like this, but they do! So, if you like sweet potatoes you just gotta' try it and see for yourself! And also, I love to have cranberry sauce sometimes with sweet potatoes, because you don't need to wait for the holidays and those two things are so good together! And thanks for your interesting and informative videos! kristi
Yippee Yams--oops sweet potatoes.
Thanks again. Tammy was as excited as I hope I will be in about 9 months. Yay!
Definitely, I will be growing them again this year. My challenge will be finding a space large enough since the 10 gallon grow bags didn’t give the tubers enough space (planting one slip per grow bag). Two slips gave me 15 pounds of potatoes.
In The Philippines we raise the sweet potatoes for the vines. We cut the tops about every week and cook them like spinach. We do get huge roots as well. We plant the rooted slips about 18 inches apart. We can harvest the vines for about a year. I also root the tubers in straight water. We do get a lot of rotted tubers and l will try your vitamin C method the next time l set the tubers for sprouting. Thank you for sharing.
I did your dirt method to start one last year Never grew sweet potatoes before because I'm in zone 4 ..Wow it started great, i planted outside when warm. the vine was beautiful, and to my surprise, I had huge sweet potatoes in the fall !! starting my this years crop now!!
Great!
Grew sweet potato slips for the first time following your method! I now have too many for me to manage... 😄 ...but I'm excited for the day I harvest my own sweet potatoes 😁
Your three test methods was GREAT! I will never do #1 again! ;-))
Even though this video shows to be 2 years old it was exactly what I needed‼️. My sweet potatoes are pushing up out of the ground now and it is mid September here in Eastern Oklahoma and I had always been told to wait until the first frost to harvest or dig them. I planted the slips along the garden fence and started them upon the fence as they grew. The fence is now covered with beautiful green leaves, which I did not know were edible, and a few leaves have started to turn yellow and I have been removing them. I cannot wait to start digging them to see how I did‼️. Congratulations on your new home and land. May God richly blessed you 🙏🏼🩷
You made this look so easy. Never grown before. I am going to give this a try. Thank you
Wow the potting soil is how I’m gonna do it. Looks great!
We just harvested 65 lbs from our backyard. This was our second try. Last year we had 30 lbs. Ours are purple ube yams. Very cool.
Wow! That's awesome!
Love that you still use pounds in the states instead of kilograms. Thanks for the vids. I will definitely be growing sweet potatoes 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Great video and perfect timing, thanks. My favorite part was when you found the "macadamia nut, planted by a squirrel", how cute is that!?!?
So funny. I have them at the new house too
Thanks for all the advice I'm excited about growing my own sweet potatoes this year appreciate all your help
I’ve rooted and now have several stems that are three inches long. My swt. potatoes are Japanese purples! I’m looking forward to these beauties growing and they will be in pots this year.
Thanks for all of the content you share. You are now my go to inspiration and information channel!
Yes, I am growing sweet potatoes, and potatoes. Got seed potatoes today. And thank goodness you tried 3 different mediums. It's gonna be great!!! Thank you very much
I’m growing sweet potatoes this year from slips from Johnny’s Selected seeds. Thank you for covering how to grow your own slips so that I can hopefully use the sweet potatoes I grow to start slips for next years garden 👏
Bro you make me want to plant sweet potatoes thank you very much for those tips bro
Been gardening for 2 years here. This will be my first year to try growing sweet potatoes. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise!
You're welcome. Good luck! 🙂
I've tried so often to grow sweet potatoes, but the dirt method is working well for me ,so far... thanks for showing how !!❤
I am in Melbourne Australia and I grew them in big black pots, got such a fantastic harvest last year I did two pots this year! Can’t wait to see how many I get this year, and all from watching this channel! Thanks Brian
I planted sweet potato with my students. I didn’t realize I needed to pull the slips off to root. I will be doing that next week with my class. Thank you!
Thank you for the great video on getting the sweet potatoes started. I'm in zone 7 and have my potatoes in clear containers with soil. Will try an experiment this year to see which will give me more potatoes at the end of the year. Planting the whole sweet potato into the garden with its slips still attached or planting the slips on their own.
I live in Louisiana and I inadvertently started my potato slips in my pantry
I will be planting SP (sweet potatoes) again this year. It was a fun vegetable to start and harvest. Can't wait to expand our SP area to grow 3x as much- we LOVE sweet potatoes!
Me too! 😋
I bought my sweet potato from a organic grocery store. I just planted the slips and I had nice sweet potatoes!
