Sweet potatoes... how to keep them going year after year??

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Greetings, fellow gardeners!

I have a question about sweet potatoes. I'm thinking something similar might apply to regular potatoes but I'm thinking primarily of sweet potatoes.

How do you keep your own going from year to year?

I understand the theory. With a sweet potato, you let some of your sweet potatoes grow sprouts and use them for starters. Not that difficult. And for white potatoes, allowing an eye to sprout will make another potato plant.

Here's where the fun starts. The sweet potatoes come out of the ground in maybe September. But it's not time to plant sweet potatoes here until mid May at best, early June typically. Now, if I wanted to immediately start a new crop when harvesting them, I could keep some of the vines and just keep on going. Or I could allow a sweet potato to sprout and use those sprouts. Sounds easy. BUT... I don't want them now, I want sweet potato sprouts after first frost 6 or 7 months after harvest, after winter. We're in zone 6a so we do get winter.

Irish potatoes do have the ability to have a spring crop and a fall crop here. I did do that this year. The last of them got harvested in early November, pretty late, but I had some row cover. But I am pretty sure those potatoes wouldn't keep well until it's time to plant again the next spring, especially the red ones, my favorites. So I'm kinda at a similar place with them though I do know that diseases can be a problem with keeping your own. It's one reason I'm more focused on sweet potatoes.

So what's the answer? In the past, I've just bought seed potatoes at the local coop for my white / red potatoes. And for sweet potatoes, I've just bought bundles of slips from a local greenhouse. With things getting a little tight with supply lines these days, I'd like to do a little better.

One thought that came to mind, maybe a heated greenhouse could do a minimal "winter crop" for the white / red potatoes, as long as they don't freeze, they should be ok. (I have a small 16 x 24 high tunnel on order, had hoped it would be here by now, but... covid. GRRRRRR....) If not a greenhouse, some potted indoor plants might work. I kinda wondered the same thing about sweet potatoes, especially knowing that propagating by cuttings might make that way easier if I had even just a few "mother plants".

The method of our ancestors was probably storage in something like a root cellar. I don't have one of those though it is a good idea and might be something to consider in the near future. Such things are difficult here as the soil isn't all that thick before layers of rock make digging quite a challenge. There aren't many basements around here for that reason.

So whatcha think? Any of you already been down this road? I've already been saving pumpkin seeds, bean seeds, tomato seeds, okra seeds and a few others. But neither of these work like the things I'm already familiar with.

Anyway, very interested in your thoughts, especially if you actually been doing it!

Thanks!!
 
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My friend has sweetpotatoe plants running all around her kitchen. Had the plant in the window and it took off around the room. She loves said it is a pretty plant.
I'd think you can take a cutting off the vine any time,but not sure ,


Easy Method for Growing Sweet Potato Vine



Is is easy to grow sweet potato vine by taking cuttings from existing plants and rooting them in water. Use this method to fill out your summer planters or take cuttings to grow plants indoors during the winter.

You can also grow clematis and honeysuckle vines from cuttings and more help for growing from seeds and cuttings.




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This may be a better one,

Plant Propagation Techniques for Sweet Potato



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PLANT PROPAGATION TECHNIQUES FOR SWEET POTATO
AGRIMAGFEBRUARY 2, 2018
AGRIBUSINESS0 COMMENTS4 MIN READ
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PLANT PROPAGATION IS THE ART, SCIENCE, AND BUSINESS OF MULTIPLYING PLANTS

Plant propagation is the method to increase the number of outstanding fruit and crop varieties in order to perpetuate their desirable qualities such as high production, large fruits, and excellent eating quality—those that command better market prices.
WAYS TO PROPAGATE PLANTS:


• Sexual
– through the use of seeds (for papaya, mangosteen, and for root stocks for asexual propagation)
• Asexual – through the use of plant parts other than seeds. This does not
involve the exchange of genetic material, so the process almost always produces
plants that are identical to the parent.



