Overview

Embark on a rewarding gardening journey with our premium sweet potato slips variety pack. This collection provides 15 vibrant, ready-to-plant cuttings, ensuring a diverse and bountiful harvest. You’ll receive a carefully selected mix of Korea Purple, Okinawa, and White sweet potato varieties, offering a spectrum of flavors and colors for your culinary creations. These slips are the ideal starting point for anyone looking to grow sweet potatoes in their home garden, providing strong, healthy plants that are eager to establish themselves and produce delicious tubers. Each slip is a live, actively growing plant cutting, carefully prepared to give you the best chance of success.

Sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are not only a versatile and nutritious crop but also incredibly satisfying to cultivate. Our variety pack allows you to experience different textures and tastes, from the dense, earthy notes of purple sweet potato to the creamy sweetness of the okinawa sweet potato and the familiar, comforting flavor of the white sweet potato. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or just starting out, these slips offer an accessible and engaging way to enhance your edible garden.

Key Benefits

Our sweet potato slips offer numerous advantages for the home gardener, providing both ease of growth and a delicious yield. Here are some of the key benefits you can expect:

• Diverse Harvest: Enjoy three distinct sweet potato varieties – Korea Purple, Okinawa, and White – each bringing unique flavors, textures, and colors to your plate. This variety pack ensures a more interesting and versatile harvest for all your cooking needs.
• High Yield Potential: These healthy sweet potato slips are selected for their vigor, promoting robust growth and a strong potential for a generous crop of tubers in your garden.
• Nutrient-Rich Food: Sweet potatoes are celebrated for their nutritional value, packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Growing your own ensures a fresh and healthy food source.
• Easy to Grow: Sweet potato plants are relatively low-maintenance once established, making them an excellent choice for gardeners of all experience levels. They thrive in warm conditions and require minimal intervention.
• Versatile Culinary Use: From baking and roasting to frying and mashing, the different varieties can be used in a multitude of dishes, expanding your culinary horizons. The purple sweet potato and okinawa sweet potato are particularly prized for their vibrant hues.
• Sustainable Gardening: By learning to grow sweet potatoes from slips, you participate in a sustainable gardening practice, producing food locally and reducing your carbon footprint.
• Adaptable to Various Climates: While preferring warmth, sweet potatoes can be grown in many regions, especially if given a good start and appropriate care.

Plant Care & Growing Tips

To successfully grow sweet potatoes from these sweet potato slips, proper care is essential. Sweet potatoes thrive in warm environments and require a sunny location. Choose a spot in your garden that receives at least 6-8 hours of full sun daily. For optimal growth, the soil temperature should be consistently above 60°F (15°C) before planting. If planting early, consider using black plastic mulch to warm the soil.

The ideal soil for sweet potatoes is well-draining, loose, and slightly acidic (pH 5.8-6.2). A sandy loam soil is perfect, allowing the tubers to expand easily. Avoid heavy clay soils, which can stunt tuber development. Amend your soil with compost or other organic matter to improve drainage and fertility before planting. Plant the sweet potato slips about 12-18 inches apart in rows that are 3-4 feet apart. Bury the slips deep enough so that at least half of the slip, including several nodes, is covered with soil. Water thoroughly immediately after planting to help establish the roots.

Once established, sweet potatoes are relatively drought-tolerant, but consistent moisture is crucial during tuber formation. Aim for about 1 inch of water per week, either from rain or irrigation. Reduce watering as the harvest approaches. Fertilize sparingly; too much nitrogen can lead to excessive foliage at the expense of tuber growth. A balanced fertilizer or one slightly higher in potassium is suitable. Keep the planting area free of weeds, as they compete for nutrients and moisture. Sweet potatoes are generally grown as annuals and perform best in USDA Zones 8-11, though they can be grown in cooler zones with a sufficiently long, warm growing season. Harvesting typically occurs when the leaves begin to yellow, usually 90-120 days after planting the white sweet potato, purple sweet potato, and okinawa sweet potato varieties.

Size & Details

This offering includes 15 live sweet potato slips, providing a generous start for your garden. The slips are carefully selected for their health and vigor, ensuring they arrive ready for planting. Each slip is a young cutting, approximately 6-10 inches in length, with developing roots or nodes ready to root. This size is ideal for quick establishment in your garden bed or containers. Sweet potato plants are vigorous growers, with vines that can spread several feet, making them excellent ground cover or suitable for trellising to save space. Expect a moderate growth rate, with mature tubers ready for harvest approximately 90 to 120 days after planting, depending on your local climate and care practices. The variety pack ensures you get a good mix of the Korea Purple, Okinawa, and White types, allowing for diverse culinary experiences. These slips are shipped without soil or pots, making them lightweight and easy to handle upon arrival, ready to be planted directly into your prepared garden.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: How big does this sweet potato plant get? A: Sweet potato plants are vigorous vining plants. Their vines can spread from 6 to 10 feet or more, creating a dense ground cover. The tubers, or sweet potatoes, will vary in size depending on growing conditions and variety, typically ranging from small to medium-large.
• Q: What size pot is recommended for growing sweet potatoes? A: While sweet potatoes are best grown directly in the ground, if you’re growing in containers, choose large pots or grow bags, at least 15-20 gallons in size, to allow sufficient room for tuber development.
• Q: Is this an indoor or outdoor plant? A: Sweet potatoes are outdoor plants, grown as annuals in most climates. They require a long, warm growing season and full sun to produce tubers. They are not typically suited for indoor cultivation for tuber production.
• Q: How much sunlight do these sweet potato slips need? A: Sweet potato plants need abundant sunlight to thrive and produce a good harvest. They require at least 6 to 8 hours of direct full sun per day.
• Q: Are these sweet potato slips easy to care for? A: Yes, once established, sweet potatoes are relatively easy to care for. They are quite resilient and can tolerate some neglect, though consistent watering during tuber formation and weeding will yield the best results. They are considered a good option for beginners who want to grow sweet potatoes.
• Q: What condition will the sweet potato slips arrive in? A: Your sweet potato slips will arrive as fresh, live cuttings, carefully packaged to ensure their health during transit. They may appear slightly wilted upon arrival but will quickly revive after planting and watering.
• Q: Can I use the leaves of the purple sweet potato or okinawa sweet potato in cooking? A: Yes, sweet potato leaves are edible and very nutritious! They can be cooked like spinach or other greens. The leaves of the okinawa sweet potato and purple sweet potato are particularly flavorful.
• Q: When is the best time to plant sweet potato slips? A: The best time to plant sweet potato slips is after all danger of frost has passed and the soil temperature has warmed to at least 60°F (15°C), typically late spring or early summer.
• Q: Will sweet potato plants survive winter in my zone? A: In most regions, sweet potatoes are grown as annuals and will not survive winter frosts. In USDA Zones 9-11, they may survive as perennials, but tubers are generally harvested before the first hard frost.
• Q: What is the minimum temperature these sweet potato slips can tolerate? A: Sweet potato slips and plants are very sensitive to cold. They require temperatures consistently above 60°F (15°C) to thrive, and any frost will severely damage or kill the plants.