As the spring slooowly unfurls, taunting us with a few warm days only to plunge us down into the icy blasts, this first child of our garden reaches skyward on my window sill.
I started the potato soaking in the beginning of February this time, thanks to a note in my calendar. The hardest part of starting sweet potato slips is identifying which end is the bottom. At first I thought nothing was going to happen, so I gave up watching. Sure enough, the tiny sprouts gave way to tall spires and flags flying for Spring.
Unlike white potatoes, sweet potatoes grow from”slips.” White potatoes are planted right into the soil (maybe you have some potatoes in your cupboard now, with scary-looking arms and legs protruding). You mound up the soil on top, and you are fine. With sweet potatoes there is an extra step: the potato grows a slip — and the slip grows new potatoes. I don’t know how that plays out in nature.
You can buy the slips. Or you can grow your own, so that one organic potato grows you a gardenful. In my quest to understand how to create a sustainable food supply for all, learning how to grow my own sweets is a good project. Last year I started way too late. Sweet potatoes are South American in origin– they like heat!! And they need time — 85-120 days of over 65° soil and bright light. You can find videos online to guide you through the process– that’s what I did. Can’t wait to plant them and see what happens
For now, they will climb happily up my kitchen walls…
Suburban Growing 