67 F sounds heavenly to me right now...

A sweet Virginia breeze going on down here, Virginia, she can be a sweet spot ;-)

Three varieties:

Betty’s - nice slips, a bit “dainty”, but only two had any notable roots.

Copper Jewel (which may be same as Jewell) - slightly purplish stems, thick slips with lots of roots

Diane - also robust slips, moderate amount of roots.

48 degrees here this morning.

HM - I'm still waiting on my slips from Sandhill. I'm trying Betty's too as well as Vardaman, and Bush Porto Rico. What number were you on their order list? I was #44. Their website says they started shipping on Monday so I thought 'd have them by now.

Mine was #16.

It’s 58 degrees now...I guess slightly cooler weather is good to get them rooted in and established, but from my experience last year, they won’t grow much until we’re consistently back into the 80s for highs. Coolish week ahead - mostly 70s for highs and lows around 58-60.

Jack - I ordered Bush Porto Rico too. First time for this variety for me. Unfortunately, they arrived too early and before I was ready to plant them (not from Sandhill). I lost quite a few of them even though they were in water. Just planted the survivors yesterday. Hope they make it.

Wow - you ordered really early! I'd guess I will probably receive mine today. I have the bed all prepped, compost added, soaker hose in place, and covered with black plastic. All I need to do is cut some holes and stick in the 16 slips and water them in.

I'm only about a 4 hour drive from the Sandhill farm.

Cindy -I hope yours do well...good luck! All of mine are bush or semi-bush. I want to keep them contained in the 4' wide bed as much as possible, This is my first try ever to grow sweets.

We are plenty warm for them here. High near or above 90 for the foreseeable future.

Honestly you probably don’t need the black plastic - I did fine without it. My soil temp is in the 70s even with the cool snap.

I'm using it more for the weed control and to keep the vines from rooting away from the mother plant. I can always remove it early on if I think it is posing a problem.

I’m also banking on the fact that even the Betty’s slips that were mostly unrooted, will root OK just stuck in the ground.

Considering that pieces I cut off my vines last year, and tossed on the compost pile to bake in the hot sun often times rooted and survived, I can’t imagine ones I actually take care of won’t.

From Sandhill Preservation's website

You do not need lots of roots on the slips when you plant them to be able to insure success. The more roots the more stress when transplanting and the more they will be stunted. The key when setting out the slips is to have very few roots and keep them as wet as possible in the garden for the first 7 to 10 days. Then back off on the water and they will go crazy. The worst possible thing you can do upon receipt of the slips is to pot them up, wait a few weeks and then transplant to the garden. You will have lost a good 2 weeks of positive growth and will have given them two chances to slow down. The more you slow them down the less yield you have. The more times you transplant them the more non-uniform roots and the less roots you will get. You will frequently get one ball shaped twisted root from plants that have been repotted in pots and then transplanted into the garden.

The Betty’s are very wilted:

Copper Jewel a bit better:

Diane looks the best:

They Look good so far, although I can’t imagine they were big fans of today’s upper 50s/low 60s with drizzle.

I finally received my slips yesterday. Sandhill said the Vardaman variety was slow to sprout and that held up my order. Yesterday was 96 degrees and sunny and they were a little wilted when I took them out of the box. I removed the wax paper and stuck the bundle in some wet potting soil like they suggested and they looked much better this morning.

Today is supposed to the mostly cloudy and mid 80s so I'll plant them our after work.

We are stuck in a relative cool pattern (mid 70s to mid 80s) for a few days. Then some heat next week as we get into the 90s.

I ordered my Vardaman slips from Taterman over in Georgia...got them a couple of months ago. This was my first time planting sweet'taters and I was a little put off by the weakly looking plants. I received a baker's dozen of them. None had much root development at all. After a week passed after planting I figured I would have maybe 50% live plants. Well, those little suckers are tough little things!!!! Out of 13 slips I have 13 plants growing well. Amazing.

A few days afterr planting...May 4th

20 days later, May 24th.

I'll have to get a current picture...

It’s a slow go so far.

‘Diane’ showing the most growth.

’Copper Jewel’ in second place (although a semi-bush variety so to be expected)

‘Betty’s’ has barely grown at all.

When the slips arrive, I put them in water to rehydrate them. I have had some scurf in recent years and try to grow them in a fairly dry environment to reduce scurf. I make a very high ridge and cover with black plastic. I do not need the extra heat from the plastic, but want to keep them drier after the first 10 days of transplanting. The plastic does cut down on weeds. Sweetpotatoes can survive in fairly dry circumstances. I let the vines set roots beyond the plastic and these can help feed and water the drier mother plants.

I have not had any issues with scurf yet, but my soil is damn near sand where I plant them.

Scurf like heavier, wetter, and richer soil with a lot of organic matter with old residues of horse manure.