Rooting sweet potato

[bikermike]

Hello,

i have some supermarket sweet potato that are sprouting. What would be the best way to root them?

my current thinking is to cut a small slice of tuber off with the sprout and put it in water to root.

i will be doing the rooting in water for cuttings from this years plants as well

mike

[ameno]

If it's already sprouting, you would be better off either just leaving it to grow the sprouts, or putting it in a tray of damp compost, half-buried on its side.

Either way, cut the sprouts off when about 4-6 inches long and put them in water until they root (which should be less than a week in a warm room).

[bikermike]

Well I shoved the sprouts (with a slice of tuber) in water, got 6 to root and have managed to pot on two successfully. Looking forward to being dissapointed by the yield this summer...

[ameno]

It's true that supermarket varieties probably aren't best suited to our climate, but if you grow them either under cover or through black plastic then you should get a half-decent yield.

I grow T65, which is apparently by far the highest yielding variety in a cool climate like ours, outdoors planted through black plastic, and my best two plants last year gave me 5kg each. Seven more outdoors plants averaged about 1.8kg each. I have decided this drastic difference is down largely, if not entirely, to spacing, as that seemed to be the only difference in the way I grew them (the two that gave 5kg each were away from the others, and had much more space).

If you're interested, I'd be happy to send you some rooted cuttings of mine in the spring if I have some spare (which I probably will. I had loads spare last year).