SWEET POTATO Slips in RUTH STOUT Bed!! 

1:20 try starting your slips in soil instead of water. It speeds things up drastically, and the sweet potato doesn't rot anywhere near as often.

Last year I planted taters the traditional way in the front yard and by the Ruth Stout method in the back. To avoid forking out money, I used oak leaves which are everywhere. Ruth Stout was easier and the yields were about the same. This year, sweet potatoes are going under the oak leaves.

Here is a tip...I used it and get slips in maybe 3 weeks at the most...just place the sweet potato side ways in a shallow pan (plastic or glass is best) I use a lid...put some water not to cover it just to keep it moist...no a lot of water please...no clorine water please...put it in the kitchen counter ...no even need to have light...and voila in not time u have growth...the interesting thing is that the sweet pot. (mother) shoots a lot of roots and on the sides u start seen the slips...I remove them and live the "mother" in the container (changing the water every 3 to 4 days) and the "mother" keep giving me more slips...and keep giving and giving and giving...when the roots of mother are way to big...or too think i just cut them (trim) and voila is that easy...no months waiting...

This is one of the very few crops that can withstand hurricanes here in the tropics. Our Extension office always recommend planting them.

I am planting the sweet potato as well in my backyard. I am from West Africa and we eat the leaf. Thus, I am purposefully growing it for that reason. I bought the vines at an African store, took out the leaves, cooked it, and planted the vines in my garden bed.

Your soil is a thing of beauty!! I'm doing sweet potatoes for the first time this year. It's been fun to watch the slips grow😊.

I think this would make a great homeschool project for next year. I bought some ready to go this year, but we always need a good project in February to distract from the seemingly endless gray winter.

I’ll be putting our slips in this weekend and I will try the slurry. Excited to try something new! Thank you! Blessings...

You have taught me so much. I’m just a container gardener now, but I cannot wait until I can grow things outdoors like you. Thank you for your constant education!

Last year I was very late starting my slips as I am this year again, but I put the whole potato and the growth in my container and I harvested two meals worth of potatoes. This year I am putting them in a hugelkultur bed I made from stuff. We have recently moved and have not set up our Ruth Stout as we had in TN and love her method and did very well, but will begin this fall. So much joy in gardening. In Joy

I did the exact same thing you're doing and out of about 25 sweet potato plants I have one that's growing

I have just put the potatoes right on top of the soil and cover them with straw. Maybe this works because I live in a temperate climate but it works like a charm for me.

Next year try starting slips in your ruth stout bed. I just throw down my sweet potatoes on the ground, pull just a little soil up around the sides and cover with hay. I had usable slips in 2 weeks! Just wait until May and it'll be warm enough for them to really thrive. The jar method "works" but as you mentioned it's slow lol.

Sweet potatoes are well worth the wait .. They go great with almost anything.. Or by themselves also.. 😂

Grew mine in dirt and in water dirt gave more slips for me.planiting in containers and ground have few more to go will give the compost slurry in last batch..

Hi Rachel. The garden is looking great.you are so good in the garden. I love, and enjoy your video. Thank you for sharing you wonderful video. God is always with you and Todd. Stay safe. Maria.🥰🥰🥰🤩🤩🤩🤩🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤💕💕💕💕💕💕💕😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈

Putting out my slips tomorrow, finally, before I get vines taking over the kitchen.

Rachel, you light up when you talk about sweet potatoes! God bless

Starting with 4 or 5 potatoes you should have enough for a million slips! Wow. And to speed things up, lay a couple in a shallow pan with a couple of inches of potting soil. Just half covered, not buried. MUCH faster than the jar of water method.

Me too!!! Only two slips because I never did before.I dont know if they will do anything here in north central Wisconsin but I love them anyway.

