Sweet potatoes, or Ipomoea batatas, a versatile and highly nutritious staple, have a unique propagation process that starts not from seed but from slips. These slips, or sprouts, grow from a mature sweet potato and are integral to cultivating new plants. Whether you’re a home gardener or an agricultural enthusiast, understanding the lifecycle of sweet potato slips can enhance your gardening experience and yield a bountiful crop. Let’s delve into the world of sweet potato cultivation and discover the secrets to successfully growing these delicious and healthful tubers.
Life is about finding joy in the little moments throughout the day. For me, joy comes with growing my own food. I love it! I guess it’s because I feel safe knowing that I have overseen the operation and my little plants have been grown without chemicals and with lots of love.
The Joys of Growing Your Own Food
One of the wonderful surprises about growing your own food is that you don’t actually need land to do it. You can live in an apartment and grow food in pots by a sunny window or with grow lights. Likewise, you can buy or build a hydroponic system that is soilless. Still you can regrow herbs in a glass of water. And the list goes on and on.
We’ll talk about some of these other gardening methods in future posts but for now I want to share with you a simple way to grow sweet potatoes from slips.
To other people, jars of water with sweet potatoes sticking out of them may look…well…weird. My husband likes to call these my little “science experiments.” I say embrace your inner “mad scientist” and have a little fun while you’re at it!
In a way, sprouting new plants from an existing plant is like the science projects we would have done in school. In fact you could try this at home with the kids. They would probably enjoy watching the tiny buds emerge and transform into tentacle-like slips. It’s pretty neat.
Why Sweet Potatoes?
So, why would you want to sprout sweet potatoes for planting? Sweet potatoes are easily sourced from your local grocery store. They are loaded with nutrients and are one of the better starches for keeping blood sugar level. Plus, it is so easy to sprout them you could be on your way to building your own food security garden in no time!
There are two easy methods we use for growing sweet potatoes. One involves immersing a whole potato in water and planting the slips that it produces. The other method is simply planting a whole sweet potato in a pot. Each has its own benefits and the method you choose will depend on the results you seek.
Plant from Slips
Slips are the name for the vining parts that will grow via the water method. I’ll show you this simple method, but first let’s talk about why you may choose this method. Put simply, one tuber produces many sweet potato slips. If you’re aiming for a larger sweet potato patch, this would be more cost effective than planting single potatoes. I have also found that the whole potato will often rot before it can root when planted in the ground. I have not had this problem with potted soil.
Gather Your Supplies
Inspect and Prepare the Sweet Potato
Make sure to buy a fresh sweet potato from the market. Check for soft spots or wrinkled skin. This is not a healthy tuber and will decompose when it sits in water.
Notice the circled spots on the sweet potatoes below. These are the eyes of the potatoes where roots or sweet potato slips, can potentially grow out of.
Carefully wash your selected potato and soak overnight to remove any pesticide residue. In the morning, rinse one more time before inserting three toothpicks in the tuber.
Stages of Development
The toothpicks rest on the lip of the jar to suspend the tuber into the water without fully submerging it. The sweet potato slips will grow out of the top of the tuber.
Notice the healthy, happy roots growing in the water (above). These are not the sweet potato slips, though. You will see those little leaflets starting to sprout in a week or so (See below).
Root the Slips
Be patient, it will take about a month for the sweet potato slips to grow long enough (five to six inches) to remove them.
Once they have reached the desired length, snip the sweet potato slips with clean scissors and move them to a new jar of clean water. Place it in a sunny spot and wait for the roots to grow.
Don’t forget to change the water before it gets cloudy. Keeping the water clean will help keep the sweet potato slips free of unhelpful algae or bacteria. In about two more weeks your sweet potato slips will have a healthy root system and be ready for planting.
When nighttime temperatures have reached above 60 degrees, it is safe to plant your newly rooted sweet potato slips outside. Choose a warm, sunny location of fertile well draining soil. water thoroughly after planting. The first week, give a small spritz of water daily. Progress to once every other day until the plant is established. Water once a week thereafter.
Plant the Whole Tuber
As a relative of the morning glory, sweet potato plants have gorgeous foliage. The heart shaped leaves spill gracefully over the sides of the planter. It makes for a dramatic display in the potted garden. You can also plant them in your pollinator garden and train the vines on a trellis or arbor. If this is your goal, simply plant the whole tuber in a pot of soil and water accordingly.
Of course, you will still choose a healthy tuber and soak it overnight to remove pesticide residue. Want to know why? Lovely as they are, sweet potato leaves are actually edible. That’s right, you can even eat them raw in a salad.
To plant: dig a hole and lay the tuber horizontally. It loves heat, so place the pot in a sunny location. Keep well-watered, don’t let the soil dry out.
In a few weeks’ time, you’ll see little buds emerging from the soil. Pretty soon they will look like this:
Keep in mind that sweet potatoes are a tropical vining plant. This is a heat loving plant making them ideally suited for the mounded garden. Hugelkultur gardens hold heat and moisture longer than your typical veggie patch. If you want to grow sweet potatoes on a larger scale, consider mound gardens as an option. At the end of the season, you will want to save some sweet potato roots for next years slips. Here is an excellent article from Mother Earth News to learn all about it.
Whichever method you choose to grow your sweet potatoes is up to you. There is no wrong answer. Either way is relatively easy, and the benefits are plentiful: organically grown and nutritious tubers, tasty salad greens, plus a beautiful vining plant in the garden.
Final Thoughts on Sweet Potatoes
In conclusion, whether embracing the role of an eccentric “mad scientist” with jars of budding sweet potato slips on your windowsill, or tucking a tuber into a cozy bed of soil, growing sweet potatoes is an engaging and rewarding process. It connects us intimately with the cycle of life and the satisfaction of self-sufficiency. From the delicate sweet potato slips sprouting in water to the lush, vibrant vines emerging from the soil, every step in the cultivation of these nutritious tubers is a testament to the wonder of gardening.
Whether for the joy of lush foliage, the promise of wholesome food security, or simply the pleasure of garden-to-table freshness, sweet potatoes offer something for everyone. Their versatility in the garden, as well as in the kitchen, makes them an excellent choice for gardeners of all levels, reaffirming that the beauty and bounty of nature are within everyone’s reach—even in the smallest of urban dwellings. Embrace the simplicity, delight in the growth, and celebrate the harvest of your very own sweet potatoes.
