DIY Network

Potato Types and Planting Tips Potato Types and Planting Tips From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-108

Sweet potatoes come in two different forms: vining and bush varieties. Both types thrive in the hot summer sun and are relatively easy to grow....

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	Sweet potatoes are started from slips, shoots that are grown from a mature sweet potato. Each sweet potato can produce up to 50 slip sprouts!
	To create sprouts, first carefully wash potatoes and cut them either in half or in large sections.
	Place each section in a jar or glass of water with half of the potato below the water and half above. Use toothpicks to hold the potato in place.
	When the roots are about an inch long, the new slips are ready to plant.

• Sweet potatoes aren't started by seed like most other vegetables, they're started from slips. Slips are shoots that are grown from a mature sweet potato. You can order slips from a mail order or Internet catalog or you can start slips from a sweet potato you bought at the store or one from your garden. If you buy a potato from the store, be sure to find out if you're getting a bush type or a vining type.

• To start your slips, you need several healthy, clean sweet potatoes. Each sweet potato can produce up to 50 slip sprouts! To create sprouts, carefully wash your potatoes and cut them either in half or in large sections. Place each section in a jar or glass of water with half of the potato below the water and half above. Use toothpicks to hold the potato in place.

• The slips need warmth, so put them on a window ledge or on top of a radiator. In a few weeks your potatoes will be covered with leafy sprouts on top and roots on the bottom.

• Once your sweet potatoes have sprouted, you have to separate them into plantable slips. To do this, you take each sprout and carefully twist it off of the sweet potato. Take each sprout and lay it in a shallow bowl with the bottom half of the stem submerged in water and the leaves hanging out over the rim of the bowl. Within a few days roots will emerge from the bottom of each new plant. When the roots are about an inch long the new slips are ready to plant. To keep your slips healthy be sure to keep the water fresh and discard any slip that isn't producing roots or looks like it's wilting.

• Almost every state in the US can grow sweet potatoes, but in the South, you can get a secondary crop if you time it right. They're ready to harvest in 90-120 days depending on the type you plant. Cold soil, frost and air temperatures in the 90's and above will make sweet potatoes grow more slowly. They prefer temperatures above 50 at night and below 90 during the day.

• Be careful about adding too much nitrogen-rich fertilizer to sweet potatoes in your garden. Nitrogen is the first number on the ratio label of a fertilizer bag. Soil high in nitrogen will make the potato bushes grow well above ground but few or no sweet potatoes will grow under ground because the plant will put all of its energy into the leaves and stems.