When you mail order sweet potato slips, do they come bare, with no roots yet, or are they started in jiffy pellets or something like that?

Thanks in advance!

Melissa

Unless the term has a diff meaning in regard to veggies, (not really my area, though I'm very familiar with growing sweet potato) slips usually refers to foliage cuttings. Are you ordering for a specific kind of foliage, or for edibility?

And it also depends from where you order them.

I sent off a fair amount of money to Rare Seeds, and haven't yet gotten the plants, am awaiting their shipping tracking number via email. After I paid my money, I realized they might send rooted plants in "dirt", and that could be confiscated by customs. If they send just slips that I need to root, no problem. Their customer service told me the equivalent of, "tough toenails" it's my problem/loss.

So, I would like to know if other seedsmen sell unrooted slips, or if all sweet potato slips are mailed rooted.

Yikes -- they hadn't even shipped yet but wouldn't work with you at all on the problem??

I can't imagine a reputable company sending unrooted plants. If they are giving you a problem now, I, personally, would attempt to get my money back. That's just me.

They are a huge company, thick glossy catalog. Owell I really want these intensly purple sweet potatoes

http://www.rareseeds.com/

The only purple sweet potatos I see Baker Creek site is Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato. If that is the one then the add says pre-order, so they are not yet available to ship.
http://www.rareseeds.com/okina...

Melissa, here's an article from an ATP member who starts her own sweet potatoes. These are the ornamental ones, but the method is the same. http://garden.org/ideas/view/H...

The article explains with good pictures that "slips" are the sprouts that emerge from the potato itself. I honestly don't know how well they would ship to the BVI's if they were not in some sort of rooting medium to keep them moist. I hope you specified a quick shipping option?

I live in the United States Virgin Islands, US postal system.

They started shipping April first

These are the potatoes I pre-ordered, and I am awaiting their shipment. http://www.rareseeds.com/molok...

I got in touch with their customer service to ask about roots and "dirt", they said 'yes, dirt'.

So, I haven't gotten their email with a tracking number yet, as they said would happen. I am jumping the gun, not worrying but worrying that I won't receive the order.

I ordered edible sweet potato slips from a Canadian company,
and they send them as slips which I will need to root.
They will ship them in June by expedited Canadian Post.

Melissa, hopefully if they accept orders to the V.I., those plants will get to you okay... but it really seems to me that if a company hasn't shipped your order yet, and you (meaning whoever, not just "you" in particular) have some valid concern about your plants being able to get to you in good condition, or at all, they should be able to cancel the order and refund your payment.

Thank you for your replies.

Caroline, That;s what I wanted to know, if some companies send just the slips.

Sandy, I'm going to just wait and see what happens at this moment. And in the meantime, I'll try to find someone in Hawaii who will mail me a potato! I really want to grow these purple things!

Cheers,

Melissa

Melissa, I suspect you will end up with the slips and a purple potato from someone, to grow your own!!

I will post here when anything happens. Nothing worse than an unfinished story!

Nice cat, Sandy!

Pole beans in a bucket

While we're hanging in that suspense, here's a potato to discuss. It's not purple, but the mechanics should be the same.

A common story, I'm sure. Bought a sweet potato intending to cook it. Set it in "convenient" spot & forgot about it. Some time later, 4-6 wks maybe, looks like I should propagate instead of prepare.


IDK what might be called "slips" in the for-sale realm, but I snapped these off of the potato, bending them away until they came loose. The longest one is about 13-14".


I put the stems in about an inch of water in a cup until it stops raining. Whenever I can get outside, I'm going to cut the potato in about 4 pieces & bury them, stick the stems in the ground nearby... Is that similar to what others do?

Tiffany -- yes, the stems are the "slips." I tried growing sweet potatoes once, from slips that I grew from a potato I bought at the supermarket; never mind it was probably totally the wrong variety to attempt to grow in the north, we had pretty much the coldest summer on record that year... but they did make some little tiny tubers

TY! It's not easy to be a tropical wannabe, huh? I used to be farther north, but I still want to be farther south...

Actually, I love living right where I do... I just need to convince DH that we need a huge heated greenhouse so I can grow the tropical plants in there

Update on the slips. Significant roots already! (3 days later.)