Wherever a leaf joins the stem, there is a place where the vine will send out roots if it is in moist soil or even if it is just placed in water. It only takes a week to grow roots long enough to support the little plant.
Sweet potatoes will produce several crops of slips. Here is the beginning of the first set of slips. I got three from this batch.
Here they are after sticking them in water and growing the roots. I picked off the leaves that would be under the soil when they are planted, leaving the ones that would remain above the soil even though where they join the stem will be under the soil. Where the leaf joins the stem is where the roots grow.
This is the same sweet potato with new sprouts on it, there are 6 this time. Note the line marked on the side of the jar. This allows me to keep the water line consistent. The water gets changed daily.
Here is the pot with 3 plants in it. I think only two more will go in here. Then I will have to start a new pot for the rest of the sprouts.
As the vines grow, naturally there will be more leaves. In the spring, when it is about a week before planting time, I will cut the vines from the pot and lay them in a shallow pan of water to sprout. There will be roots at every joint of leaf and stem. Each leaf will make a new plant. When I am ready to plant them out, I will simply cut the vine between the leaves to get the individual plants. I will either sell or give away the extra ones. Or maybe I will just re-pot them and keep the vines going.
