Where is the best place to order sweet potato slips for south East Texas? I'm impatient and our local suppliers say they won't have any until mid-May. Any suggestions on varieties, I plan to experiment growing them in some large tree containers (15 gallon and larger). Thanks

I always order from Steele Plant Company.

http://www.sweetpotatoplant.co...

I always have great results with Beauregard (red) and O'Henry (a white one.) I usually call them on the phone because their website is a little confusing and I never want to make a mistake. There's a big price break the more you buy. If you had others in your area that you could split an order with, that'd be perfect.

Thanks Dave!

I ordered some just last week from George's Plant Farm - http://www.tatorman.com/

My main reason for ordering from there is that they have the option to order mixed varieties of your choice. So I didn't have to get 12 slips of the same kind of sweet potatoes. I get to try 3 different kinds. 4 plants of three varieties.

I always get mine from Jungs here in Wisconsin. They carry all of the above mentioned varietes. I like Centenial, they seem to keep well, and have a nice shape to them. I'm trying some Vardaman this year too. I have started my own slips some years, it's not hard to do. Lots of u tube videos that show you how.

I used to get mine from Sandhill but now I do my own, which reminds me, I need to get those potatoes in a pot!!!!!

I've ordered a couple of times from Georges (tatorman.com) and I've been very satisfied. There are normally good sized slips in good condition. The counts have also been fairly generous.

I took Dave's advice after I looked at their website and found my zone was shipping this week. So hopefully they will be delivered in the next few days. I got the Beauregard, O'henry and Porto Rico. My neighbor is going to split them with me. Hopefully one of us will have success. Maybe both of us will be successful and we will have a sweet potato fest

Yippeee! Another sweet potato grower. Like you, one of my neighbors will be sharing the sweet potatoes, so we will be sharing tidbits and comparing success. Then we will be sharing recipes and dishes as well. Tried to get my other neighbor to join the fun, but no interest there. Said they tried it last year and it was a big fail. My other neighbor and I didn't lose any enthusiasm and meet at the fence to discuss our gardens and the arrival of the sweet potatoes daily.

It is always great when you can order at just the right time for shipping. Are you doing summersaults in excited anticipation yet? It makes my mouth water thinking and thinking and thinking about those yummy sweet potatoes - and trying different varieties. I ordered the Porto Rico, Vardaman, and Red Japanese. I think I also found some recipes at the site dave suggested.

abhege said:I used to get mine from Sandhill but now I do my own, which reminds me, I need to get those potatoes in a pot!!!!!

Same here. I'm using Beauregard sweet taters.

I did get mine started. Should have slips by the time we can plant out, first part of June to be safe. I do RedGold and a purple variety someone gave me.

I don't need many slips so start my own also. From on sweet potato but in water. I break off the shoots and root them in small pots till they develop good roots before planting. Slips can be removed and the potato will keep developing more growth.

It may just be me but it seems like it's still a bit early to be planting in ground?

Still a bit early for us.

I have started mine off again. These are by slips. You can often find sweet potato feral around houses and abandoned buildings in Queensland. It doesn't go into bushland though. People don't seem to recognise them anymore until, say, Scrub Turkeys dig them up.

But usually there is just ignorance of what they have. The tubers of this one are dry-tolerant, big, white and delightfully tasty, growing to several kilograms. I spotted this variety in a friend's back yard in the ranges north of here.

I suspect there is an interesting story here about how they occur so widely in the State: probably about food shortages and World War 2. I should chase this up.

In the garden they can be quite invasive but easy to control if you make sure you eat them or supply the neighbourhood. Even so, I have been loth to start them off again.

Now that's what I need to discover growing in my backyard. Edibles growing wild, waiting to be harvested. And really yummy and deliciously edibles that fill you up, not just weeds that taste bitter.

My posts seem to be disappearing!

I wanted to clarify that I plant my potatoes for slips in an old tub inside the greenhouse, not outside.

The best place to order sweet potato slips is from George's Plant Farm - http://www.tatorman.com/! I can say this because my sweet potatoes arrived today! They all look alive! It looks like I got more than I ordered, but I tried not to handle them too much. I took pictures and will get them off my CF card when I get back from my doctor's appointment and post somewhere around here later.

It includes all the instructions you need for how to take care of the sweet potatoes before you plant, while growing, harvesting, and storage. On the back of the instruction sheet is a bunch of recipes! You can bet I plan to try most, if not all the recipes. My mouth is still watering just thinking about them. I am so very excited!

And wow, that is what, just a week since I placed my order? I ordered April 17, and today is April 24. I know where I will order from next year, if I'm still able to garden.

Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!
Happy Dance! Happy Dance! Happy Dance!
Treasure thinks I'm crazy in my pants!
I've got potatoes nice and sweet
To make my garden so complete!

I got my sweet potato slips in and planted the first week of May. Due to traveling the past couple of weeks, today was the first chance I had to harvest. So they have been planted for approximately 120 days. My experiment using 15 gallon containers did fair so well. The production was pitiful. However, I have not given up hope. I plan to amend the soil to hopefully make it looser or is it more loose. And I will put up fencing as soon as next years crop is planted to keep the deer from removing all the leaves. I am afraid that might be part of my problem. I was not expecting our neighborhood deer to come in my back area by my raised bed garden. During the first week they removed almost every leaf on each of the potato slips. I put up fencing and that worked for the most part, but they did keep anything that grew up on the fence nibbled down.
New year I will be better prepared!!

Thanks Dave for the suggestion of Steele Plant Company. They were wonderful to work with and order from.

My sweet potatoes are doing pretty good this year but they were fairly slow to get going for some reason. I haven't harvested yet but I think I might soon. Sorry to hear about the deer - they do love sweet potato leaves! Last year I grew a massive patch of sweet potatoes out in zone 3 and the deer came after a month and ate them all and wouldn't let them grow new leaves. I didn't get a single sweet potato from that patch.