Sweet potatoes from store bought potato

We can still plant sweet potatoes in June. In fact, they can be planted anytime from beginning of April through second week of July and harvested in October and November. You can purchase sweet potato slips, but you can also grow your own potato slips from a store bought potato. A note of caution, a store potato might be treated with the retardant agent to prevent growing. I however never had that problem in my efforts of growing the slips. So, get yourself some sweet potatoes from the store, insert three toothpicks to hold the potato in suspension and submerge the lower part in water:

In about a couple of weeks the potato will start growing slips. You can expect six to ten slips from one potato. Once the slip is about six inches long, break it off the potato and insert into another jar filled with water, like this:

The slips will grow new roots and will be ready to be transplanted into the garden in about two to three weeks. Once they are in the garden, water them every day until they are established. Here's a sweet potato vine hiding under a young okra:



If sweet potatoes are grown in a fertile loose soil, you can expect to harvest four to ten potatoes from one slip. Enjoy!