Yes, potting sweet potatoes today. Successfully grew slips from organic, store bought & purchased last year. Will purchase & use home grown slips this year as well, because I like different color potatoes. 😁
Great!
I have been starting my own slips for the last 7 years since I retired. I first saw how to grow slips while I was waiting to pickup a load sweet potatoes in Calif. for one of the big grocery chains. I saw some low tunnels in a field close to the parking lot of the packing shed and wandered out to checked them out. They were covering sweet potatoes that a 5 man crew was picking slips to take back to root. I have started 5 different varieties in potting mix on the 15th of February. I have had real good luck with growing them and extras I trade with family and neighbors. I grow in raised beds and this will be the second season that I will also use grow bags.
What size of a grow bag do you use and how many do you plant in each one?
What a GREAT video! I'm getting my slips anyday now in Zone 5b. Next year, I can start my own, thanks to you and your son's very detailed information. This is my first year doing sweet potatoes and am trying a Japanese version that is supposed to have a shorter growing season, and growing them in an old horse trough. I am so excited to try this!! Still have to work on getting a higher Phosphorous fertilizer. Thank you!!
It’s like watching watching you open Christmas presents!
Awesome!!!
We will be trying to grow sweet potatoes for the first time this summer. We are in zone 3 and our last frost date is June 2. I've ordered some Coventry sweet potatoes from a local seed company. They're the only company I've found that carries a cool climate variety. We'll be getting 5 slips sent to us when it'll be safe to plant them in our area. I'm planning to plant them in grow bags set near the south side of the house for a sheltered microclimate. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do. Especially after seeing how crowded that bed was!
I would be very interested in hearing how this works out for you, as I am in zone 3 myself. Keep us posted, ok?😁
Interested in how you made out...have you harvested yet?
@@nsmellowyellow1 No. Unfortunately, we have had a terrible growing year, beginning with a long, cold spring followed by flooding. Much of our garden is at least a month behind, and some things are not really making it at all. The sweet potato plants are much smaller than they should be. So far, we have not had frost, so I'm leaving them as long as possible before I dig them up to see what we've got. I have low expectations right now.
@@kimadams2995 Well, I finally took a look, after we had our first frost. I got a handful - literally one handful - of tiny sweet potatoes. They were smaller than most fingerling potatoes.
People on local gardening groups have posted photos of their successful sweet potato harvests, so I k now it's not our short growing season that's at issue. We just had such a terrible spring, we had quite a few losses in the garden this year.
I live in Newburgh N.Y and this is my 3rd year growing sweet potatoe slips. I always start then on their side in plastic container in potting soil. I water them good and put the whole container ontop of my hot water heater in my furnace room. Once they start growing I take off about 10 slips a day. They love the bottom heat. And I add water about every other day. That's the fastest way to start them. Just love them.
Sounds great!
Thanks for this comment. I've scoured this and several other videos and you're the first person to add that one needs to actually water the dirt. That is so helpful.
I have new raised bed this year. First time sprouting and planting sweet potatoes. So excited now after watching your video!! Thanks for the excellent tutorial. Will hope to see great harvests for both of us!
Good luck! 🙂
Here in the Caribbean it’s easy to get your slips from mature plants, since we don’t have to deal with frost 👍
Best growing video yet! Informative from start to finish. Thank you Brian!
Thank you!
Yeah, I love the year long format, even though I’m sure it’s a ton of planning and preparation.
I agree with Jolene. Very informative. Now I’m very excited about trying these myself because you have gone through the whole process and not just given me snippets during the growing process. That’s very frustrating when I get just snippets and not know how to do the whole process. Thank you so much.
Always!! Thank you for the trials and tips.
Jolene, I must say I agree!!
Brian is the best. He goes from point A to Z without mincing words! He is clear and easy to follow! I have four slips in the ground, I am months late… But the experiment is grand for next season. Thank you Jolene and thank you Brian!
This is great. I wanted to learn how to grow sweet potatoes. I’ve downloaded for my library.
I've been starting my slips in potting soil for the last few years; since I started growing sweet potatoes. I save the "too small to eat" sweet potatoes from my harvest, and use those to grow slips. I live in northern Indiana, plant outside in May, harvest in October or November. Since I have a tiny garden, I trellis the vines so they don't take over the whole garden, and so the vines get more sun. One comment on the video, you can put all of those slips directly into damp potting soil.
This is so exciting! I am definitely going to try that!
What Ag zone are you? Our last frost date was the last week of May in the 1980s, it's earlier now but I'm not sure. Are they frost tolerant?
