Hello Gardeners - - - 

Just thought I'd mention my success with sweet potatoes the last 2 years. As you may know, CA is one of a handful of states that does not allow the "import" of sweet potato slips" into the state from any of the seed companies. So - - - I make my own.

If any of you are interested, spring into summer is a great time to plant your own slips. Just buy a few ORGANIC sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's or Sprouts. They must be organic to avoid a waxy coating on the skins. Insert 3 toothpicks around the middle of each one. Balance each sweet potato on the rim of a glass without the bottom touching. Fill each glass with water so that 1/3 to 1/2 of the sweet potato is in water and set the glasses on a window sill that gets bright light. It takes about 4 weeks or so to see a good crop of white roots developing at the bottom. You can change the water every couple of weeks if it gets cloudy or just add fresh water as it evaporates.

Once you have a good crop of white roots, then take the whole sweet potato, toothpicks and all, and plant it below the surface of the soil. The toothpick will remind you where the "parent" sweet potato was planted. Water. You will get yards and yards of dark green/purple leaves on a vine. After around 4 months or so, gently dig down beneath and around  the "parent" . Hopefully each of your sweet potatoes will give you 5 to 10 pounds of new sweet potatoes. You can devote 1/4 or more of your plot to growing them.