Rachel I want to thank you for doing the Ruth Stout bed. I have been wanting to try it for several years and just haven't yet. I see you doing it and I thought I can do this! Yesterday with the help of my son we covered a large area of grass and weeds with layers of cardboard. We added 2 inches of Black Cow decomposed cow manure, then the potatoes and covered with the decomposing hay from the straw bale garden from last year. I usually only grow potatoes that have started to have the long white tendrils from the grocery store. Seed potatoes are hard to find here but Tractor Supply had them. Each bag was 4 or 5 pounds. Today we will cover with more hay. I live in town and have had my own Organic garden for over 55 years. Love your videos. Thank you again.

I grew my slips the same way, this is my first time growing them.

Just subscribed, can’t wait to see what the straw bales produce for you! Happy spring from NJ

yay! i'm so excited to see this year's experiment! and i really appreciated you doing the taste test experiment on the 2 year old ones! i had no idea they would keep that long so easily

Love following your experiments. Thank you for sharing.

I'm doing all my potatoes ruth stout style mostly with grass clippings full of weed seeds, they are doing awesome i like being able to pull the grass back and see the potatoes grow. I uploaded some videos of mine now growing. the sweet potatoes are still mostly in buckets but that may change in the future. I've decided to keep most of them contained so i can find them all come harvest time.

Rachael- you and Todd are amazing. Love your videos tips and tricks. I wish I had room for sweet potato s. What a beautiful garden!

That’s a good idea to use the compost slurry!

I'm so excited to see how it goes! I am seriously considering doing the straw bale this fall.

Someone might have suggested this but here is a great tip for growing slips. Brian from Next Level Gardening did a comparing different ways to grow slips. The difference in the 3 ways was significant.

Definitely want to try making this type of garden & for sure doing some sweet potato slips. Thank you for this video Rachel.

the garden is looking good

Yay! Sweet potatoes! One of my favorite veggies too! I'm growing a Japanese variety this year. The ones with the white flesh on the inside just take the cake for me. So excited to see how yours do in the straw bale as well!

Thank you for sharing. Potatoes in old hay is how I've done it for years. I'll try my extra sweet potatoes too.

Thanks for the heads up ❤️

Our family loves potatoes and sweet potatoes. I just found your channel over the winter and watched your old Ruth Stout potato videos which inspired us to do a Ruth Stout bed this year, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom!! I did purchase our slips so we are waiting for them to arrive, we are on the line of zones 4b/5a in Maine so they will send them when our weather is ready, I am guessing very soon. I can't wait to watch your progress and to see how we do as well. Thank you again (and Todd, too!) for sharing your gardening and homesteading journey!

Danny at Deep South Homestead plants his "seed" sweet potatoes in the ground and grows his slips. He claims that method works better for him then starting them in water. The once he cuts the slips he does put them into water to root.

I've grown a lot of different vegetables, but never sweet potatoes. They are #1 on my list to do next year. I've enjoyed growing white and red potatoes for years in the Oklahoma climate. Every year, I try to have something new to experiment with and I'll be coming back to your videos next year to refresh my memory. Thank you.

The first thing I’m gonna build when I finally buy some land is a compost bin. I can get started on that while the house is being built! I might try straw bale gardening if I’m not sure where the garden’s going to be the first year. Thanks for sharing all your experiments with us so we can learn with you!

Great, thanks for sharing

So glad you finally posted this. Didn’t know how close to plant slips. I have never grown sweet potatoes from slips. I did throw a grocery store sweet potato in the garden that had sprouted one year and got just enough for a few meals. I grew my own slips from two sweet potatoes this year, both from the grocery store. I tried laying the first in starting soil (right before you did your first slip vid) and got one puny slip before the sweet potato rotted. I switched to the jar method and waited a long time before I saw anything. Rinsed, added fresh well water every week and repeated. This produced a lot of slips and they are now rooting quickly in water. We’ve recently gone through a coolish week never over 60 in western Oregon with a lot of rainfall and that’s fine as we have hot weather through September. Ruth Stout is not in my immediate future, but I will try it next year. You have rabbits and I have ground squirrels and field mice that eat up everything. I can’t direct sow anything. I finally found a non profit that helps find and rescue barn kittens (they are spayed/neutered and have all their immunizations) in January. I took three siblings and they are helping quite a bit with the rodent population and love being on the property. They are farel, but they like us well enough to hang around.

