sweet potato propagation and harvest!!!

Please could someone tell the variety of these deep leaf sweet potatoes??  I think I have a patch and am trying to identify and would love the proper name so that I can learn about harvesting care cooking... are the leaves edible? etc - thank you

Judith Browning wrote:Thanks Jacob,  My problem digging is my sixty two year old back...The potatoes are all grouped right at the main base of the plant so a potato fork works fine to lift them I just like the leverage of my broadfork so I am trying it again just to lift enough to loosen and then I am able to pull up the whole mass of roots at once...they are fist size and larger so no problem finding them.  The smaller ones that have formed along the vine in my path might  work well with your idea.  We usually shovel the path onto the raised bed in the fall so sifting for more potatoes could happen then. Now that the weather here has cooled I feel like I am catching up on a whole summers work.

Judith my 70 year old arthritis scolioses ostéo porosis back is also a complication
Has anyone tried growing sweet potatoes in a raised strawbale bed? Or in general, creating raised mounds in a circuit ? For disabled gardening?

Helene Menezes wrote:Please could someone tell the variety of these deep leaf sweet potatoes??  I think I have a patch and am trying to identify and would love the proper name so that I can learn about harvesting care cooking... are the leaves edible? etc - thank you

Helene, welcome to Permies! Do you have a photo of the sweet potato leaves you're asking about?

I read somewhere that sweet potatoes can provide the most food per square foot of soil, as you can eat what is below the ground as well as what grows above.  I don't have any information on which varieties have the most edible leaves, however.  Does anyone know?

Figured I'd share this because I'm very pleased with the results.

I've propagated sweet potatoes from the water and toothpicks method.  It gave me a few shoots.  It works.

I've watched videos where people put them in a pan, or a planter on their side and they get great results.

I tried it in a cheap microgreens tray with a good potting mix less than an inch deep.  I just laid the sweet potato on its side, and bottom watered by lifting the upper tray.

I thought I got too late of a start and wouldn't have sweet potato slips in time to plant.  I started just about sixty days ago.

I actually had someone come look at the garden yesterday and gave them half of the potato/slips because I had so many coming off of it.

I just now divided up the other half, and to my amazement, I have 20+ viable slips most with good roots.  There were probably 40+ slips from one sweet potato!

It's a Stoke's purple sweet potato that I got from the grocery store.

Just figured I'd share.  

Also, my previous sweet potato harvest from last year was mostly a success.  I had mold issues, and I did lose a fair portion of potatoes to rot, but I still have some nice one's left over that are holding well.

My 3rd year starting SP - have never bought "slips". Doesn't work well to cut potato before putting in water, though I did get a few slips. Wasn't happy with "lay them on their side in potting soil", though I got a few. This year I put whole potatoes in water - "pointy-side down" - think you're a gardener .... good luck on choosing stem end from root end, LOL. Some were organic from grocery and some not, but they ALL know which way is up!
Much better slip production this year, though some were making leaves underwater, OOPS.
After some good growth and/or roots, I carefully cut out small sections for viable life and suspended them in water. Things are going well!
The main thing to know is that this process takes MONTHS. I've got huge, warm, South facing windows ... something to be playing with during Feb in Zone 3b-4. Somehow, I get aphids in the house, and these are the "canary in the coalmine". I was potting last week and sprayed with OMRI soap - all good for now after 1X.
My biggest problem in this zone is giving them enough days. I've only gotten long and twisty 1inch roots because I put them out rather late and have had major grasshopper pressure.
This year, I will put them out earlier in black grow-bags with cloches, black-painted water bottles, and tight row covering.
Wishing all of us a great 2021 season .... I will post update on my SP.

I forgot to mention that I cover the "propagation" area with a piece of thin drop-cloth at night and then mist all uppermost parts of potatoes and/or sprouts each morning. It's VERY dry in my house.

Oh my Happy Halloween!

So a few posts above this, I show the slips I grew from a purple sweet potato from the store.  
I just pulled the first two slips out, yes, only two slips made all of these!!!  It all came out of a 4'x4' raised bed.  I only fertilized with alfalfa feed pellets in the early spring.  They sprawled out and rerooted in different areas, and where they rerooted, they produced good sized potatoes.

I have about six more plants to pull from the purple variety, and about fifteen plants total.

I'm going to guess this will be the best two yields of the bunches???  They got full afternoon sun vs. everything else getting some shade in the later afternoon.

Last year my orange sweet potatoes suffered heavy insect damage.  These appear to be damage free and look very healthy.  I dug some up from another area a few weeks ago and they tasted great.

This is from one of the same slips in a super high density bed of peppers.  There were two pepper plants growing directly above all of this that I had to remove to get to the tubers.  I'm very pleasantly surprised with the harvest from just one slip.

Joshua,
What a wonderful crop! And great photo record!

I finally got back to this thread to see when I started slips other years.

Have been putting it off as it seems like they are always ready when our spring is still too cold to set out and that always sets them back.

Has anyone else started slips yet?

Thanks, Judith.  

I'm still at it.  Unfortunately, last year, I couldn't get my saved purple's to sprout, so now I'm just using a grocery store (non organic) generic orange sweet potato in my microgreens tray.  There are a couple in there, and one is just now sprouting after about ten days or so?  Hopefully the other one starts soon.

I'm always amazed at what 4, 20 watt, generic amazon led lights can get going each year.   Just transplanted a ton of stuff into bigger containers since they were outgrowing the starter cells.  

Good luck to everyone.

Did not grow a lot of sweets this year although I'm pleased with the harvest!
I have four varieties...on the right from some we were given 25 years ago and have propagated from each years harvest.

The purples are a gift also and have been growing them for slips for 4 years now.
The largest purples were 3# each

The ones to the left of the purple are some three years out from krogers that our son bought and grew one year then kept in a paper sack on the refrigerator for two years and they had sprouts so I grew them out to slips.  
They make nice potatoes although not as tastey as our old variety.

and then those at the far left with a bit redder skin are a mystery as to who gave me either slips or potatoes last year...likely our other son?