I started my planting camotes yesterday becouse i excited like ive watching your doing in camote tops and a good crops
@@jturtle5318 According to another video I watched.... NO. Not at all frost tolerant because they are actually a tropical vine.
Yes and yes-- Not only sweet potatoes but this year I am trying yams. A few weeks ago. i purchased two different yams from our farmer's market. One is showing signs of slips, -- Ray Delbury Sussex County NJ USA
Nice!
This video came at the perfect time! We just bought some organize sweet potatoes to start our slips and I wasn't very confident in which way to do it. Thank you so much! We're really excited to get this project going.
Sorry I'm late. Those sweet potatoes were insane!!!!
You clearly inspired me to grow my own sweet potato slips this year. I got 6 organic sweet potatoes to try. Like you I am going to use the potting soil method for sure.
I'm living in UK I would love to know how to start sweet potato from scratch.
I live in Canada and didn't used to think I couldn't grow them here. But once I learned to start the slips early from organic sweet potatoes, I found I could grow them just as big as what you harvested down south.
That's great!
Great work! As you see, the vines are super vigorous! Plant the slips out without any roots and they'll still take lol!
Planting them out before roots develop also encourages root spread and reduces the amount of curved and circular tubers.
Love seeing more people planting sweet potato, keep up the great work!
Yep. Most folks don't know you do NOT have to put the slips in water and wait for roots. Just stick the bare slips in the ground, make sure they are watered well (but don't turn the bed into a bog of course) the first week or so, and done.
I can't tell you how much I appreciate your videos! Thank you - and my plants thank you!
I'm so excited to grow sweet potatoes this year! I grew them in water when I was a kid for the fun of it but never took it to the next step to plant the slips. Thanks for the helpful video!
You're welcome 😊
I grew one as an ornamental climbing vine as a kid and it shaded our front porch for the summer keeping us cool on those hot southern days :D
@@sillyme8302 That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing that. We get blinded on our deck in the evening because of the sun in the west. Growing sweet potatoes on poultry netting would be an easy way to cut down on the glare and heat.
I have grown out many sweet potatoes to sprout. I have also had just a many rot on me. I will try to also sprout the sweet potato with the largest end down.
I have put a half dozen in a small plastic container. I will also try the vitamin "C" idea as well. I did not realize that l could just cut off the rotten part of the sweet potato when trying to sprout them. Your methods seem to be far better than mine. Thank you for sharing such great success. I grow the sweet potatoes for their foliage, not the tubers themselves. The tubers are an added blessing. Thanks for an awesome channel and this awesome video.
Stay safe and stay blessed!
OMG loved your video and will do same -realize I just didn’t start my sweet potatoes early enough last year -had tiny potatoes and paid for each plant ! Thx for sharing 🤗
You're welcome!
It took me two months to get slips - not sure why. Now that I have the slips, my wife and I are looking forward to growing our own sweet potatoes. Greta video and updates.
Should you trim the vine of leaves if it gets overwhelming? I heard someone say that they had mountains of leaves but not many potatoes. I started one in soil about two weeks ago and I don’t have any roots yet. A couple of new bumps on the potato though. I love Tammy’s excitement 😁
My mom uses the long vines to plant the next batch. She pulls most of the leaves except for the little growing tip, th m buries de long vine so that it becomes part of the root system. This way she gets several sweet potatoes from each plant
Sounds like possibly using too much fertilizer with nitrogen instead of the middle number phosphorus.
I’m going to try my hand at growing sweet potatoes this year and I’m SUPER excited! I lived in the Adirondack mountains for years & had a successful garden up there. Now I’m in east Texas & I‘ll be wingin it! Idk how the heat will affect it. Wish me luck!
Wow, this clip is awesome. I learned so much. Turned out my sweet potato was upside down in the glass of water. Instead of putting them in the right position, I popped them straight into potting soil. I can't wait to get some vines, hopefully it works. Tammy's harvest was insane!!!🙂
Good luck! 🙂
I did that too and just planted them, they did fine and I got a great harvest
Sweet potatoes have to be the easiest thing ever to grow. I use the toothpick method and have always had great luck. I like to grow them inside as a houseplant. The vines are so pretty.
Well dang! I'm going to go pick up an organic sweet potato today and start. Love the idea of the sideways bottle. Did you cut drain holes in them or just be careful not to over water. We have been popping our compostable materials into the future garden space all year so Yay. Thank you for this. I've grown them for plants when I was young but love to eat them, so this is perfect.
