What exactly are sweet potato slips?

And can you use supermarket bought sweet potatoes (once 'slipped') to
plant out to grown your own, rather than buying slips from seed
suppliers.


M

"MW" wrote
What exactly are sweet potato slips?

Rooted cuttings basically.
What I did was sit the sweet potato in a box with a thin layer of potting
compost on the bottom ( about 2.5cm) and place it somewhere light and
warmish (say 60°F) and they will sprout and then root. These are simply
pulled off the potatoes and potted on, the potatoes will then make more
slips.


And can you use supermarket bought sweet potatoes (once 'slipped') to
plant out to grown your own, rather than buying slips from seed
suppliers.

You can but they will be foreign grown ones and therefore not that suitable
for the UK with our short naff summers.
Even growing on my own slips early from small potatoes grown from bought
slips the previous year we still didn't get a usable crop. In this country
they need a good long sunny summer and plenty of water. BTW they are also
very susceptible to slug damage so if your normal spuds get problems with
slugs you won't get much of a sweet potato crop left even if you get that
far.
Perhaps in a big polytunnel they would be worthwhile.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

On Fri, 8 Jan 2010 12:40:08 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

And can you use supermarket bought sweet potatoes (once 'slipped') to
plant out to grown your own, rather than buying slips from seed
suppliers.

You can but they will be foreign grown ones and therefore not that suitable
for the UK with our short naff summers.
Even growing on my own slips early from small potatoes grown from bought
slips the previous year we still didn't get a usable crop. In this country
they need a good long sunny summer and plenty of water. BTW they are also
very susceptible to slug damage so if your normal spuds get problems with
slugs you won't get much of a sweet potato crop left even if you get that
far.
Perhaps in a big polytunnel they would be worthwhile.

Thx for this. I might order some from Thompson & Morgan. They're doing
multi-variety packs at the mo.

We're in Essex and FWIW we do generally have a dry and reasonably
lengthy summer, so maybe less of a problem than elsewhere. And slugs
haven't really been problematic on our potatoes.

Just cooking a sweet potato, pepper and sweetcorn soup with
shop-bought ingredients, so hopefully can be making a fully homegrown
version next year.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

M

In article ,
MW wrote:

Just cooking a sweet potato, pepper and sweetcorn soup with
shop-bought ingredients, so hopefully can be making a fully homegrown
version next year.

Don't bet on it.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

They grow well in the UK only when planted under a blue moon.

More seriously, no. Do that and they will die. They MUST have warm
soil.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

.
MW wrote:

Just cooking a sweet potato, pepper and sweetcorn soup with
shop-bought ingredients, so hopefully can be making a fully homegrown
version next year.

Don't bet on it.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

They grow well in the UK only when planted under a blue moon.

More seriously, no. Do that and they will die. They MUST have warm
soil.

Quite agree, from our experience they will only produce a crop under ideal
UK conditions which are very warm long summers with a good rainfall. In a
normal year a waste of time other than it's an interesting experience.

BTW the plants look like giant convolvulus and spread all over. If you
garden on an allotment site do warn any neighbouring gardeners or they might
think you are producing genetically modified bindweed to take over the
world. :-)

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

MW wrote:
Thx for this. I might order some from Thompson & Morgan. They're doing
multi-variety packs at the mo.

I got one of those 2 years ago. Instead of 3 varieties they sent 2 with
a double pack of one type, due to lack of supply. I was a bit miffed.

We're in Essex and FWIW we do generally have a dry and reasonably
lengthy summer, so maybe less of a problem than elsewhere. And slugs
haven't really been problematic on our potatoes.

We did ours in Essex. In hindsight, we should have given them more water.
We planted through black plastic and kept it on all season. Can't remember
when we put them out. Nick says we put them out May/June, but we should
have put them out earlier. They only grew to quite small and we didn't have
a massive crop.
I think we're going to try again this year.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

Depends on how warm your soil is!

g'day mw,

slips are vine cuttings or sections of vines.

and if supermarket tubers are viable that is they haven't been treated
not to sprout then they can be used.

see our presentation:

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/growing..._pineapple.htm

have fun

On Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:29:45 +0000, MW wrote:

snipped
--

len

With peace and brightest of blessings,

"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

wrote:

They grow well in the UK only when planted under a blue moon.

