Rooting Sweet Potato Shoots

I start my sweet potatoes in jars on the window sill.   I've seen other ways, but this takes very little counter space and works just great.  

I just shove sweet potatoes into jars, pointed side down, with part of it sticking out of the top of the jar.  If you can find potatoes with pink bumps already visible, then use those - they'll sprout faster from the top.  Leave the pink bumps at the top, out of the water.

In time, little pink sprouts pop up from the top and white roots show up under the water.  

In a couple of weeks, or when things get really warm, the sprouts will grow pretty quickly, and leaves will open up. 

If you can find a jar deep enough, just put the whole potato in deeper so the sprouts are under water, then they'll form roots at the base of each sprout.   

If you don't have really deep jars, don't worry.   Carefully twist the starts off the potato when they're a few inches tall and have a leaf open.   

Then put the sprouts in a water in a jar.  Soon they'll develop roots on their own.   

Easy squeezy!

Once you see roots, you can plant them.   Make sure you are well past the last frost date for your area.  Sweet potatoes like warm soil and hot weather. 

Starting Seeds in Milk Jugs

Annual re-post:  Mini Greenhouse Seed Starters!   I love these and it's time to get them planted!

My genius friend Sharon told me about these a couple of years ago.    They're milk jugs.    You use them as mini greenhouses to start seeds in.   I use them for my peppers, tomatoes and eggplants.  

Start things early [in February, here] and they can stay all snug in the jugs until it's safe to plant them out in May.   In the meantime they can get big in these.

And they're double protected from goofy March weather because I keep these mini greenhouses inside the cold frames and hoop house where it's not going to freeze.

Genius, right?    I love them!



This is what you do.

Save your milk jugs.   Then cut them like this.  Cut all the way around but don't cut them under the handle.   This gives them a lid that stays on, but that you can bend open if you need to.

I cut them with scissors - just stab the scissors in right there under the handle and cut, cut, cut.

Then I poke holes in the bottoms using a skewer.  Or a screwdriver.   Or Lily's pocket knife because she always has it with her and my pocketknife is always in my purse.   Except for that one time that I took it out before I went on an airplane because I didn't want to be arrested for potential terrorism or have it confiscated because it's a cool little pocketknife. 

Poke lots of holes.  Maybe 8-10.

Usually I forget to poke the holes in the jugs until I have a couple of these full.   I hate that.   That's why I'm reminding you to poke your holes before you put the dirt in.

So don't forget.  

Then I fill the bottoms with this stuff.  From right to left:   chicken dirt, sand, potting soil. 

I love chicken dirt.   You can read about it here and here.

In this order, I put in 2 scoops of chicken dirt, 4 scoops of sand and 4-6 scoops of potting soil.

Or you can use plain old dirt.   It works too.

Then I plant my seeds and put labels in the jugs.

Don't forget the labels.   If you grow 6 varieties of peppers, you'll want to know which one is which.   Or not.   It might be fun to plant a big row and see what's what later. 

I spray everything down really well with a spray bottle full of water and I bend the lids back over to close them up so they stay nice and snug and then I tuck them in the cold frame or hoop house. 

Check them occasionally to make sure they don't dry out too much.    Seeds do not like dry.   Keep them moist.

This will give you a nice head start on veggie production for the season.   That's important when you have a kid whose only vegetable is tomatoes.   

Sweet Potatoes Ready to Plant

Those sweet potato starts really took off when the weather got warm.   Remember that - sweet potatoes like heat!

If you start them early, then keep them where it's warm and give them plenty of water.   

I put ours in the ground a couple of a weeks ago along with a few slips purchased from the store.    These have stayed much happier than the slips.  This is how I'm doing them from now on:

• Cut them in half and submerge in a jar of water with the end sticking out.  
• Let it stay where it's bright and warm. 
• When they have roots and leaves, plant them.

If I laid them on their sides in water, then I'd probably get roots all along the bottom and leaves on the top.  Then, I'd be able to cut them in to 3 or 4 starts per potato and they'd go further.   I'm not sure how to do that in a way that wouldn't take a lot of counter space, which is at a premium here.    I'll keep thinking about it.

Celery and Leek Starts

A while back, I talked about the kinds of cool things you can regrow from the veggies you get at the grocery store.

Here's the link to the original list of stuff you can grow from your kitchen scraps.

I've had great success growing leeks this way.   Eeeeaasy.  They come screaming out of the ground.

We decided to try some celery, too.






I don't like celery much by itself, but I like it in soup stock.  We buy a few bunches every year, then cut them up into little chunks and dehydrate them.  Then they go in bags in the freezer so we can grab a handful at a time to toss into soup stock.   Mmm.

This time, I cut the bottoms off and popped them into a bucket with a little water.   Instant new growth.