I would just go ahead and plant your first sweet potatoes. not too deep. Cut off the first slips and root them for a few weeks to propagate them. You can keep doing that for a few months and you will still get new vines and potatoes out of the original potatoes! Sweet potatoes are so easy.
@@scottcampbell7944 it's in a planter inside. Still freezing some nights & snow today. Thank you!
I just order some sweet potato slips last night and can't wait to get em planted.
Well I'm stoked to get started. Even doing my own experiment with jars vs potting mix. Thank you so much 💚
I used the cup method in florida. Got a ton of slips. Got a harvest last year put of the ground. Took the slips off the potatoes. Replanted them and they have now taken over one of our garden beds.
I’m growing potatoes for the first time EVER!! I’m starting wit purple and Yukon but I’m doing sweet potato next yeah since they take longer. Sweet potato plants are soo pretty. Your videos always have the most perfect timing for me, thank youuuu!!!! 🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠🍠 (would love to hear tips on storing veggies and fruits like potatoes, onions, garlic and stuff 😁)
Potatoes are a different plant than sweet potatoes. Cooler weather tolerant. Harvest when the greens die. Not as much weight in the roots.
Sweet potatoes really get going in the warm weather. They kept going until you cut the vines or it freezes. You will be digging up potatoes from places you didn’t even plant! Invasive food.
@@scottcampbell7944 "Invasive food."
I love that. What a "problem" to have! (Especially these days.)
I’m starting my sweet potatoes now because I love the foliage and will plant come spring.
I purchased sweet potatoes from Whole Foods and one started sprouting almost immediately. I stuck it sideways in seed starter soil and I ended up with 16 slips. I'm patiently waiting to harvest sweet potatoes maybe in April. I dug around a bit beneath the vines and I can see baby sweet potatoes have formed.
Gerry, you did a “pick-a-boo on your baby potatoes”…. LOL
After two months of curing 'em, home grown baked Hannah variety sweet potatoes as a side dish for dinnner tonight. Wow. tastiest dang sweet potatoes ever. I picked some early when they were still kind of small but they taste sooooooo good. Now I am going to harvest the rest of the patch.
Impressive video chalked full of valuable info. PLUS, the outstanding backdrop of your new homestead.
Thank you!
Amazing harvest! Thank you for taking the time to document this entire process. These beginning-to-end videos are the best for inexperienced gardeners like me! May I ask when did you start growing the slips? (I live in the LA area so should be able to follow the same time table.) Thank you so much!
This took a long time to film.... Thank you, I learned a lot!
I love Tammy's enthusiasm for the sweet potato harvest! I honestly was not planning on growing sweet potatoes, but I may give them a shot now that I have seen how! :)
Heading to my raised bed to put my sprouts in!! Can't wait til fall!
Hi & thank you for all your sharing tips, few questions. Can you use Azomite dust inside the planting hole instead of crab n lobster? Also where you stated 8 was too many for that particular planter, what is the proper spacing for sweet patatoe slips to yield a good crop? Love your channel & Thanks again.
Azomite is great at replacing trace minerals into your soil but is not useful or should not be substituted for fertilizer.
Thanks to your info, I grew purple sweet potatoes in two medium sized pots. I started late spring but I still got MANY slender DELICIOUS SWEET POTATOES. EVEN THE EXTREMELY SLENDER STICKS WERE SO DELISH!!! Just scrub the skin with a brush in water bucket , rinse and cook with skins on. Eat with skins on… yum!! Doing it again this year in a humongous pot about 3 feet by almost 3 feet high. Thanks again!
That’s awesome! I started mine in January with the half into soil method. The slips are growing crazy. This will be my first year. How far apart should I plant them? Do I have to wait until my last frost has passed or are they okay in some cold? Great video, thanks for the info. 👩🌾
Sweet potatoes are a warm weather crop, wait until after your last frost to plant. I grow mine in zone 5b. My biggest sweet potato I didn't weigh, but it was "as big as your head".
Sell your house. Move. Relocate to a warmer climate.
I started with one sweet potato with lots of "node spots" on it. I put it in the fridge for a week or so, then in some potting soil. It grew sprouts similar to yours.
I took each of those sprouts and cut them between each leaf creating a bunch of slips each about 2" long. I literally stuck them in the ground (Zone 10a) I prepped to grow them in, covered everything but the leaf in a few inches of mulch and watered them in. I watered every day for about a week, then weaned to every other day, then occasionally. They all took off gangbusters. I love sweet potatoes 😂
I just grew some in a black costco tub and the entire foliage ended up growing up and over the chicken pen, it was awesome! Fun experiment, I think they're ready to harvest 🤞🏼
Can you split the seed potato in half long ways so you'll have 2 halves in the potting mixture? Would that double your slips?
