do your due diligence. Order slips one year, save some roots for the next year. It is easy to do.

What varieties are you trying to grow? As an fyi, your zone would indicate only short season varieties will do well.

DarJones

Agee with DarJones, there are many different kinds, but the short season is really important. Have you asked the others around you what kind they grow? Get a sweetpotato from them and start your slips from that.
However, the slips I have gotten have NEVER been delicate in any way shape or form, they look like dead little things and 24 hours after being planted they are sitting up and taking notice.
Have you checked your soil? Do you wait for the soil to be warm enough? Sorry, I seem to have nothing but questions.

I've used mail order slips a few times and had no problems... The fact that you only get 10-20% survival rate to your slips sounds like you're missing some small but important part of the process or occurance in the envirnment. Maybe outline exactly what you do from the moment they arrive by mail to the point where they die or otherwise fail and the problem can be pinpointed? I really can't guess what the trouble might be yet except it probably isn't the slips.

shop for viable tubers from smaller green grocer outlets, then follow our suggestion for producing growing material, slips whatever.

if you have successful gardeners near by ask them for slips and stick them in a jar of water until they root.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens growing sweet spuds and pines

The usual slips you receive in the mail are tall and skinny with little rooting. Put these in a pail with a couple inches of water in it for 6 days....keeping the tops out of the water.

My home grown slips are shorter and stockier with lots of roots. These take off right away.

If you do set out inferior slips, install an inverted plastic flower pot with vent holes over them for two or three days. Always see that they are well watered for a few days.

It is easy and simple to grow sweet potato slips.Buy the sweet potato from near by organic or diet food store.Lay it on the top of the surface of the potting soil in a pot covering the bottom part of the sweet potato 1/4th inch deep in the soil.Keep the soil wet and you will see the slips sprouting within 10 to 15 days.Remove the slips and plant them in the space around the tuber in the same pot till they reach 4 to 6 inches in height then remove and plant in your garden on hills of 6 to 8 inches high. Here is the pic showing how I grow the slips.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/Chimanlal/SweetPotatoes001-1.jpg?t=1336083978

My problem seemed to be lots of different problems (or just plain bad luck?).

One year the slips that came in the mail were beautiful. I put them in water for a few days, planted them out, and they grew well and I had a successful harvest.

One year the slips that came looked dead (and in fact were). I put them in water right away and they never perked up. This is the extreme negative experience I have had with attempting to grow sweet potatoes.

Other years the slips came all wilty, as is typical. Some would perk up in water, some wouldn't. I planted them out and some would die and then a few more would grow for a while and then die. This loss through attrition seems to be the biggest problem I have had. The ones that survived would produce disappointing harvests of a few small sweet potatoes.

One year I planted them out and they were growing nicely and then our wonderful desiccating prairie winds destroyed the young plants in one hot, windy day. They never recovered.

Another year the young plants drowned due to too much rain. I have rich heavy clay loam soil - not the greatest for gardening due to water retention and compaction but it is incredibly nutrient-rich. I have my soil tested every other year and amend accordingly. The soil is slightly but consistently on the alkaline side. I do not know if that is a problem for sweet potatoes.

Two years I suspect were my fault - planted slips in too-cold soil temps - but I planted out when my experienced neighbors planted theirs and they told me to go ahead and plant - no joy.

I have ordered from reputable catalogs (they just contract with the same supplier don't they?), and I have ordered from the same company that a neighbor orders from - no real success with any. The one company I really should consider ordering slips from is Sand Hill. Glenn and Linda have quite the collection and they are in a similar climate as me, and are somewhat close geographically which should reduce shipping time and thus stress on the slips. I could get some short-season plants from them to try out. I welcome other suggestions for suppliers.

I have looked into purchasing organic sweet potatoes for producing my own slips. A viable option but often the employees do not know the correct names of the varieties - unhelpful if they turn out to be long-season types.

BTW the one neighbor of mine that consistently grows good sweet potatoes just lost over three quarters of his plants to deer browsing (he planted 100 plants). In a fenced-in garden (they jumped over). Needless to say he is quite disgusted (putting it mildly). I feel bad for him. This is THE crop he loves growing and he is rightfully proud of his accomplishments. Sometimes you just can't win.

Thanks for all the comments folks, they are appreciated and are being taken under advisement.

