sweet potato sprouts

My sweet potatoes have started to make cute little sprouts! Yippee!

I remembered at the last minute to save a few of my homegrown sweet potatoes for sprouting. The last ones were the smallest - a mix of white (Hannah), oranges (Jewel and Beauregard) and reds (Garnet).

For years, I've had trouble getting sweet potatoes to sprout at our old house. I've read they need warmth, but whatever I did didn't seem to work - maybe because my old house had mostly cool spaces. A couple weeks ago, I put a plate full of small sweets in the utility room of our new house. (Our new house may not have a cool space for a root cellar, but it does have a nice warm utility room.) My guess is the utility room is 75-80*F. I add a bit of water to the sweet potato plate every few days to keep the potatoes moist. And I covered the plate partially with plastic wrap. After about 2 weeks, I'm seeing nice sprouts. I can't help but cheer!

I think I see about 10 or more sprouts on several different potatoes.

I don't know if this will be too early for starting sweet slips. Since I haven't been this successful in the past, I am not sure. But it the slips get too big, I think I can cut them back (knock on wood). It's exciting to have them going!