i tried that and the water just got moldy so far lol. no roots that i see
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Even with changing out the water every few days?
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… no am I supposed to do that lol. Im new to this method. I just tried it on the Okinawa ones since theyre having trouble.
Has anyone ever used rooting hormone on their sweet potatoes?
Yup, switch out the water every few days, a week at most or if it starts to look cloudy. I also scrub my sweet potatoes before starting. You don’t need roots; you just need sprouts if you are planting slips. I should add but obviously you’ll get roots as well. The glass/cup/whatever will be filled with them by the end.
Its my understanding that its the same hormone for apical growth and rooting.
But yeah my Okinawa just sit there so I was thinking of trying some rooting hormone since I have it.
Will try again with the water method. Lol
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maybe clonex a drop in the water? I’ve not tried that
The wife and I were just at Hmart the other day and she was in heaven when she saw this deal on sweet potatoes! She filled several bags….
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I decided I can cram 3 24-32” root pouches I found super cheap to shove in the corner walkway next to my wooden sweet garden for a few more sweet potatoes. Took down my XL tree in the corner and should have way more sun there now. I’m concerned about voles/mice eating through them or easily going in from the top. I see you have hardware cloth around them in one picture- did you make a bottom as well or was that just for bunnies and deer? I think I’ll have to “sew” the top and side ring together with wire or fighting line. Anyone does anything like this?
I can’t add another March project, maybe next year I’ll put a small wooden bed addition in there so I can tack the cloth to the sides. I tried lining my two new metal beds last week and it was impossible. (I never tried to line my existing metals.) The ribs on the sides make it impossible. That was frustrating.
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Yeah that hardware cloth was some I had leftover from protecting new trees.
Initially it was put up more to semi-contain the vines so mowing around them was easier without mowing over sprawling vines, as early in the season the deer were mainly intent on tearing up my garden farther from the house and only lightly browsed the sweet potatoes (by late summer they were regularly “pruning” vines that ventured past the hardware cloth), but there was no wire beneath my grow bags so that cage mainly functioned as a sad “trellis" and deer protection. (Rabbit protection too but I’m not posotive if Rabbits would have jumped into the bags without the protection either.
But (knock on wood) I don’t seem to have heavy Vole pressure currently (just heavy pressure from all the other mamallian suspects). So the hardware cloth, combined with the grow bag material on the bottom of the bags as well probably being a minor obstacle for them in a year with other food sources sufficed to avoid any damage.
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Thanks for the further info. I guess I’ll see what I can come up with and what the vermin do. I rather despise working with hardware cloth- totally don’t have the patience for it!
Heh yeah I understand that. I’ve been putting off trying to build an 8+ foot tall fence around my property to keep the deer and rabbits at bay, so have been resorting to hardware cloth to make protective rings for my fruit trees to keep them away from the specific parts of the yard I need to protect. So far it’s kept the varmits from killing the trees ive protected, but it’s not as cooperative a material as I would like sometimes.
The gopher wire is easier to manipulate. Its more like chicken wire.i think they sell bags too if its just for grow bags. Probably can put it around it
Use mounds of dirt with black plastic over them to make a microclimate for sweet potatoes. Plant slips through small holes in the plastic. Be careful of the varieties grown. As an example, Okinawan Purple is very difficult to grow in areas with less than 6 full months of high temperatures. I struggle to grow it in the deep south. Other varieties grow super fast. Georgia Jet is the fastest growing that I have tried. Unfortunately it has poor flavor.
I personally like the flavor of Mahon (also known as Bradshaw).
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