ADVANTAGE OF ASEXUAL PROPAGATION:



Plants are true-to-type
• More rapid means of producing planting materials for crops such as
cassava, sweet potato, and other root crops
• Plants start fruiting in a shorter time than normal, and mature into smaller trees; hence they are easy to manage (e.g., grafted fruit trees)


ASEXUAL PROPAGATION METHODS FOR ROOT CROPS:

• Divisions
– specialized or modified stems and roots are cut into pieces or sections, each with a growing point or bud.
• Micropropagation or tissue culture – a tiny piece of bud, leaf or stem can produce incredible numbers of new plants in a small space over a short time period with the use of technical advances, specialized equipment, and sterile laboratory conditions.
• Cuttings – regeneration of structural parts in detached vegetative parts such as stem cuttings, leaf cuttings, root cuttings, softwood, and hardwood cuttings.
 
Thanks, Meerkat!!

I didn't save any of the greens when I dug the sweet potatoes so those are gone. But I still have a few of the sweet potatoes left that I'm thinking I might just plant in flower pots and see what happens. I actually thought I saw something trying to bud on one of them anyway so I think it should work. From there, I think cuttings should be pretty straight forward come May or so when it would be time to start getting them rooted.

When I buy slips at the greenhouse, they are tiny, usually have only one or two leaves, almost no roots, and every year when I plant them, I think there is no way that even half of them will survive. I think I planted about 50 of them last year and only one died. I'm not sure how resilient larger rooted cuttings would be.

Anyway, world events are getting so crazy I had wondered how available those slips will be this coming year. And even if I can get some, it would be nice to have a backup plan.

Again, thanks for the thoughts! I appreciate them. :)
 
I didn't save any of the greens when I dug the sweet potatoes so those are gone. But I still have a few of the sweet potatoes left that I'm thinking I might just plant in flower pots and see what happens. I actually thought I saw something trying to bud on one of them anyway so I think it should work. From there, I think cuttings should be pretty straight forward come May or so when it would be time to start getting them rooted. ...

It's been a long time since I started a sweet potato vine but I didn't plant them in a pot. I just cut a store bought potato in half, stuck it in a jar of water and set it on the window sill. It would sprout and grow a huge luscious vine that fed off the potato I left in the jar of water. I lived in an apartment and didn't have a place to grow them so I didn't make any slips. I just wanted something pretty in my kitchen window. 😊
 
I had thought of getting some store-bought sweet potatoes and starting there. Organic might work, if they've not been irradiated too heavily for them to sprout. Or, I still have some of my own from this past season I could plant either in dirt or put in water. Or, nothing says I couldn't do several different things and just see how it goes, do my own "research trial".

(Or whatever they call it at the ag extension office. I took a Master Gardener class this fall, and I really enjoyed it. But I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't have actually signed up for the ag program at UT. It just seems like the Master Gardener thing does a good "skim over" but I find myself wanting to go a lot deeper than they typically go. Some of the people they bring in from UT have been super interesting. Anyway, I'm old, and not likely to fit in to the group of budding 20 year old farmer wannabes, and have almost no interest in the typical "corn, wheat, soybeans" crop plan. But it's still very interesting when they go into other areas of food procution.)

Mostly I was thinking along the lines of what I could do if 1) there were no store to buy sweet potatoes from, and 2) there were no sweet potato slips at a local greenhouse, and 3) there was nowhere to have them shipped from. I know, kinda going down the "prepper" path, but I'm thinking more along the lines of just a bit more independence in my own food supply. I like knowing that I have my own seeds for various things that I've saved, it's an ongoing thing that I'd like to continue to expand. I also like that the things I am saving are well acclimated to my specific location and growing conditions. Who knows, if I find it super easy and wanna share with my neighbors, or even sell a few at the local farmers market, maybe...

Anyway, didn't mean to get long winded.

:)
 
I think using your own potatoes would be the way to go but I'd be interested to know if store bought would still work. I have some sweet potatoes so I think I'll try to start a vine. I've been thinking about trying to grow potatoes in a bucket this year so might as well see if I can make my own slips.
 
I'm in zone 6a too. I put a controller thing on an old frig and turned it into a mini root cellar. Its our first year here and also our first year with the high tunnel, which is 12x24. We have our red potatoes (grown from grocery store taters) in there. After 3 months they are still nice and firm and if they start to sprout I'll put them in a pot.
 
