Sweet Potatoes got the funk

[sweetvelocity]

So I have been practicing my my skills of indoor growing for transplant. I do not plan to actually transplant these slips but I want to maintain their health.

My slips were started about a week and 1/2 ago. I started five potatoes in water to start growing slips. I only have two left. The water, it keep turning rancid. I change it daily. Now the last two potatoes I have left are growing leaves very well, but they are only 2 to 3 inches high. Not ready for removing yet. Now their water is turning too.

Help!

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u50/autumnandtim/DSCF2341.jpg

[Tsunami]

Why don't you want to transplant them.

[sweetvelocity]

I am moving in a few weeks and do not want to transport them with me. I was just practicing starting slips with some sweet potatoes in my kitchen. The coming spring I will hope to have slips started to transplant after last frost.

[Nu Kua]

Hmmm... I've never done that, but I understand that sweet potatoes do not like waterlogged soils. They'll rot in them. They come from a dry climate in S. America. Maybe you could move them to a portable pot of soil, instead of placing them outdoors? I bet they'll set well in that until you are ready to plant them in the ground. In fact you could then start placing them outdoors, too, to start getting them used to it. I'd not do direct sunlight, mid-day, for the first the first few days.

Those are guesses. ToM said earlier he learned that once you plant sweet potatoes, you'll always have sweet potatoes. He's probably the Sweet Potato guru. :)

PS
I found this- from "Compost Guy (http://www.compostguy.com/fun-projects/growing-sweet-potato-slips/)"


...Getting your sweet potato ready to grow slips is about as simple a project as you can imagine – this is why I think this particular project could be a lot of fun for children. It actually reminds me a lot of the way my dad taught me to grow an avacado plant (using the pit) when I was a kid – perhaps another reason I was tempted to try it out.

Essentially, all you need to do is 1) cut off a chunk of sweet potato (an end section works best), 2) position it over a jar filled with water (using several toothpicks), leaving part of the potato immersed, and 3) place the jar in a warm, brightly lit room.
That’s it! Before you know it, you’ll find little white roots growing from the sweet potato down into the water, followed by little green sprouts springing up from the zone sitting above the water-line.

According to Ed Smith (author of the aforementioned ‘bible’), if you are planning to use the slips in the garden, you will want to wait until they are 4-6 inches long – at which time you gently twist them off and immerse them in water as well. Once the roots on each slip is an inch or two they are ready to be transplanted into a loose, rich soil bed in an area that receives a lot of sun.
His blog looks really cool.

[sweetvelocity]

I am going to have to read up on starting them in soil. This water stuff seemed like the most popular method but its GROSS!


Thank you Nu Kua:)

[custompainter]

I'd lend you some advise but I loath sweet potatoes. So too bad. }:)

[sweetvelocity]

I'd lend you some advise but I loath sweet potatoes. So too bad. }:)

POTATO RACIST:yikes:!

I really like them and they are so much healthier than actual potatoes.

[Nu Kua]

Sweet V, re-read the Compost Guy above- if I am seeing that correctly, he started his out in water... I *think* according to what he is saying, you might should take off those shoots, put them in water the same way, and when they have roots, plant them in soil.

[custompainter]

Ok just to prove im not a potatoe racist. I give them to my dog as treats. She absolutely loves em!
And I do belee the compost guy is correct. This is the same way you germinate avacado seeds. Just dont let the water evap lower than the tater and it should root in a week er so. Try a lil bit of root tone in the water. Also you should use filtered water. Never use water right out of the tap, the clorine and or floride is poison to plants and seeds. And tho the filter wont get out all of the floride,the charcoal will help nuetralize the effects of it. And simply letting the water sit for a few hrs will let the chlorine evap off. So there! }:)

[sweetvelocity]

Ok just to prove im not a potatoe racist. I give them to my dog as treats. She absolutely loves em!
And I do belee the compost guy is correct. This is the same way you germinate avacado seeds. Just dont let the water evap lower than the tater and it should root in a week er so. Try a lil bit of root tone in the water. Also you should use filtered water. Never use water right out of the tap, the clorine and or floride is poison to plants and seeds. And tho the filter wont get out all of the floride,the charcoal will help nuetralize the effects of it. And simply letting the water sit for a few hrs will let the chlorine evap off. So there! }:)

OMG I forgot about the tap water being icky. I am so dumb. Or just so used to well water.

I would love to grow an avocado plant, but that would have to be an indoors plant. I don't think those like snow:(

[sweetvelocity]

Well I pulled the slips "early" and stuck them in water. They are growing like crazy. In just a few days I have roots that are already an inch long. Now If I could just get my cat to leave them alone.

[Tired Old Man]

Well I pulled the slips "early" and stuck them in water. They are growing like crazy. In just a few days I have roots that are already an inch long. Now If I could just get my cat to leave them alone.

Warning !
Once you plant sweet potatoes you will always have sweet potatoes...lol

I see you figured it out. Once the slips are a couple inches long cut them and place in water. Roots grow fast.

The best I got last year ( potatoes) were about the size of my thumb. But I didn't have the time to care for them.
I tilled everything under and still don't have the time to care for my garden. Guess what I have ?
New sweet potato plants growing. With the lack of care I hope to have a plant that can do it on it's own.
How many times can they die before they figure it out ?
Darwin at work......

Having said that I really hope I have enough can food on hand.

[pico]

I have never grown sweet potatoes, but put some red potato starters in back in april and already too a few pails of smaller ones. They cook up great, and you can eat them raw and they taste awsome. I think the main thing with potatoes of any variety is to avoid having too much wet soil around them, as it packs down and rots them. I planted mine in a raised row on a slope, running with the slope. I think next year I will simply plant a huge bed in about 12" of mulch, and see how that does. I could eat potatoes everyday, and having more of them and perhaps less other plants will likely be my end result.