It costs quite a bit of money to buy enough sweet potato slips to grow a useful volume of potatoes. So don't buy the slips, unless you're after a different variety, get your own started! It's easy as can be!
I buy organic sweet potatoes and put them in a container with water, bottom down. Bottom being the end that wasn't directly attached to the plant. Slips will start growing and when it is time I cut the slips and plant them. All you need is a "node" planted in the dirt and it'll grow. I had the above ground tops die back but it still grow because the node and stem survived. I cut my slips but there are different trains of thought on that.
Another method is to plant the whole potato in damp sand. The slips will grow up and you cut them off. This can be done on a field scale.
So why not just plant the potatoes like a regular potato? Because each slip is a new plant that needs to be separated to it's own individual hill.
The link at the top is for a preservation center in Iowa. He is managing an awesome amount of varieties of sweet potatoes. If you want a crazy, unique variety check him out he's got hundreds!
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