Oh, as an experiment we planted some of the Clancy potato seeds. I think they would grow well in a container that you could keep burrying them deeper. When we harvested there were tons of small taters growing above the ground coming directly off of the vine. We had a bunch of small ones and a decent amount of large ones.
 
I'm in zone 6a too. I put a controller thing on an old frig and turned it into a mini root cellar. Its our first year here and also our first year with the high tunnel, which is 12x24. We have our red potatoes (grown from grocery store taters) in there. After 3 months they are still nice and firm and if they start to sprout I'll put them in a pot.

Hmmm... actually, I hadn't thought about the old frig / freezer with a controller as an option. Hmmm... About the only thing I'd wonder about with those is that they're sealed pretty tight. Would storage crops need some ventilation?

Congratulations on the high tunnel! I am sooooo looking forward to getting started in ours. They promised they were gonna deliver it this coming week, hope they can. They've said they're pretty overwhelmed with orders, seems like everybody and their cousin is getting one, or two, or three.
 
Oh, as an experiment we planted some of the Clancy potato seeds. I think they would grow well in a container that you could keep burrying them deeper. When we harvested there were tons of small taters growing above the ground coming directly off of the vine. We had a bunch of small ones and a decent amount of large ones.

Have never tried potatoes from seeds. Have heard it can be done but have always just done tuber cuttings. Maybe one of these days I'll have to save some and see what happens. (So many possibilities, so little time.)
 
I am very new at this "Potato" thing but I watched "The Martian" and said I gotta try something. I had 3 red potatoes and 1 russet that had eyes that looked to me like they were trying to start growing, I placed each one in a 5 gallon bucket with just enough soil to cover it. That was the 20th of November, today is the 15 of December, not a full month. I am adding a little soil to the containers as they grow, I plan to make them think it is fall by controlling the light and the temperature so I can get a harvest off them.
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We had a sweet potato left over from Thanks Giving and I noticed is was getting hard and looking poorly, I saw a you-tube on a guy growing the root things in a jar, so I stuck 4 tooth picks in it and put it in a jar on Saturday, I saw roots starting on Monday night!

I now have 3 minature ucon-gold potatoes set aside from the last shopping trip, I put them on the screen (I store my onions and potatoes on cooling racks) with the onions and I am seeing tiny sprouts trying to start, I may give them their buckets this saturday!

I could envision having about 6-8 buckets, each making harvests about every 3 months, or a bucket of potatoes every 2 weeks... But for that to work I need to start staggering my plantings...
 
Those are some pretty plants you have going. I'll be interested to see how they turn out. I want to finally try growing some container potatoes this year, too. I got some cheap 10 gallon size grow bags a couple of summers ago but only tried a couple of them and wasn't impressed. I'm going to start using those this spring but I'm going to put them in cardboard boxes and laundry baskets to give them some support. I'm hoping those will work for the potatoes.

Do you store your potatoes and onions next to each other? I heard or read somewhere that onions give off some kind of gas that will ruin potatoes. My daughter used to store hers next to each other and it didn't take long for the spuds to go bad. Maybe it was that or maybe it was just because they were old store bought potatoes. :dunno:
 
Those are some pretty plants you have going. I'll be interested to see how they turn out. I want to finally try growing some container potatoes this year, too. I got some cheap 10 gallon size grow bags a couple of summers ago but only tried a couple of them and wasn't impressed. I'm going to start using those this spring but I'm going to put them in cardboard boxes and laundry baskets to give them some support. I'm hoping those will work for the potatoes.

Do you store your potatoes and onions next to each other? I heard or read somewhere that onions give off some kind of gas that will ruin potatoes. My daughter used to store hers next to each other and it didn't take long for the spuds to go bad. Maybe it was that or maybe it was just because they were old store bought potatoes. :dunno:

Yes, I put the 3 potatoes I wanted to grow next to my onions..... I did it because it makes the spuds sprout (go bad), I was using the onions to trick my store bought spuds! I normally keep my onions and spuds as far apart as possible!
 
Hmmm... actually, I hadn't thought about the old frig / freezer with a controller as an option. Hmmm... About the only thing I'd wonder about with those is that they're sealed pretty tight. Would storage crops need some ventilation?

I check for bad produce every day. Not exactly ventilation but the door is open for about 10 minutes a day. We had melons and squash in there too.
 

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