Good Thing I Looked
Wow. Finally remembered to buy a sweet potato at the store to try and grow slips to plant. Yea, I know, it’s late, but we have plenty of summer left in which to grow them, unfortunately. Can you believe it hit 100 degrees today? In MARCH? it’s just not right!
Anyway, I guessed on which end goes in the water. I figured I had a 50/50 chance. So I stuck one end in the water, then went to look it up. Do you have any idea how many articles about sweet potatoes I had to read before I found one with a picture of the right way up? But I finally found one, and…you guessed it. I had the stupid thing in upside down. I corrected that, and we’ll see how this little experiment goes.
In case you were wondering, here’s the pic I found:
Right Way Up
I was going to plant sweet potatoes this year. I threw two rotting ones into the garbage one day last year, then buried them (trench composted) in the garden. They both grew into beautiful plants that I potted and brought in the house. My daughter had instructions to come once every two weeks to water them and snip the vines if they were overtaking the house, but she let them die. I tried to start another (water in glass method) in AZ a couple of months ago, but it just rotted. I think I must have had the wrong end up
Now I have so many plants started that I don’t have room for sweet potatoes!
Granny
I can imagine, judging from the vast number of plants you’ve mentioned already. Have you thought about an SWC for the sweet potatoes, or is every square ince of ground space already spoken for?
Actually, I had planned on using the bottom of the ugly black compost barrel for sweet potatoes, but after setting it up, I decided I just didn’t want to look at it! I still might try it behind the shed, if I can get Mr. H out there to remove the volunteer mulberry tree and three big lilacs.
First of all, great blog! I can tell that you have spent alot of time on creating it.
Now…I didn’t know that the potato had to be inserted into the water a certain way. I’m about to get one from the store and start mine. Can you tell me which end should stick up?
EG
Apparently it makes a difference, according to this one article. One end of the sweet potato has a pointy little tip on it, and the other is more blunt, I think maybe where it was attached to the root. Makes sense, I guess, when you think about it (not that I ever did think about it before), that the root end would root, and leaves grow out of the other end. Don’t know for sure, but we’ll see what happens.
And thanks for the nice comment on the blog. Appreciate any nice comments I can get, after all the cussing and frustration it took to get it working!
Everything I Google says pointy end down. Yours look like the pointy end was up…the ones that grew well for me were neither up nor down, but completely buried in a trench in the garden!
LOL…I just went by what the one article said. Since the potatoes were growing, I figured they knew what they were talking about. We’ll see what happens. Mine may rot just like yours did, who knows. Next year, I plan on getting started at the proper time of year and doing things the way they should be done. Just didn’t work out that way this year. So I’ll start the slips much earlier, the right way!
Just wondering where you’re at in Texas. I live just southwest of Houston and it wasn’t anywhere near 100 degrees.
Down in the RGV, in Harlingen. And it was 100 degrees, Accuweather, the local tv station, and the thermometer in hubby’s truck all said so. I couldn’t believe it. Hated it, too.
That’s crazy. It’s been a little chilly here 60’s and 70’s… LOL