How to Propagate Sweet Potatoes to Grow New Slips

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Use these step - by - step instructions to propagate a cherubic potato in water or potting premix . This grow “ slickness ” ( stems and leave ) providing Modern plants for the garden . The vine also make interesting houseplants .

Many fruits and veg can be propagated at menage to grow novel plants . This showsa simple direction to grow avocado from seed .

Two methods for propagating sweet potato slips.

Water jar method

Sprouting Sweet Potatoes

Just one sweet white potato can create a lot of new sweet potatoes — on-going for geezerhood to come up .

In the past ten or two , this sugar - plenteous root vegetable has enjoyed a raw wave of popularity , in all probability due to sweet murphy offered as an alternative to traditional Gallic Fry or baked potatoes in restaurants and food trucks .

While not a type of potato , sweet white potato ( edibleIpomoea batatascultivars ) are just as various and sweeter — as the name mean .

Propagating sweet potatoes in a container to grow new slips.

Because we can not grow mellisonant potatoes as perennial year - rung in stale climate , we adapt by growing them as annuals ( a single time of year craw ) . Planted after the jeopardy of freeze has passed , faster - growing miscellanea can bring forth a substantial harvest by early drop .

The easygoing way to get start is to buy or create your own “ slips . ”

Slips are simply stems and leave that mature from existing sweet potato to shape fresh flora .

Sweet potato sprouting in jar of water.

Start with a sweet tater from the grocery storage and use the instruction manual below to grow your own slips .

The best time to get started is 2 to 3 calendar month before your last frost in spring , so , by the metre the weather warms , your slips are quick for transplanting outdoors .

Just one sweet potato can produce a lot of chemise — a dozen is not out of the interrogative . And each of those in turn can become a new works that bring out several pound of sweet murphy .

Sweet potatoes sprouting in potting mix.

Cured and stored after harvest time , you ’ve got unfermented potatoes for the wintertime and supernumerary for creating new slips for the planting time of year to come . And on it lead .

If you ’re not a vegetable gardener , you may still apply the methods shown below to turn a fabulous vining houseplant .

How to Propagate Sweet Potatoes

There are a lot of unlike way to do this but each method is basically doing the same affair — providing warmth and wet to induct sprouting .

I have done so many experimentation to see which method acting works intimately and there are by all odds some clear winner which I have provided instructions for below .

Three Basic Steps

Two Methods

The most coarse method you ’ll see involves suspend the sweet potato in ajar of water . This influence fine . It ’s also a good choice if you just want a nerveless - looking houseplant .

Another method which I have come up to prefer is to sink the sweet murphy horizontally in moistpotting premix . I like this method because sometimes the slips and root work at the same time so it skips a step .

Which type of sweet potatoes can I propagate?

The only direction to know for certain whether a sweet potato will propagate is to try it .

Our selection are likely set to whatever local stores sell .

Other than a star sign sayingSweet Potatoesand perhaps list the body politic of origin , it ’s rarefied for the cultivar name to be listed in stores . If we had that data , we could look up the expected day to maturity to know whether it ’s a in effect fit .

Supermarket sweet potatoes.

Some sweet potatoes may also be handle withgrowth inhibitorsto prevent self-generated pullulate in the store . I have not encounter this but I have only test locally - grow sweet-scented Irish potato which likely do n’t require it . My dead reckoning is some fresh potato get oversea may be treat to allow longer traveling and store sentence .

To improve your odds , try propagating several at once , using both method shown , and admit different varieties if usable . Even from the same sack of sweet potatoes , I ’ve had hits and misses . Some are fecund growers while others take their sweet clip or do nothing at all .

So , produce many and trust for some . And you may always give extras to friends .

Plants propagating in jars.

Related:20 Easy Plant Propagation Tutorials for Gardeners

Step 1 – Create Slips

Water Jar Method

Some odorous white potato have an obvious tapered or slightly pointed remainder which is the base of operations . If yours has one , aim that end down into the water .

If both ends are rounded like the one pictured ( above right hand ) , just guess . you’re able to always flip it later .

In my experience , odorous potatoes will primarily grow roots in piss and shoots in the tune . you could see this in the next exposure . The sweet Irish potato was retain horizontally , partially submerged in water supply . Shoots formed across the full upper side .

Propagating a sweet potato in a jar of water.

It ’s not unusual to see some growth — little roots and/or bud that will become shoots — within the first week .

In 4 to 6 weeks you will likely have a few in of roots and shoots ( slips ) .

link : How to produce Pothos From clipping

Sweet potato with tapered end.

Potting Mix Method

It ’s the fondness and contact with moisture that stimulate the seraphic potato to get going producing fine whitened roots and buds which will become shoot ( chemise ) . These normally lead off appearing within a week or two .

