Sweet potatoes are an extremely easy plant to grow in Arkansas gardens, but
give them plenty of room to grow, since they are vigorous plants. As you know,
sweet potatoes are not grown from seed, but transplants or slips. While you
can grow your own slips, to ensure that you will have disease free plants, you
may want to buy certified slips at your local farm supply store or nursery. To
grow your own, you simply place the sweet potato in moist sand and keep it
relatively warm. Some folks do it outdoors in a trench filled with sand, and
then covered with plastic to keep it warm and hold in the moisture. Each sweet
potato will produce a minimum of 10 to 20 slips. It is possible to produce
slips in four to six weeks. Once you have your slips, you need to carefully
separate the new sprout (slip) with its root system, and plant. Don't start
the process too soon, since sweet potatoes like warm soil, and really don't
need to be planted outdoors until May.
(March)
As a child, I watched my grandmother and mother grow wonderful sweet potatoes. I
would like to try to grow my own this year but I can't remember much about the
process. I have a few potatoes from last season that I saved to plant for slips.
I recall that Grandma planted potatoes in an old tub to grow potatoes slips for
transplanting. I need lots more information before I try this. Will you help, please?