There's a blue moon this month - no idea whether it's the first full
moon or the second one thobut.

--
Rusty

Bob Hobden wrote:


.
MW wrote:

Just cooking a sweet potato, pepper and sweetcorn soup with
shop-bought ingredients, so hopefully can be making a fully homegrown
version next year.

Don't bet on it.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

They grow well in the UK only when planted under a blue moon.

More seriously, no. Do that and they will die. They MUST have warm
soil.

Quite agree, from our experience they will only produce a crop under
ideal UK conditions which are very warm long summers with a good
rainfall. In a normal year a waste of time other than it's an
interesting experience.

BTW the plants look like giant convolvulus and spread all over. If you
garden on an allotment site do warn any neighbouring gardeners or they
might think you are producing genetically modified bindweed to take over
the world. :-)

I red somewhere that the greenery was edible.

--
Rusty

On Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:58:56 +0000, Rusty Hinge
wrote:

Bob Hobden wrote:


.
MW wrote:

Just cooking a sweet potato, pepper and sweetcorn soup with
shop-bought ingredients, so hopefully can be making a fully homegrown
version next year.

Don't bet on it.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

They grow well in the UK only when planted under a blue moon.

More seriously, no. Do that and they will die. They MUST have warm
soil.

Quite agree, from our experience they will only produce a crop under
ideal UK conditions which are very warm long summers with a good
rainfall. In a normal year a waste of time other than it's an
interesting experience.

BTW the plants look like giant convolvulus and spread all over. If you
garden on an allotment site do warn any neighbouring gardeners or they
might think you are producing genetically modified bindweed to take over
the world. :-)

I red somewhere that the greenery was edible.

You're right. I heard that too.

Pam in Bristol

On 8 Jan, 22:07, Pam Moore wrote:
On Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:58:56 +0000, Rusty Hinge





wrote:
Bob Hobden wrote:

.
MW * wrote:

Just cooking a sweet potato, pepper and sweetcorn soup with
shop-bought ingredients, so hopefully can be making a fully homegrown
version next year.

Don't bet on it.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

They grow well in the UK only when planted under a blue moon.

More seriously, no. *Do that and they will die. *They MUST have warm
soil.

Quite agree, from our experience they will only produce a crop under
ideal UK conditions which are very warm long summers with a good
rainfall. In a normal year a waste of time other than it's an
interesting experience.

BTW the plants look like giant convolvulus and spread all over. If you
garden on an allotment site do warn any neighbouring gardeners or they
might think you are producing genetically modified bindweed to take over
the world. *:-)

I red somewhere that the greenery was edible.

You're right. *I heard that too.

Pam in Bristol- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


A blue Moon is the 2nd full moon in a single month.

Rusty Hinge writes
wrote:

They grow well in the UK only when planted under a blue moon.

There's a blue moon this month - no idea whether it's the first full
moon or the second one thobut.

There was one on New Year's Eve
--
Kay

On 8 Jan 2010 17:19:11 GMT, wrote:

I think we're going to try again this year.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

Depends on how warm your soil is!

Might get a spot warmed up in advance, and see how we get on. Nothing
ventured, nothing gained. Maybe experiment with a big tub in the
greenhouse.

M

"MW" wrote ...
wrote:

I think we're going to try again this year.

What do you reckon about planting out time? Same as maincrop spuds?

Depends on how warm your soil is!

Might get a spot warmed up in advance, and see how we get on. Nothing
ventured, nothing gained. Maybe experiment with a big tub in the
greenhouse.

Care, when I mentioned "bindweed to take over the world" I was not joking,
unless you have a commercial sized one you won't be able to get in your
greenhouse if they take off.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

In article ,
Bob Hobden wrote:
"MW" wrote ...

Might get a spot warmed up in advance, and see how we get on. Nothing
ventured, nothing gained. Maybe experiment with a big tub in the
greenhouse.

Care, when I mentioned "bindweed to take over the world" I was not joking,
unless you have a commercial sized one you won't be able to get in your
greenhouse if they take off.

I recommend Ipomoea indica (learii) for that. Plant it out as things
warm up against a warm fence, and panic your neighbours :-) Its blue
flowers are very attractive, and it won't overwinter in most of the UK.

In our conservatory, it grows many 30' stems in a year, but that's
only because our summer is short.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.