Last month I wrote about a failure of my own making with some onion starts. This month the news is much better. I have a healthy and happy box of sweet potato starts that should be large and strong when it comes time to put them in the ground at the end of May.
I get my starts from 2 year old sweet potatoes that I’ve allowed to sprout in the basement. I’ve talked about this method before: https://blog.cobrahead.com/2018/03/28/stop-starting-sweet-potatoes/ and https://blog.cobrahead.com/2014/01/29/using-sweet-potato-sprouts-for-starts/
Using sprouted potatoes is extremely reliable and a lot easier than the common methods of taking sprouts from a potato placed in a container of water, or sprouts taken from a whole or partial potato placed in soil.
There are 25 plants here. I’ll plant the 17 or 18 largest. These starts will also be more robust than the slips available commercially, and cheaper, of course.
When I first started gardening here in Wisconsin slips were not that readily available, and those that were were expensive and often available only from obscure mail-order catalogs. Now many catalogs offer them and prices have come down. The good thing about buying commercial slips is that you have many different varieties to choose from and no hassle, just buy them and plant them.
But I really enjoy growing my own from plants that I also grew. I personally find it more rewarding.