About a month ago, I selected a couple sweet potatoes and put them in little bowls of water, hoping to get them to sprout. I put them on the floor by the heater, but since they got in the way there, I moved them to my plant shelf. Today I checked on them - sadly, no sprouts yet. :-(
Then later, as I was selecting a sweet potato for dinner from my basket in the kitchen, I found that one of these had tiny little sprouts! Yippee!!! I put this tuber in a bowl with water. Finally, I have a sprouting sweet!
I am guessing that this one sprouted because it was stored in the warm kitchen, quite near the oven. Maybe the room with the plant shelf is too cold for sprouting sweets? In any case, it is exciting to have one sprouting. As I learned last season, one sweet potato makes a lot of slips, and one slip makes a lot of sweets.
4 comments:
Lovely find. I suppose I could try one from the Supermarket, is that viable for growth and production I wonder?
Thoughts of Spring, Summer and veggie eating.
Marian (LondonUK)
My last comment didn't get through... a technical defect?
To Marian: the problem with supermarket sweet potatoes is that they are sometimes treated with growth-retardant chemicals and so will not sprout. I have just bought three from a local natural foods store and have started them--hopefully, I will have some nice slips for planting.
Also, as you are in England, given the lack of a long and warm summer you might be disappointed in the results.
Nevertheless, "who dares, wins."
Are you saying I can make my own sweet potato slips? Surely the varieties I picked up at the local Farmer's Market are suitable for the area...hmmmm.
I search over the piles of sweet potatoes at the store for one that has sprouted. Who knows what people think of me....
The Garnet Sweet I had started rotted, and yesterday I found one with a bunch of sprouts at While Foods.
I have decided that my sweet potatoes weren't doing anything on a window sill or by the heater. So I have put them underneath my 80*F fish tank. They seem to be growing a bit now. But very slowly.
I have 4 varieties sprouting: Hannah, Jewel, Beauregard and Garnet. Of course, these are all the standard supermarket varieties. If I did buy slips, it would be to get something different.
The Hannah and Jewel are ones originally from supermarket, but that I have grown for two years. So I know these are not treated. However, these still have not sprouted. I have two with sprouts, both because I found them already sprouted a the store.
I'd love to know if there's a trick to getting those first sprouts to show. My guess is its temp. And maybe I stunted mine by storing them in the cold basement.
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