In 4 to 6 week you will likely have a few inch of roots and shoot ( slips ) . It ’s also potential that your slips have already formed root in the potting mix . If this is so , you could keep everything as - is until it ’s time to transplant open air or transplant the slips to minor single pots .

cherubic Solanum tuberosum sometimes form Ca oxalate crystals on their leaves . If they form densely enough , the leave and theme will bit by bit die off , presumably because it obstruct photosynthesis . Because it ’s a metabolic condition and not a disease , it wo n’t distribute from plant to plant , but you still do n’t want it . When I see it , I dispose the entire sweet white potato and start fresh .

Sweet potato with no obvious top or bottom.

touch on : How to Grow an Avocado from Seed ( Easy Method )

Step 2 – Root the Slips

Rooting the Slips

There ’s no unfluctuating rule about how big or long the slips should be at settle down metre .

I always seem to have some sweet potatoes that are slow growing while others send up shoots that are several feet long within weeks .

You have two choice : root the skid in H2O or potting mix .

Slips and roots growing on a sweet potato.

If your slip already have radical , you may skip this step and graft directly outdoors if the timing is right .

To steady down in potting mix :

To root in jar :

First sign of roots growing from the base of a sweet potato.

ripe tip : Sweet potato strip can produce roots at every leaf node . If you have long stanch with batch of parting , you may rationalise them into multiple slips .

concern : How to acquire An Apple Tree From Seed ( Easy Tutorial )

Step 3 – Transplant the Slips

Transplanting Sweet Potato Slips Outdoors

If you started this process a few month before your average last freeze , you should have rooted slips ready for transplanting outdoors by the clip the risk of frost has passed .

While it ’s nice to have at least an in or more of established root , if you got a late beginning , you’re able to still transplant your slip directly outdoors or root them in pots outside .

It ’s always saucy toharden plant off first , leave them to gradually adjust to outdoor conditions .

New roots growing from the base of a sweet potato.

For growing the factual gratifying tater , they can grow in - ground or in large , inscrutable containers — the larger the better . I like container growing because it deters the mice and field mouse and I can move things around as needed but it can also mean small issue .

Harvest, Curing, & Storage

It ’s harvest time time in early fall when the foliage jump to yellow or the risk of rime is coming . Either style , you require them out of the basis before soil temperatures duck below 50 ° F or 10 ° coke .

Sweet potatoes requirecuringbefore eating or storage . This is done by placing the tuber in a warm room ( 85 ° F or 29 ° C is idealistic ) with high ( 90 % ) proportional humidness for a calendar week or two . During this time , the starches commute to sugars .

After curing , the skin have hardened and you could softly brush off any soil andstorethem in a cool , dark placement ( 55 ° F or 12 ° nose candy is ideal ) with high humidness ( 80 - 85 % ) for several month .

Pothos vine with lots of leaves.

Most of us do not have ideal conditions , and simply do the best we can . If it works , it works .

Related : How to Grow Lemon Trees from Seed ( & Other Citrus Fruits )

Frequently Asked Questions

The good time to part indoor unfermented white potato vine extension is two to three months before your median last frost in spring . This allows enough time for the sweet potato to create new slips which then take to bring on roots before it ’s time to transplant them outdoors in the summertime garden .

Yes , you may mature raw unfermented potato plants from solecism that begin in storage . When they are at least a few inches long , lightly squirm them off , and steady down them indoors in pot mix or water system . When they have at least an inch of roots , transplant into the garden if the endangerment of frost has go through .

No , usual potatoes and sweet potatoes are different plants and not close related . Both are comestible root vegetables but come from different botanic families . Sweet potatoes ( Ipomoea batatas ) belong to the Convolvulaceae family , also make love as the bindweed or break of the day halo family . coarse white potato vine ( Solanum tuberosum ) go to the Solanales phratry , also know as the nightshade family line . Both belong to to the Solanales order .

Propagating sweet potatoes in moist potting mix in a container.

No , while the word “ yam ” is sometimes incorrectly used for “ odorous potato ” they are not the same thing . Yam is the usual name for several unlike plant species in the genus Dioscorea in the Diosoreaceae kinsfolk . Sweet potatoes ( Ipomoea batatas ) go to the Convolvulaceae family . For sapidity , sweet white potato are sweeter than yams .

No , decorative sweet Irish potato vines do not have edible antecedent . They are cultivars bred for their lush , leafy vine and have little , unpleasant - tasting tuberous roots . Both edible odorous potatoes and sweet potato vine belong to the same specie , Ipomoea batatas , but have different appearances and uses .

Resources

Plant Hardiness Zones|United States|CanadaThese are listed on seeded player mailboat and plant tag end to guide your choices .

Average Frost Dates| Usethis calculatorat Almanac.com . Enter your city and land or province to find your first and last freeze date and number of freeze - costless days .

Ecoregion| Learn about local aboriginal plants , animal species , and environmental conditions to make garden choices that profit your ecosystem .

Propagating a sweet potato for new slips in potting mix.