GROW YOUR OWN SWEET POTATO SLIPS

Unlike many vegetables, sweet potato plants aren’t started from seed or from replanted tubers, but are grown from “slips,” which are pieces of stem with a few leaves that’ve been grown from a mother tuber. We used to buy bare-root slips for our garden, believing that growing our own would be very tricky, but we eventually attempted it anyway. While we had some initial problems — and I can warn you about those — we now have a system that results in a number of sizable sweet potatoes every year.

Homegrown Advantages

Through trial and error, we’ve found several advantages of homegrown slips over purchased ones. We really appreciate the convenience of not needing to order the slips months ahead of time and hope for good weather on the ship date. There is, of course, also the added benefit of self-reliance, which is a bonus for any farm.

If you grow your own sweet potato slips, you’ll have the option to delay planting