As long as you protect the young plants from frost you are way ahead. Sweet potato plants are very susceptible to frost even a fairly light one.

No kidding. :-)

Probably nothing in the garden is as frost tender as sweet potatoes, not on the vegetable side of things anyway. Right down to digging them before the tops get even slightly nipped.

I struck 18 slips this afternoon; so we shall see what we shall see. Most of them were off what remained of my own from last summer's garden, mostly pretty small. Hopefully they have perhaps a leg up on local adaptation. I decided that a dozen and a half was enough. If they make, I will have plenty of tubers, if they don't, I won't have wasted so much space.

My late mother and several of her deceased siblings grew sweet potatoes well in NW Iowa. Several bought their slips but more than one simply stuck a store bought sweet potato in a glass of water, stuck it in a window, harvested the resulting slips and planted them out once weather warmed.

Mom's side of the family was known to have green thumbs up past their elbows. What I inherited doesn't begin to reach that far!

I think I am going to cheat and lay down black landscape fabric to warm the soil up hotter and earlier. I intend to raise the bed like one does for garlic, too. Now with stay at home orders from the Governor, I am going to be short on soil amendments, too. I was going to get those next week. Out of the question now. Just have to make do with what I have I guess.

Old Dutch - I would be interested in trying to start store bought sweet potatoes this year, since I'm not going out to the nurseries either. Do you just cut them and stick them in a glass of water? By slips, do you mean a section of the potato that has green growth in it?

Do not confuse sweet potatoes with regular or Irish potatoes. They are entirely different types of plants, and they are grown quite differently. You are not likely to find green areas on a sweet potato like one does on regular potatoes left in the light.

You don't have to cut it, just stick the sweet potato in a glass or mug of clean water submerged about half way. Try to get the top side up. Best to buy an organic one and not too big. Dormant buds should break and send up shoots. Those are your slips and they root real easy when taken off the actual tuber either just in plain water or set in a moist potting soil. Bright warm window works very well. Warm is important. Where you are you should have a long enough growing season for all but the real purple/purple types. Do not plant outside until the weather is definitely and dependably warm, and in full sun. Dig before the vines get frosted to any degree in the fall. The vines also make a nice hanging pot if the light is bright enough, but keep the humidity up or you might end up with spider mites.