sweet potato is sprouting

[forest]

Finally! I put two sweet potatoes - one orange, one white - in a jar of water about 3 weeks ago. White fibrous roots developed on the white one after about a week, the ones on the orange one took a bit longer.

Now the white one has a lot of roots, in fact you can barely see the bottom of the spud through the roots. There are also about 20 green vine shoots. :D Almost all the shoot came up below the water line. Only two came up above it.

The orange one has much fewer roots but it also has vine shoots - 4 of them, all below the water line.

I didn't cut mine at all but as neither of them has sprouted at the pointy end, I'm guessing that they only sprout from one end. Can someone confirm or deny this?

[~Tullymoor~]

Another sweet potato smarty wombat boots, eh!! Hah!
:D

Seriously though, BaringaPark posted this link a while ago that confirms the one end thing...here 'tis again for your reading pleasure.

<grumble> 25 shoots ppfffttttt

http://www.uga.edu/discover/educators/readings/read97.pdf

[forest]

Thanks tully, that was interesting. If you can't get yours to grow, let me know. By then I will have some healthy vines (hopefully) and I can send some to you. :)

[~Tullymoor~]

Great! Thanks Forest!
I just put another one in water after reading your post. This time only cut in half, not into pieces....time will tell.

[forest]

Good luck, Tully. 8)

[barely run]

Bah humbug..... :cry:

Will go try yet again....I'm off to Brissy for a week from Tuesday so I"ll set up another one in the window ledge and see if anything happens??? by the time I get back. Has anyone had any sucess just planting one out?

Cathy

[heuristics]

I have some sweet potato tubers sprouting on my kitchen table right now. But how do I plant them?
Stick 'em in the ground? Create a newspaper-sheet mulch barrier, then add compost, tubers and cover with more newspaper and straw? Or how? Sorry to sound so clueless.
My tomatoes and pumpkins are doing great. And the rabbits just loved the broccoli shoots.

[forest]

Hi heuristics :) Good luck with your spuds.

This is from the link Tully posted above:
When the sprouts get 6 to 8 inches long, cut them from the sweet potato.
Cut just above the surface of the sweet potato, leaving green stubs. Put the slips in another glass of water. Leave the roots in place, and more plants can be harvested in a few weeks. You can add about 1/8
teaspoon of liquid fertilizer (per 8 oz) if you wish to encourage growth, though this isn't necessary. Plant out the slips after the soil has warmed up. This will be about mid-May in middle Georgia, earlier in south
Georgia, later in north Georgia.
Plant the slips 1 foot apart in rows spaced 3 feet apart, and let them grow. Don't plant sweet potatoes in soil that contains significant organic matter, which encourages diseases of sweet potatoes. Sandy or clay
soils are best.

[heuristics]

Hi heuristics Good luck with your spuds.

Thanks Forest – you're a gem. Can U pls hold my hand thru this?
“When the sprouts get 6 to 8 inches long, cut them from the sweet potato”.
So, the sprouts are the long tendril thingies starting to extend from the tuber?
Cut just above the surface of the sweet potato, leaving green stubs.
Put the slips in another glass of water. (What are the 'slips'?)
Leave the roots in place, and more plants can be harvested in a few weeks. (What are the roots? Are they the tubers? Or the tendrils?)

You can add about 1/8 teaspoon of liquid fertilizer (per 8 oz) if you wish to encourage growth, though this isn't necessary.
Plant out the slips after the soil has warmed up. This will be about mid-May in middle Georgia, earlier in south Georgia, later in north Georgia. (Sydney? I guess now is as good a time as any?)
Plant the slips 1 foot apart in rows spaced 3 feet apart, and let them grow. Don't plant sweet potatoes in soil that contains significant organic matter, which encourages diseases of sweet potatoes. Sandy or clay soils are best.
(I have mostly only clay, but .... do I just shove them in the ground? I like the idea of a no-dig garden – so how does that work with sweet potato?

[forest]

Heuristics ((holding your hand))

"So, the sprouts are the long tendril thingies starting to extend from the tuber?" Yep, the vine bit, this is also call a slip. I think when it comes out of the side of the tuber it's called a sprout, when it's bigger and starting to look like a vine, it's called a slip.

"Cut just above the surface of the sweet potato, leaving green stubs.
Put the slips in another glass of water. (What are the 'slips'?)"

We have to cut the slips off the tuber, although I tried on one of mine and it just snapped off. I think cutting would be better though. Cut it close to the surface of the tuber and under the thickened part at the bottom of the slip.

"Leave the roots in place, and more plants can be harvested in a few weeks. (What are the roots? Are they the tubers? Or the tendrils?) "

Put the tuber back in the water with the roots still on - the roots being the white fibrous things that appeared first, before the sprouts. The tuber will produce more slips if you do this. The "fruit" is called a tuber, the sprouts are called slips and the white fibrous thingos are called roots. HA!

"Sydney? I guess now is as good a time as any?" Yep, now is a good time.

"I have mostly only clay, but .... do I just shove them in the ground? I like the idea of a no-dig garden – so how does that work with sweet potato?" I think you'll have to put them under the soil, not deep, but a soil covering to anchor them down a little. Then you can mulch around them to retain moisture. So just loosen your soil and then plant the slips 3 feet apart. Anchor with a little more soil round the base of the slip and mulch.
:)

[baringapark]

Hi all and MC.

Mine are sprouting too!! I have just cut off one shoot and put it in its own water with fertiliser. But, we have had a plague of tiny bugs in and out of the house. Quite a lot settled on my sprouting sweet potatoes and I did not take much notice until I saw the sprouting bits start to shrivel up. They must be sap-sucking insects, little blighters after all this long process of sprouting the bloody things.

I am now squishing any that get on my sprouts/slips/tendrils.

E

[Tamandco]

I'll be really interested in you have success growing these in your area Elizabeth cos if you can, I might be able to too! :) I'll keep a watch on this thread.

Those little insects, are they the same ones that seem to only come inside on the really warm nights?

Tam

[Veggie Boy]

A couple of days ago I couldn't resist the urge to have a dig around my sweet potato bushes to see if there were any tubers. I reckon plants are about 3 months old now.

I was a little surprised to find 2 fairly large tubers without much trouble at all. I'm sure there are more - but no point looking until I'm done with the 2 I've dug up. Have eaten 1 1/2 of them so far. Very nice - the white ones with purple skin. I do like the orange ones better, but only planted that bush a couple of weeks ago, so have a bit of a wait.

Good to see that everybody is doing well with their shoots.