Fedco has 25 for $25 but 100 for $49. I’ve never grown them myself but it must be easy because I think a lot of folks do. The problem of growing them from store bought sweets is that you don’t know the variety.

I grow my own slips from store bought sweet potatoes. I don't know the variety but if they are from a local source I figure I can grow them. I've had one really good year and a couple of years with some success, but that may be the variety or the weather.

I get them from a local garden center and yes they are crazy expensive. Never tried growing my own but if I did I wouldn't get one from a grocery store, I would try to source it from a local farmers market to be sure what I got would grow in my area.

The nice thing about getting them at my garden center is that I can get them as 8-packs and I don't really need any more than that. You could always buy the variety you want the first year, and then start slips from your harvest in the future.

My mother used to use toothpicks to hold a store yam somewhat out of the water in a saucer. They would grow out of the eyes. But I never remember her ever harvesting anything. My opinion is that they need a warmer climate than we have here in western PA.

John D. I've done this also in the past. We ended up with beautiful vines lining the kitchen windows!

I tried it recently, and almost no sprouts. Found a produce guy in the know who said they're treated with something so they won't sprout.

So, Randy41, I would get them from a farmers market or some place who doesn't treat for sprouting. Most regular grocery stores had no clue if they were treated or not.

I’ve grown sweet potatoes successfully in a 6a zone. Setting the slips into raised beds with black plastic works very well. they are very fragrant so if there are deer around you need a good fence.

FWIW, I believe organic store-bought regular potatoes have not been treated with sprout inhibitor, which non-organic regular potatoes are. The stuff is called chlorpropham. It's a herbicide, and it isn't toxic. That being said, I've also heard that sweet potatoes don't necessarily need to be treated with sprout inhibitor, because proper temperature control does the job. So if you get sweet potatoes that have been stored properly, they won't sprout. In that respect, it isn't clear that getting sweet potatoes from an organic farmers market is necessarily going to make it possible to get sprouts from them.

I grow my own slips. Very easy to do. I got a sweet potato from Aldi's about 4 or 5 years ago and have never had to buy one again. I always save a couple to grow slips the next year.

Thank you. You have inspired me to grow my own slips. Since I am not confident about the yield, it is not worth the money to buy from mail order. I will give it a try. Yes, I think black plastic is the way to go.

You don't need many slips to get a lot of sweet potatoes. Try Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for slips. They offer a nice variety at a reasonable price. I grow them in the large raised felt bags and get reasonable yields. I might get more in the ground, but they're easy to harvest this way and I started doing it when I had limited space. A couple of slips per bag will do very well.

I've raised my own and also ordered from George's Tator Farm and also Steele Plant Co..

I kinda like ordering. I raise O'Henry yellow and a bit of Carolina Ruby and maybe Covington.

Last year I started slips from organic sweet potatoes. It was easy to do. A lot of information on the web says to start in water though I started mine in seed starting mix. When it came to planting out time I started them in tunnel. Did fairly well especially considering May and June were abnormally cold here.

BJ’s has sweet potatoes for under $3, a bag of 6-7.