You’ve heard about the advantages of growing your food. It’s one of the reasons why many people have decided to become self-needs. It’s one of the biggest steps in living a sustainable lifestyle. It can be great for you and the planet.
If you’re new to gardening, consider making sweet potato slips! Once they’re ready to plant out into your garden, they’ll give you fresh sweet potatoes all season long! You can do them in some simple steps in a few days with minimal effort.
You can grow your sweet potatoes from potato slips
Early spring or late winter is the perfect time to plant sweet potatoes, just before the soil warms up. The soil temperature should be between 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 F). Its pH should be 5.5-6.5, with plenty of organic matter mixed in the soil. You can add composted manure, aged cow manure, aged chicken manure, or aged horse manure.
Plant your slips 1/2-3/4 inch deep into the ground and 12 inches apart. Water well after planting them, but don’t overwater as this can cause mold issues down the line. Start mulching around each plant with straw during colder months to protect them from the sun and frost. Remove this straw once temperatures rise above 60 degrees F in late springtime!
Sprouts appear from any slips planted during the fall months. That means it’s safe to start harvesting sweet potatoes!
Learning To Make Sweet Potato Slips Is Easy And Convenient
Sweet potato slips are easy to make, no matter where you live. If you’ve got a sunny windowsill, you’re already halfway there. All you need is some spuds, water, and soil. You won’t even have to spend money on anything special. Sweet potatoes grow in the same soil as regular potatoes! So grab a couple of taters and get started!
Recycling Sweet Potato Slips
You can grow sweet potato slips from existing sweet potatoes. You can try to grow slips from any sweet potato, but those with red skin and orange flesh are the best for growing slips. The more colorful the flesh, the better it will be for producing new plants.
To start your slip garden:
- You can use anything sharp, like a knife, to cut off a section of skin around two inches long on each side of your sweet potato. If it’s too thick, use an apple corer!
- Start poking holes into each one with an ice pick or similar tool. Do this until they’re deep enough to go through without breaking into the fleshy middle part.
Steps How to Make Sweet Potato Slips
First Step
Choose a potato with the smallest diameter and the most eye sprouting. The smaller your sweet potato is, the younger it will be. Younger plants are more likely to sprout than older ones. Ensure that you have enough eyes on each slip. This way, you won’t have any problems getting your slips to grow once they’re planted in the soil.
Second Step
Place the sweet potato in a glass of water. Submerge about a third of the potato and place it on a sunny windowsill. The sweet potato should sit in a sunny spot, so make sure you place it where it will get plenty of light. You can also try placing your sweet potatoes in front of your window for extra sunlight if that’s easier.
It should take about one to three weeks for your sweet potato to sprout. But that would depend on the variety of sweet potatoes you’re growing. Keep your potatoes moist at all times. Suppose you see that the skin is starting to fade up or wrinkle. In that case, they could use more water if a shoot comes out of the top of your slip. But it doesn’t have any roots yet and looks more like a tail than anything else; give it another week. After that, pull it out so that it can get started growing.
Third Step
If all goes well and they begin sprouting roots and shoots, congratulations! It’s time for your plant to move into its next phase: growing in pots outdoors. Grow them out for several months until winter comes around again. At that time, plants will start producing actual sweet potatoes ready for harvest.
Fourth Step
Once you have your ready-to-use sweet potato slips, it’s time to get planting! Sweet potato slips are a simple, inexpensive way to grow sweet potatoes. And they’re easy on your garden space, too! You can plant them directly in the soil or pots, making them perfect for small spaces. You can plant sweet potatoes anytime between spring and fall. They’re most productive when planted during late summer or early fall.
Here’s how:
- Choose a location where you can get full sun or partial shade and dig a hole deep enough. The top of your sweet potato slip should be level with the surface of the ground once it grows.
- Place your sweet potato root into its new home.
- Next, cover with loose dirt until only about 4 inches remain exposed above ground level. It’s where leaves will emerge after sprouting begins the season again!
Conclusion
Now that you are all set up with your sweet potato slips, it’s time to get planting! Sweet potatoes are a perfect complement to any garden. They grow well in containers and need very little care. Sweet potatoes can also be used as an ornamental plant. This summer, they can be hanging baskets or planters, adding color and texture to your yard!