I am in Virginia and I grow sweet potatoes in large buckets on my deck. The first year I harvested the largest Sweet potatoes and left the roots and small tubulars in the buckets. The following spring new plants started to sprout on their own before I planted new plants.
Thank you for this video! I live in South Carolina, and I'm starting to plan my garden. I am confused about one thing. You said sweet potatoes need more phosphorus, and you used Neptune's Harvest Crab and Lobster Fertilizer. But the number on it is 5-3-0. It's higher in nitrogen. Explain please!😊
I'm in coastal SC. I'm interested to know too. I have never used the Neptune's Harvest but am willing to try their products.
Be careful with high nitrogen or you’ll get beautiful vines and not many sweet potatoes at all. The energy will go into the vines.
Mine have lots of buds but no root didn't know what to do with them. Now I do! Thanks for this great video!
I started my slips similarly last year (love the Vit C tip! I had some rot😐), and had a huge patch of leaves (I did use some in stir-fry). But almost no harvest 😥 Like 1" diameter by 4-6" long. (In Sacramento, so frost only Dec-Feb as a rule, but not alot of heat fall/spring.)
Question: My husband grew up growing prolific sweet potatoes (in Belize, central Am). He said the vines (like grapes) will root wherever they touch soil (creating more roots, = more harvest). I mulched w/straw, and tried to push away and lightly cover parts of the vines with soil, but didn't seem to take... I know our soil is poor (alkaline, clay), though we amended a lot w/compost, peat moss, etc. Suggestions? I'm discouraged to even try again this year!
Diane
My soil is clay..... So I built an entire bed from scratch. Layered...
Cardboard
Leaves
Sticks
Shredded paper
Leaf mulch
Compost
About 12 " deep. I. Had a very huge harvest, some very large.
Just awesome!!!
This is exactly the video that I needed to find today!! I forgot about a purple sweet potato in water and it’s gone crazy. I love being able to see what the next steps are. I really appreciate you putting all of this in one spot for me, and for taking the time it took to do it! They’re rooting now!!
WHOA that harvest was wild!!! Now I don’t even know where to put these hahaha
Just a little note on sweet potato harvesting. I live north of you, in Central CA. I don’t dig sweet potatoes until needed, as needed. We eat them all winter, anything we don’t eat is fed to the animals. Leaving them in ground is not just due to lack of storage, and time on my part. Where they are “stored” they have excellent insulation, and perfect humidity control, when dug for a meal, they’re moist and creamy, not as dry as when “air-stored”. Interestingly, my sweet potatoes left in-ground don’t suffer insect damage until spring, -I’m not sure why, but any left in ground by mid February or so, are used for slips, or are eaten by insects.
You are a great teacher. Thank you. I ordered slips this year because I tried the water method last year and had no luck. I got sick of waiting for the slips.
It was 18 degrees here in NC this morning but I have my sweet potatoes on the counter and juice bottles to cut in half to get them started. A bit late maybe but I've also got a bathroom full of baby chicks. Lol. As always Brian, your videos are perfect timing. 💞🐥🐥
I. Had. Sweet potatoes in my first garden last year. Can't hardly wait🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗
Yay!
I love sweet potatoes but didn't want to worry about growing them. Then I found out that the leaves are edible and nutritious, too; so I've changed my mind. :)
Great Video! It always feels like Christmas when I harvest my sweet potatoes :) This year I have realized the importance of worms in root vegetables. I have about 2 million worms that i farm in my barn for castings, but as I breed more, I am putting them in my sweet potatoes in the garden. This year I had the most unbelievable harvest! I believe it is due primarily to the worms composting, loosening & aerating the soil. :)
5 sweet potatoes buried halfway getting lots of slip planting g today inside my green room til frost danger is over here in n, Idaho. Sooo excited
I put in 14 slips in a 30 x 15 area. They grew in my very heavy clay and it took me 3 to 4 days to dig them out. I got more than a wheelbarrow full. Only growing a few slips to give to friends. After giving around 30 sweet potatoes away and what we already ate, I have too many. I'm going to can about 10 quarts and 10 pints and give the rest to Second Harvest Food Bank. Harvest of sweet potatoes, not too sweet, but too many! God bless and keep growing.