Farmall Cub

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO START SWEET POTATO PLANTS ? THANKS ALOT JOHNNY

Get a sweet potatoe and cut it into quarters. Suspend the pieces in water using tooth pics so that about a quarter to a half inch is in the water. Over time small plants will start on it. When they develop a good root system, transplant to some dirt.

Here's another method.

http://organic-vegetable-gardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/growing_sweet_potatoes

We bought 5 plants from the local nursery. Never knew we could grow em up here. Got a bunch of tubers.. really kinda nice, but small. Next year we will start them in the house and then transplant a whole mess of em.. side dress and keep a close eye on em. Emilie loves sweet potatoes or yams.. so she will play in the garden...

We just lay a bunch of tubers from last or the year before down in the greenhouse and cover them with dirt,--keep watered good and they will make about 25 plants, or more per tater planted!---We have even done this in the open ground at the edge of the garden in the spring!
You get more darn plants than you can use and don't have to spend a lot of money to get them!---that is how we do our white sweet potatoes, and always end up with leftover plants!! thanks; sonny

Thanks for your help. I always bought the plants at the store and never knew how to grow my own. I'll try to do so next year and see what happens. Thanks alot. Johnny J

SONNY wrote:We just lay a bunch of tubers from last or the year before down in the greenhouse and cover them with dirt,--keep watered good and they will make about 25 plants, or more per tater planted!---We have even done this in the open ground at the edge of the garden in the spring!
You get more darn plants than you can use and don't have to spend a lot of money to get them!---that is how we do our white sweet potatoes, and always end up with leftover plants!! thanks; sonny

That's how we do it here, we call it "bedding slips." Save the smallest, long/slender potatoes from the year before, and use them for next year's crop. Then when it's time pull them and plant them.

Al

SONNY wrote:We just lay a bunch of tubers from last or the year before down in the greenhouse and cover them with dirt,--keep watered good and they will make about 25 plants, or more per tater planted!---We have even done this in the open ground at the edge of the garden in the spring!
You get more darn plants than you can use and don't have to spend a lot of money to get them!---that is how we do our white sweet potatoes, and always end up with leftover plants!! thanks; sonny

Sonny,
You mentioned white sweet potatoes; I've never run into them before, do they taste any different?

Eikel

I think they might be a little milder flavor than the yellow/orange varieties, BUT the thing I like about them is the fact that they dont have the coarse strings in them!--You can take a small white about the size of your thumb and bake/cook it and not have any strings in it like the others have at that size!---they have a very fine/smooth texture when baked/fried/or cooked and mashed!
Also I like the way they grow in a bunch under the main plant in the row! (like a bunch of bananas ) tight together making them a lot easier to dig because you know where to start digging without having to dig up the whole garden to find them!

We still have some in the basement storage from last year and a few from the year before that!---good keepers!----good variety to save seed tubers from for next years plants! Thanks; sonny

SONNY wrote:I think they might be a little milder flavor than the yellow/orange varieties, BUT the thing I like about them is the fact that they dont have the coarse strings in them!--You can take a small white about the size of your thumb and bake/cook it and not have any strings in it like the others have at that size!---they have a very fine/smooth texture when baked/fried/or cooked and mashed!
Also I like the way they grow in a bunch under the main plant in the row! (like a bunch of bananas ) tight together making them a lot easier to dig because you know where to start digging without having to dig up the whole garden to find them!

We still have some in the basement storage from last year and a few from the year before that!---good keepers!----good variety to save seed tubers from for next years plants! Thanks; sonny

Are they Beauregards? They are a real popular white tater around here, grown commercial.

I think the "strings" are a variety thing, but I wonder too if soil fertility has something to do with it. My dad grows a Puerto Rican variety. It is NOT the same as what is commonly available today. Little paler orange, they came from taters he has been propagating year after year for a long, long time. They have a very good flavor (we think) and they are not "stringy."

My dad and my grandmother used to be fanatical about sweet potatoes. Back when he was growing up, if you had plenty of collards growing in the garden in the winter, meat in the smokehouse, and sweet taters, you could make it ok through the winter!

Al

These were just called white bunch when we got the start of them 10 years ago!--been saving seed ever since from them!
I know the kind of portericans you are talking about too and the older type was good!---I think too that saved seed adapts to your climate and soil conditions!!----then you have your own private variety after a few years!

Another variety that we had good results with was the Centennials ---good yielding/taste/stubby and fairly easy to dig! thanks; sonny