How to Germinate Sweet Potatoes
Sweet Potato Slips
Getting Started
Items needed for sweet potato slips
- A healthy sweet potato
- a glass jar
- 4 toothpicks
Start by Selecting from previous year or buy good quality potato from your grocery shop or farmers market
it doesn’t necessarily need to have shoots coming out of them, when you keep them over the winter or for a long period of time they will start to sprout
cut the potato in half, insert the toothpick close to the middle of the potato and make sure to space it equally, the tooth picks will support the potato when it sits in the glass jar and keep the end from resting on the bottom of the jar.
place the potato in the glass jar(you can use pint or quart canning jar)
fill the jar to nearly the top with water
set the jar and potato in a sunny location inside and wait, depending on how
fresh the potato is, in most cases it will quickly begin to sprout within a week or two. in some cases where the potato is very dry or has been stored for a long time(or has been in the shop for a long time) it might take a month to start sprouting. once it starts sprouting the jar will be full of white roots.
sprouts will continue to grow as long as you keep water in the jar. keep filling the
jar with water do it does not dry out.
when the sprouts are about 5 to 6 inches long, it is time to remove or cut them from the potato and plant them or grab a sprout near its base and bull sideways, the sprout should pull away from the potato and leave a small hole on the potato.
put all the sprouts in a jar with water and within a few days those sprouts will develop tiny roots.
You can now take them out and plant them in a big container or in your garden.
