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Post by chrysanthemum on Feb 24, 2022 8:34:04 GMT -6
macmex , I’ll be praying for your surgery next week. I hope that goes smoothly and that you’re able to recover quickly and still be able to handle your sweet potato slip starting. The other variety that I have really matches the description of Ginseng Orange in terms of its color, texture, growth habit, leaves, and its tendency to sprout so readily. I thought it would be good to try it in my small space since it doesn’t vine so aggressively, but my kids really don’t prefer it at all. It also produced smaller roots and didn’t seem as good for our space as the larger roots of (what I presume to be) Beauregard. I’m happy to make an effort to preserve it, but I think it’s already fairly well preserved if it is Ginseng Orange. I’m happy to pursue it further, though, if you think it might be something different. Edited to add: Here’s a picture of what I have in the pantry. Some of them even came out of the garden already sprouted.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Feb 24, 2022 9:10:28 GMT -6
I suspect you'll do slightly better with slips if you leave the growing ends attached to the roots. My reasoning is that they draw sustenance from the root. I believe you'll get more slips and more vigorous growth if you do this in the future but fortunately, you'll do fine the way you've done it. This is just a suggestion.
Here’s a picture I just took of the slips I put in soil the other day. I didn’t detach any of the slips from the roots, but I did cut some of the roots to allow us to eat the huge portion that wasn’t producing slips. I’m hoping that that cut portion of the root will still provide sustenance and won’t rot or something awful like that. I’m going to be watching these closely as I couldn’t find a lot of information about using cut roots, but I did find some that indicated that it worked. The front root with the long slips has about an inch buried below the soil, but it’s only a cut. The potato in the back is a whole one, and there are also a number of small roots buried in the box all around. Some weren’t showing any sprouts but others had tiny ones beginning. If you look closely in the photo you might be able to see one coming through the soil behind the big end of the sweet potato with the longer slips.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 2, 2022 21:44:45 GMT -6
A pretty good sweet potato video.
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Post by macmex on Mar 3, 2022 10:05:32 GMT -6
That was a very good video. I still prefer starting slips in soil mix, but for smaller amounts the water method works. She didn't mention that it is VERY important to keep them warm, but she did carry them into her kitchen for them to start. I bet the greenhouse would have been too cold at night.
I love that she's promoting the full growing cycle and food resilience. Sweet potatoes are great for that. Hopefully she'll encourage a lot more folk to do this!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 3, 2022 19:51:02 GMT -6
I thought it was a good video, too, but I noticed that she said it was in the fifties in her greenhouse. I guess that feels warm to her. It would feel cold to me here, especially if it’s cloudy. I’ve been waiting till it’s in the sixties and sunny during the day to take my tomato seedlings outside to harden off and my little kids out to play. I know if I were doing hard work in the sixties and sunshine I’d even feel hot, so it depends on the context, of course. I also noted that she took them inside instead of leaving them in the greenhouse, and I wondered if there was a wood cook stove running in her kitchen. I couldn’t tell by looking, but there seemed to be a heat-activated fan on top, so that’s what gave me the idea. I’m noticing some bigger, greener leaves on the slips on the sweet potatoes I bedded last week. They’re probably happy that our sunshine has returned after a number of gray days. It hit almost eighty here today, but I don’t have any easy way to move my sweet potato planter in and out, so they’re stuck inside for a good while now. They do get good sun in the afternoons through the window, though. macmex, have you had your surgery? How are you feeling?
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Post by macmex on Mar 4, 2022 4:57:38 GMT -6
Yes. I had my surgery on Wednesday morning. Am thanking God for a better recovery than expected, at least so far. Pain levels have been such that I never even took a pain killer. When I got home Wednesday afternoon I slept most of the rest of the day.
I agree with your observations about the video. Fortunately, it appears she has a working system.
No problem for you, keeping the sprouting roots indoors longer. One thing I figured out by experimentation is that sweet potato slips don't require hardening off like tomato or pepper plants. For some reason they do just fine going straight outdoors without building up exposure to the sun.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 5, 2022 9:16:26 GMT -6
So glad you’re doing well after surgery, macmex! Don’t be afraid to make wise use of painkillers if you do need them, though. Pain can set in later and be a detriment to healing. I hadn’t realized that sweet potatoes don’t need hardening off. That’s great to know. I just thought I’d post a shot of the little leaves developing on some of my slips. I just love seeing plants grow.