I had a couple of sweet potatoes that were sprouting. I placed them in a shallow tray (2" high sides) and added potting mix. Right now I have a ton of slips growing. This is after about 3 weeks time. I need to pull off the slips and get started so I can plant March 1. I live in Arizona, so summer comes quickly.

I am going to try this, love your videos, keep them coming

AWESOME VIDEO!🌻

Yes sweet potatoes grow amazing in bales

I am so grateful to have found your channel, I have learned so much from your experiments! We in the process of purchasing land 9 acres, & I am anxious to start amending the soil with straw and making compost.. this will be my first time doing such things…I currently have a small urban backyard garden of 4 beds 3’x 8’.

Looks good.

Great Video & yes sweet potato slips are my favourites even in preference to normal potatoes. I have had amazing results growing them but I live sub-tropical so all year around. Rachel I do Ruth Stout method with them as well. Cheers Denise- Australia

You may want to check out the video on growing sweet potato slips from @growing.in.the.garden She starts them in a shallow pan of soil rather than just water, and I find it cuts the time to grow slips in half!

You inspired me and I started some when I saw your video. I only have room for a small bed with 12 slips. I put them in a week ago. I am going to try piling the vines back on top of the bed when they spread out. I saw that on Hoss Tools. Mine are in good composted soil. Maybe Ruth next year.

This looks great! We just planted some sweet potato slips in a couple big rubbermaid totes. I'm hoping they make at least enough for a couple meals. Haha! Next year I'll have a bed just for sweet potatoes.

Ive started making the compost muck as well, my husband calles it "Poop soup" lol

My sweet potato project is taking forever. I just now have a couple of stringy roots coming out. Hoping to get eyes and slips within 3 more weeks before it is too late to get a yield in MI.

Hi! I’m a new subscriber and I’m obsessed with your garden 🥰😍

Planted sweet potatoes for the first time last year, just 2 slips. got 19.5 lbs of sweet potatoes!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, planting this year. I tried the method from Rusted Gardener on getting the slips. Worked so much better for me than the in water in a jar method. just a thought. But yours did great!

🤞 loving the garden! Will be watching. (Ours is traditional, in ground rows. I spent an hour weeding today (those are growing well) I had 2 rows of green beans that did not come up. I don't know if it was all the rain, or old seeds. We replant them tomorrow. My carrots did not come up either, but don't think I will replant them. Happy growing! (Wish my knees were as good as yours.) 😉

Very interesting. I might give sweet potatoes a go when I've got more time and I find out if they will grow in the British Isles climate. My favourite dish to make with them is a sausage and root vegetable casserole with carrots parsnips and swede (rutabega to you) in a rich and herby tomato and onion gravy.

Missed it, if you said how many slips you got. I did my own slips for the first time this year, as well. I had 2 Japanese potatoes that I put in dirt. Got well over 110 slips (stopped counting then) and they are still growing them. Guess i will just plant the whole potato at the end of the garden in the next couple of days. I only wanted about 10-12 slips so I gave the rest away. Lots of happy friends.

Yummy 🤤 I love sweet potato 🍠

I did plant sweet potatoes this year! I'm with you on it being my favorite vegetable, with fresh garden peas being a close rival. How do you store your sweet potatoes?

I bet something tube shaped would help protect those slips. Just a thought... Everything looks great!

