@carya , those are some great looking roots there! Nice job with your project! 
1 Like
Oh the sweet potatoes themselves (from my 1st Pic) make the slips (was watching a few videos now showing plants form on top of sweet potato in glass of water)? and not planting out the thin roots from my 2nd pic, correct?
I usually throw those thin roots in the tub with the eating size ones and they sprout in storage and I plant them whole or snap them in half and plant.
But also a portion of the thin roots do shrivel in storage, but most don’t for me.
4 Likes
It didn’t produce much in the way of roots unfortunately, but it stayed a nice compact plant all season. If the tiny roots it did give me store until next year I’ll give it another go and see if I can get some bigger roots from it. It’s main use will be for greens though.
2 Likes
Last year I bought 4 different sweet potatoes from the grocery store, Murasaki, stokes purple, jewel and garnet. Started slips and planted, garnet didn’t make much but the others all did well. The only problem was wireworms, lots of potatoes were damaged. murasaki and stokes were true, but the supposed Jewel has white/tan skin and white flesh so I don’t know what it is.
This year I made slips from last years harvest and planted but this time I used 23 gallon totes. I put two in each tote and had one “jewel” left over so I planted it near a plum tree.
Harvested the totes three weeks ago. Yesterday I decided to see if the last “jewel” made any SP’s .
40 lbs total from one plant. not including the large one a rabbit or vole ate.
How big will SP’s get in the south with longer seasons. I had no idea they would get this large.
What’s everyones favorite cultivar? I like sweet potatoes but I think I like the normal orange ones better than the ones I am growing.
6 Likes
My project, while it started strong, ended up being severely mismanaged. I was so busy at the end of the season that I was unable to harvest one of the plantings of potatoes before the ground got too cold. I had my farm manager harvest potatoes from the field that he manages, but he misunderstood what I asked him to do and all the potatoes got mixed in together. Besides that, they were in a field that is dry farmed and just didn’t do all that great. 
I’m so disappointed that I didn’t even take photos of what I have. I might take some as I use the potatoes and I might also save some to make slips…even though I don’t know what they are. 
All that said, I’m not going to give up! I am planning to try again in 2026, but I will plant them in grow bags or containers of some type. I think I will also plan on planting less. I got in WAY over my head this year.
7 Likes
I’m sorry. It’s amazing how disheartening it is when things don’t go even somewhat according to plan. I hope despite not knowing what they are, that what you did harvest tastes good! It can always be “good orange 1” “good purple 2” etc 
4 Likes
If you do choose growbags, do not overplant! I did that and ended up with a really good root rug with no tubers. I wouldn’t put anymore than 3/4 in the small growbags. The really big ones you can do more with obviously, we did that at the school I work with and they had a grest harvest, probably 10lbs worth (if not more).
4 Likes
I like the taste of Beauragard much better than Orleans. According the the description, Orleans was supposed to be an improved version of Beauragard, but I found no resemblance. The Orlean were mainly round and tasteless; the Beauragard are elongated, orange with lots of good sweet potato taste.
7 Likes
I ordered Purple Passion from Steele company in spring of 2024. My harvest looked like yours…very sad. I had been successful in previous years from slips I started myself from store-bought sweet potatoes. I tried to see if Steele is selling other purple sweet potatoes for 2025—Interestingly they NO longer offer Purple Passion. I wonder why; maybe they realized it is not a reliable variety?
1 Like
god im thinking of adding some grow bags of sweet potatoes. how many slips do you put in a 15 gal bucket? 1? 4?
2 Likes
The last two years, I have put 3 in each 22 gallon tote and they have done well. Slightly over 10 lbs per tote.
2 Likes
do you need to trelis them or just let it go
I had 6 toes end to end, I have plenty of space so I just let them go. They spread about 5-6’ both ways. Trellising might be a good idea if space is limited
Well theyre jn bags on a driveway so it doesnt really matter they wknt choke anything out .
I liked the humor in your post–it sure helps when coping with disappointment. We did not have a good harvest at all for 2025 considering how many plants we had planted in buckets, full sunshine, many hot days, consistent watering, moderate fertilization, proper management by not letting the stems root. I do not know what we did wrong—maybe Purple Passion just is not a good variety for West Michigan?!? (I followed the growing tips from Sandhill and considering the “heat factor” as well.)
5 Likes
Well made a sweet potato tasting after going to 2 local groceries. The verdict: korean is way better than japanese which surprised me because I thought theyd be the same potato.
Also reallt didnt like the row7 starling. Just was super wet and had no complexity. Tasted blander than garnet.
Okinawa and hawiaan were also clearly different surpriseingly. Not sure which we prefered there though
4 Likes
The varieties I planted were purple ones as well. I don’t know what they are now, but one is grocery store and one is a variety someone sent me that they had ordered. Might have been purple passion. Lol
Glad someone is enjoying my attempt at humor. All we can do is laugh!
Better than crying!
I will whine though.
Lol i showed my wife the picture and she said “well carrots are hard” then i informed her they were sweet potatoes and she did a bit of a spit take haha.
Weve all been there
1 Like