- 1). Select a sweet potato that is free of blemishes and mold. Slice off a chunk--about one quarter of the potato--from the end, and pierce it crosswise with three toothpicks at the middle of the piece.
- 2). Suspend it over a jar of water so that about half the potato piece is immersed. Place the jar on a sunny windowsill.
- 3). Gently twist off the green shoots growing from the potato piece when they are 6 inches long; immerse them in water and keep them on the sunny windowsill.
- 4). Select a planting site for your slips in well-drained, rich soil that gets at least 6 hours of full sun.
- 5). Plant your slips in the planting site when the underwater roots are 2 inches long, and when the danger of frost is passed and soil temperature is above 60 degrees F. Make sure that you do this at a time that will allow between 90 and 110 days for potatoes to develop before autumn frost; in most parts of the country, this means transplanting by the end of May.
- 6). Use a trowel to make a hole deep enough to bury all but the upper leaves of the slip. Put it in the hole, and firm the soil around it. If you started more than one slip, you will want to space them 12 inches apart.
- 7). Water your slip, or slips, thoroughly immediately after planting, using a starter fertilizer solution made by mixing 1 tbsp. of water-soluble 15-30-15 fertilizer to every gallon of water.
- 8). Keep the soil consistently moist while the plants are establishing themselves. Fertilize again with water-soluble fertilizer a month after planting. Your plants should produce sweet potatoes within four months.
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