I planted mine this year in home made wooden pine"bins. Made from junk pickup wood
I bought like 4 variety slips from a local flea mkt and some from local farmer. some died because I did not plant them soon enough... busy with home maintenance etc
Last year from Lowes--which sell "Bonnie" brand,which was "Beauregarde"those were potted like in 9 packs...Grew those like the youtube video in two "plastic totes with bottoms cut out
I had no real sucess with planting regular potatoes in them

Soilent-green-
hope you neighbor goes-"bang bang" to the deer.______uhh...I mean the sweet Bambis(saying rahhhh sarcastically).....and the blankety blank rabbits and ground hogs,raccoons etc.....
Yeah,too isnt it always the nongardeners who draw them in with feeding them (the sweet---Bambis,)year round
Yeah then eat them...Ha Ha
Hey fellow gardeners its them or us......
the blankety blank predators have countless wild stuff to eat but they pick on us poor small time home gardeners
Anyone know of robotic cats or dogs???? or robotic insect eating birds???? One that require no maintenance like real "pets" LOL
Thanks for letting me vent
jean

Sweet Potato Slips a>

Ok, that's a clearer picture. :) Have you figured out why they are dying in the ground as young plants? Because that still doesn't sound like the problem is that they came in the mail. You later mentioned wind, is this what kills them? Does your neighbor's sweet potato patch have wind protection? Is something eating the slips from below? Are you being diligent in checking to be sure they are not wilting the first week or so after transplanting?

Mine came in the mail wilty and would perk up with water. Even ones that looked dead would take on water and new top growth would start above the old wilted leaves. But those I would leave inside longer to better establish themselves. I feel for your neighbor. If the deer didn't get the roots, new growth will pop up, but perhaps it will be too much time lost up in your northern latitude. One year the woodchucks grazed down mine vines three times and that definitely put a damper on the harvest.

Good luck!

Bet your neighbor's sweet potatoes will revive and go on to produce. That is, unless the deer visit regularly. I've seen them mowed to the ground and rebound as if nothing ever happened.

It's not hard to start your own slips. Heat, however, is essential. I prefer to place the roots in potting medium, as water can, sometimes, breed harmful bacteria.

Also, it is really important to try and wait on planting them outside until night time temps are 60 F or above. Though, this year, I did see an exception to the rule. Some of my sprouting roots became infected with fungus gnats, and I pitched them outdoors in order to start over. Night time temps actually dipped as low as 23 F after this (at least once). One of those roots actually rooted where it fell and grew! I took a couple of slips from it when I put out the rest of my sweet potatoes! Anyway, this is an interesting anecdote, but don't count on cold tolerance.

Trust your future crops do better.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Quote: "The one company I really should consider ordering slips from is Sand Hill. Glenn and Linda have quite the collection and they are in a similar climate as me, and are somewhat close geographically which should reduce shipping time and thus stress on the slips. I could get some short-season plants from them to try out. I welcome other suggestions for suppliers. "

That's excellent thinking. Glenn and Linda can also steer you right in regard to local conditions. The only other company I would recommend is Duck Creek Farms, though I really like your point about the proximity of Sand Hill Preservation Center. Be sure to read Glenn's info on growing them, as he has done a lot of experimentation in that climate.

Alkaline conditions probably aren't the problem. I've grown them in central Mexico, in a desert enviroment, with flood irrigation, where we had so much alkalinity that one could sometimes see salts forming on the soil's surface. Sweet potatoes were one of those crops which handled alkalinity very well.

I wonder if you don't have some kind of pathogen getting your plants. Again, I know the prairie wind can be harsh. But I've grown them in the desert where temps sometimes peaked over 110 F and we had wind too. After initial planting I would water (heavily) and leave them. Occasionally I'd lose one or two slips. But usually they all took.

For your circumstances it is safer to get slips from a recognized short season variety, rather than take your chances at the grocery store. From a store, one generally has little idea of where that sweet potato came from. More likely than not, it came from a major sweet potato producing area, which would have a very different climate than yours, and, more likely than not, it would not be an early variety.

George

I'll second George's recommendation for Gary at Duck Creek Farms. He's very responsive to questions & he's sent me some wonderful, hearty, healthy slips for 2 years in a row now. 100% of 4 different short season varieties have survived and thrived in my Pennsylvania garden.

A pathogen of some sort could certainly be a possibility (could one have hitched a ride on a purchased slip by chance?), but I do not think it likely for the simple reason that my vegetables suffer minimal disease and pest issues due to my efforts at maintaining soil health and engaging in crop rotation as well as garden rotation. I would not know how to prove or disprove this other than expensive soil tests or by trying to grow sweet potatoes again and observing the plants more closely. I haven't tried to grow sweet potatoes for at least five years now so maybe any pathogen has had its host cycle broken by now. I suspect my problem has simply been a combination of bad luck, poor quality slips, and lack of experience with this crop.

Duck Creek Farms rings a bell for some reason - they may be the supplier from which some of my neighbors purchase their slips. Every year several people would go in together for one bulk order. I might try and get in on their group purchase next year if they are still going that route.

I checked out a couple of neighbors' sweet potato plantings today and noticed that most of them are growing the plants on raised hills. I will copy their growing methods. They all offered to help me next year if I need advice, so that adds to my comfort level.

Thanks for all the info and recommendations. I feel a little better about trying to grow them again.