Enjoying watching with a cup of coffee... relaxing morning ....cold and rainy here in MN.... going to take a much needed break for a bit today.... Hey please can anyone tell me where Rachel got those greenhouse covers on the beds....I think I would like to try that 😊 Great job on the slips Rachel! I will try again next year...,🤞 Hoping the slips I bought grow so I have potatoes to start my own next yr. The " organic" ones I bought 2 years in a row would never sprout once...so I don't think they really were organic 🤔

I love your videos. You are such a great teacher! What is the difference in the bales you grow in (the first straw versus the last bales?). I find it hard to get my hands on anything that hasn’t been sprayed with something these days 😫

It's so much easier and faster if you just put the sweet potatoes in a pot w some soil. And reduces the slips getting deficient in anything and keeps them healthier than water rooting them. Just a little helpful (hopefully) tip. ☺️

How exciting Rachel. You did good once again. How many did you get planted, you started counting but forgot to tell us?

you can use mycos when you transplant

Mallory @Quebec Homestead used a method she learned from a farmer to seed her carrots 🥕. She submerged them in a cornstarch gel and they germinated in 2-3 days. You should check out her video. When I watched it I thought of you.

Rachel you have a whistler in this video, listen closely, it's close to the end. Pat from Oregon coast. Enjoying this teaching.

SWEET POTATOES IN MICHIGAN? Maybe I will try this next year.

Rachel did you just lay that hay down on your garden woodchip path or was that dirt? I like the slurry idea :) I was thinking that it's probably good that they have that wall of hay around them because we have a few really cold nights coming up before the week is up, they will appreciate that nice "blanket".

Love your videos. What’s the green tents in background ?

Missing sweet Todd visiting you at the end of your videos ☹️

Coooool

You made me laugh when you said you found a bunny nest.. The very same thing happened to me the other day but it had two bunnies in it.They were as startled as I was. Not knowing which direction to run in.

I hope you get a great harvest!! I don't remember hearing, how big did your fenced area end up being?

I’m hoping to do some hay bale gardening this year, but I’m a bit behind schedule. Can you still do the Ruth stout method with potatoes with fresh straw or does it have to age for a while?

Please tell me about those hoop house-type coverings behind you in this video…thanks so much

How is the Maple tree doing that was hit by the car? Did it survive? I wish I had time to try the straw bail gardening

Also, where do I get your little greenhouse covers, and what do you grow in yours? I am wondering if they would help keep worms away from cabbage, etc

Have you tried rooting the vines just after you ravest the potatos? Thats how I did last month here in Brazil, the Elder say thats the best way

Rachel, do you prefer to plant sweet potatoes in the fall? Or do you plant sweet potatoes in the spring and then the fall also? In Connecticut are zone is 6a I’m going to try the ruth stout way also Thank you for sharing🙏🙏

☺

What crops do you plant this way besides potato and sweet potato?

Can you talk about your garden area. Like how’d you built it? If you have a video already can you link it?

I live where there is gumbo. Does the wind bother your staw

I ordered sweet potato slips from Southern Exposure in December. I just had to email them again because I haven't received them yet. I hope they respond like they did before but I just really need them to send them to me.

I've always wished I could love sweet potatoes. There is so much to love about them, but I just can't get past the flavor. 🙁

How’s the brassicas under their protection looking?

What is the night time temperatures you are seeing? Nervous to plant mine cause we keep seeing high 40s at night

Do you have slugs crawling under that straw? They dont take out my potatoes, but I am worried about the slips as they take out my veg in straw.

I would like to grow sweet potatoes. Tried last year, planted about 20 slips. Got one potato about size of pencil. don't know what went wrong.

May I ask where you got your Granny shirt?

What variety?

Is this how u got pink eye??

What is Ruth stout?

Hi 👋🏽 Rachel., my Mother was a City girl but I am not sure if my dad was born in Virginia or Philly., but his oldest brother lived in Virginia and Harvest Clams or oyster 🦪., I wish I was a person who new how to have a garden or could now but with Rhematoid Arthritis I need help. I could live like you and would love to sustain my life., because food that the Government Call Food is Poison to us buy it today and by morning is bad I don’t understand it everybody’s not on welfare and get food stamps I am a senior I try to make every day count sometimes it doesn’t have I ever gone without food no I am going to try to make jam and jelly that’s a start thanks for sharing everything that you know Rachel and Todd 5-10-2022♥️