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Post by rdback on Mar 16, 2022 8:18:31 GMT -6
Interesting article by Pam Dawling.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 16, 2022 17:42:21 GMT -6
Thanks for posting that, rdback. I have had a rather difficult day today and needed some down time this afternoon, and reading the article and going through her slide show turned out to be a really nice diversion. The funny thing was that I realized that I had read her earlier article about the Twin Oak bedding method as well as the Boutards’ article about their single node planting method some time ago. It took me a bit to realize why things were seeming so recognizable on a brand new article, and then it clicked. My sweet potato slips are coming along well, I’m happy to report. One side seems to be growing more than the other, and I wonder if it was uneven sun exposure causing warmer temperatures on that one side. In case that was it, my husband helped me rotate the planter 180 degrees this morning to see if it encourages more growth on the other side. Here’s what things are looking like as of today. I’m pretty pleased.
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Post by macmex on Mar 17, 2022 7:58:51 GMT -6
It took me a while to go through Pam Dawling's article all the way and I ended up book marking it for future reference. She's a really good writer. It takes a whole lot of work to turn out an article like that, so very rich in references and obvious first hand experience. Thanks for that link!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 22, 2022 14:27:21 GMT -6
The sweet potato slips are coming along. I was just untangling some that keep twining together (I’ve got some that might be two feet by now), and I noticed some aphids on leaves and stems. I had been meaning to get out my plant spray bottle to mist them because I thought they’d like it, but I hadn’t gotten to it. Seeing those aphids made me head right to the cabinet under the sink and pull out both the spray bottle and the neem oil. I mixed up and quart and gave the sweet potatoes and good soaking. I sprayed the tomato, pepper, and other seedlings that have been spending the nights inside near the sweet potatoes. I didn’t find aphids on them, but there’s a bunch of foliage, and I don’t want them getting a foothold.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 31, 2022 15:38:17 GMT -6
My slips are growing and growing. I think it was last week that they were getting tangled in one another, and I snipped a dozen long ones and tucked them in the small terra cotta planter where I had originally been thinking of bedding the mothers until I realized I had a better planter. Just today the slips needed another “haircut,” and I put about fifteen in another pot. I’m still seeing some aphids on some of the new tips. I thought I had knocked them back and let up on the neem, but they came back. I’m really looking forward to warmer nights so that I can move the big planter outside and spray more thoroughly than I feel comfortable doing inside. (I am spraying but trying to avoid too much overspray inside.)
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Post by macmex on Apr 1, 2022 11:50:01 GMT -6
Whenever I keep my sprouting sweet potatoes indoors, even in the greenhouse, for long, they get infested with spider mites. All it takes to clear that up is a few warm days and setting them out in the weeds, in the main garden. Even through winter we've had a large population of ladybugs (and probably some other beneficials) living in those weeds. They clear up the spider mites very quickly. As you mentioned, I can't wait for warmer weather to be able to set my slips outside!
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Post by chrysanthemum on May 7, 2022 6:36:36 GMT -6
I just wanted to update this thread with a picture of my sweet potato slips after they had received a good thundershower earlier this week. A couple Saturdays back I helped my neighbor plant slips that I had grown. She was nervous about my pulling slips out of soil and tearing roots, but learning from Macmex here and from my own experience, I assured her that it would be okay. I also told her that if the slips died, I had more that could replace them. We spread about two dozen slips over two raised beds, and they’ve been doing well. When I first started this project this spring, I had worried that I wouldn’t have enough slips for both them and for me. Now I am sure that I will have lots leftover. (And I’ve also given away four other sets of Ginseng slips from my other variety.) I am trying to figure out whether I should just harvest some leaves for a meal, take cuttings and try to give more away, or just let them grow until I’m ready to plant. (I still have onions in the bed where these will go which is why I haven’t gotten them planted already.). If I need to cut these for the good of the transplants, please let me know.
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Post by macmex on May 7, 2022 8:05:43 GMT -6
This is precisely how I started selling slips!
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