Tomato plants survived

[thingy]

No,I don't grow them,,buy them,,come in a bundle about 50 plants,,not to expensive,,,I've never tried to grow them,,whata do,just cut off little pieces and do the tooth pick thing over water or what,might try to grow some next year. thingy

 

[jinman]

No,I don't grow them,,buy them,,come in a bundle about 50 plants,,not to expensive,,,I've never tried to grow them,,whata do,just cut off little pieces and do the tooth pick thing over water or what,might try to grow some next year. thingy

Yep, we put whole potatoes in plastic cups with 3/4 of the tator in clear water and supported by toothpicks. We set the cups on top of our water heater in the garage for warmth and covered them to reduce light. In about three weeks, we had slips growing from 1/2" to 1-1/2" long. We took the cups and placed them in the sun and waited another couple of weeks. When the slips were 2" to 3" long, we twisted them off and put them in water for another week. When the roots are 1/2" to 1" long at the snipped ends of the slips, they are ready to plant. I'd say the process is an 8-10 week job and it may be far more trouble than just buying slips, but it's fun to watch them grow. We should be ready to plant them this coming weekend. We have 25-30 sliips from three large tators.

Oh yes...change the water when it becomes brackish so it doesn't stink and to reduce the chance of seed potato rot while it's in the water.

 

[thingy]

I see said the blind man,the little sprout just grows out of an eye and you snip it off and it grows another one etc,,stuff like thats good to know,,thingy

 

[jinman]

I see said the blind man,the little sprout just grows out of an eye and you snip it off and it grows another one etc,,stuff like thats good to know,,thingy

Yes, that's it. In perfect conditions, a single potato can grow 15 or 20 slips at a time. If you use the technique of laying them about an inch deep in warm moist soil instead of putting them in water, I think the slips grow and root faster. We did it this way this year, but next year we may use the soil method in a hotbed.

BTW: They say that sweet potato plants make a very attractive houseplant too. They're a lot like ivy.

 

[Hootie]

Why do they call them slips?

 

[jinman]

Why do they call them slips?

I don't know the derivative of the word "slip," but it has many definitions in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. One definition is "...a young shoot or twig separated for planting."

...so my question is, "Why do they call them a "shoot"? They don't go, "BANG!" ...and what's a "twig"? Where did that word come from?

No wonder people have trouble learning English.

 

[thingy]

Wonder what kinda luck you would have if you just planted the sweetpotato eyes like other potatoes,,,probably not enough water unless it was very wet? thingy

 

[jinman]

Wonder what kinda luck you would have if you just planted the sweetpotato eyes like other potatoes,,,probably not enough water unless it was very wet? thingy

I think they would rot before they would sprout. Regular potatoes form long hardy shoots, but sweet potatoes take much longer and are more delicate. Even cut potato eyes need to sit and cure before planting to ensure they won't rot.

When I rooted the sweet potato in water, the part of the potato in the water formed roots from the eyes while the part exposed to air formed slips. I think if I wanted to use dirt, I'd just put a whole sweet potato into damp but warm soil and wait for slips to form. It would look something like the attachment. After the slips form, wait until they put out a few roots directly from the slip stem and then replant. If you leave all the slips there on a single potato, you will waste a lot of plants. I could not believe how many slips a single potato will make.

Note...I probably drew that illustration wrong. The potato should be just out of the soil on top so the slips form because the potato is exposed. As I drew it, you'd probably get roots all around and very few slips forming.

 

[thingy]

You know,I need to take a closer look at sweet tators,,I got some in the basement we grew last year still good,sweet tators keep better than regular tators,,the eyes is what I'm talking about,,don't know if they even got eyes like a tator or not now that I'm thinking about it,I mean they never sprout in basement like kenabecs or red tators do...
Yeah planting pieces of regular pototao eyes,,we used to when growing up,planted a big patch of tators,[1/4 acre or more]money was tight,,always cut them to 3-4 eyes a piece,but yeah,they rot sometimes espiecally if weather is wet and cold the first few weeks after planting,,,I've done it myself a few times,,but now I just plant whole seed tators,,buy a 50 lb bag of white and 50 lb bag of red,,,that will plant a big enough patch for us,,they srivel up so by march that you can't use all of them anyways only planting that much,,,thingy

 

[BTDT]

Here's what I picked today. Someone's looking at my onions.