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dciolek

Propagating Sweet Potatoes in Styrofoam Cups

dciolek
12 years ago

I have been keeping a bunch of sweet potatoes alive over the winter by propagating multiple starts from vine cuttings. I obviously started too early in the winter -- because I am being over-run with vines (can't bring myself to throw any away).

However, I read somewhere (can't find it now), that when you propagate sweet potatoes (the eating kind, not ornamental) in cups like that -- since the roots tend to grow all around into the cup and get jumbled together, when you plant them outside, the potatoes will all be crowded together from the jumbled roots and not really grow out well/expand -- just staying mainly below the plant.

Should I be thinking about trimming the roots back to the stem in these slips about a week before planting so that the plant establishes itself with NEW root growth from the get go and avoid the problem above?

Does that even sound like a possible problem described above (you can't believe everything you read on the internet right)?

Anyone have any experience with this to share? Its been all I can do to keep trimming the vines back to keep them under the lights so they survive long enough to get planted out in about six weeks. It would be sad to have a failed crop after all that work.

Thanks for any help.

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