I had three and cut them at 1", 1 1/2" and 2".  The 2" one was happiest and put out new grown the very next day.  The middle one took a few more days. The 1" took its time, but did eventually put out some new growth. 

My recommendation:   Cut off at least 2-3 inches from the bottom of the celery bunch if you're planning on re-growing it.   As soon as you see green and/or roots, pop it in some soil.

Just as easy as the leeks!

Sweet Potato Starts Update

It's working!!  I've got actual leaves on the sweet potatoes!

I started some of them in bulb vases, some in jars and some of them in an ice cream bucket.  

Weeks ago.









 I read somewhere that small pieces start best.

That is totally wrong.  Totally.   The bigger the hunk, the better. 

It took the small stuff in the bucket For. Ever to get going.

The big hunks in the vases took their time, but once they got going, they really got going.












I've got roots coming on those now.    Those tiny white roots are the signs of Sweet Potato Victory!

The ones I put whole in jars shot out roots right away within just a couple of days.

Days.    DAYS!    Not weeks. 


Soooo, next year, if I want to start them slowly, I'll cut them in half and start them that way.   If I want to start them late and need them to start fast, then I'll drop them in a wide-mouth jar, fill it half full of water and let them go to town.

I love all these little stems!  Eventually they'll all have little rootlets at the base of each stem.  When it's time to plant them, I can carefully twist off each stem with the root and stick them in the ground. 

Sweet potato happiness.

Sweet Potato Starts

It's always a scramble around here to find sweet potato starts.    For me the problem is that I'm ready to plant sweet potatoes long before it's a good time to plant them.  

You have to wait until well AFTER the frost date.

Really.

You have to wait.

Trust me.

And then wait some more.

And by then, everything else has been planted and there's a lot of other work to do and I've forgotten to keep my eyes open for slips.    And then they're gone!

So I've been thinking for a long time about growing my own.   But I heard somewhere that it was hard.    So I kept putting it off.

Then, one day last week, Lily brought me a few sweet potatoes out of the pantry [which stays around 50 degrees all winter] and said - 'Look at these.  They're sprouting!'

So I guess it's not so hard to sprout them after all.    I mean, they did it all by themselves.   In a dark box in a cold pantry.  

Which is just as nature intended.    Duh.  

I found a couple of sites with descriptions on what to do next.   There are a few different approaches.   Check them out:

http://www.outlawgarden.com/2012/04/25/grow-your-own-sweet-potatoes/

http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-plant-and-grow-sweet-potatoes/index.html

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/how-to-grow-sweet-potatoes

http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Growing_sweet_potato_slips_in_gravel/


I think I'm going to do mine the way Outlaw Garden does hers [first link above].   I'll keep you posted.

Mini Greenhouse Veggie Starters

My genius friend Sharon told me about these a couple of years ago.    They're milk jugs.    You use them as mini greenhouses to start seeds in.   I use them for my peppers, tomatoes and eggplants.  

Start things early [in February, here] and they can stay all snug in the jugs until it's safe to plant them out in May.   In the meantime they can get big in these.

And they're double protected from goofy March weather because I keep these mini greenhouses inside the cold frames and hoop house where it's not going to freeze.

Genius, right?    I love them!



This is what you do.

Save your milk jugs.   Then cut them like this.  Cut all the way around but don't cut them under the handle.   This gives them a lid that stays on, but that you can bend open if you need to.

I cut them with scissors - just stab the scissors in right there under the handle and cut, cut, cut.

Then I poke holes in the bottoms using a skewer.  Or a screwdriver.   Or Lily's pocket knife because she always has it with her and my pocketknife is always in my purse.   Except for that one time that I took it out before I went on an airplane because I didn't want to be arrested for potential terrorism or have it confiscated because it's a cool little pocketknife. 

Poke lots of holes.  Maybe 8-10.

Usually I forget to poke the holes in the jugs until I have a couple of these full.   I hate that.   That's why I'm reminding you to poke your holes before you put the dirt in.

So don't forget.  

Then I fill the bottoms with this stuff.  From right to left:   chicken dirt, sand, potting soil. 

I love chicken dirt.   You can read about it here and here.

In this order, I put in 2 scoops of chicken dirt, 4 scoops of sand and 4-6 scoops of potting soil.

Or you can use plain old dirt.   It works too.

Then I plant my seeds and put labels in the jugs.

Don't forget the labels.   If you grow 6 varieties of peppers, you'll want to know which one is which.   Or not.   It might be fun to plant a big row and see what's what later. 

I spray everything down really well with a spray bottle full of water and I bend the lids back over to close them up so they stay nice and snug and then I tuck them in the cold frame or hoop house. 

Check them occasionally to make sure they don't dry out too much.    Seeds do not like dry.   Keep them moist.

This will give you a nice head start on veggie production for the season.   That's important when you have a kid whose only vegetable is tomatoes.