I’m doing nothing in my garden right now cause I can’t find a time my gardener need to be cleaning out. I ain’t got no seeds going yet I got potatoes getting ready. I’m getting my sweet potato ready I ain’t plant I seeds yet

Just found your channel and subscribed! I started "slipping" a couple of organic sweet potatoes two weeks ago, and they're just getting started. I'm using a technique similar to yours, except I was told to keep them *dark* as well as moist and warm. Mine sit in a covered tray near the fireplace, where they are nice and warm, but not *too* warm. Once I see decent slips, I'll move the tray to the window sill where they can get lots of light. North of Toronto, where I live, it will be a few more weeks (!!) before I can even start my tomatoes inside! Come *ON,* spring!! And thank you for the video!

Up-potting gets exhausting fast. I fear myself burning out if I were to do it more frequently. My goal is 1 up-pot before going into the garden. Usually peppers, tomatoes, onions... stuff that needs a huge head start in my zone 5 climate. I just up-potted a dozen indoor trees over the past couple hours and I'm so burned out today that I'm considering skipping the seed starts I was supposed to get on this weekend. No good!

Just saw another person explain that barrels full of water will require a lot of energy to freeze, so just by having water barrels present, it will passively heat the greenhouse at night. Then when it gets hot during the day, they help keep the greenhouse cooler. I thought you had to actually heat the water with pumps & plumbing, but apparently not.

Something which might help to avoid shocking the roots in making that transition from water to soil (learned this, by the way, from a horticulturalist couple) is to put the new or newly rooted slip into wet *vermiculite:* the vermiculite has, basically, no weight worth speaking of, so it isn't going to put pressure on the young roots *and* you can lift a plantlet or rootling from its bed of "non-soil" without damaging those roots, and then just put them back into their wet vermiculite. And when the time comes to plant these in soil, they already have their "soil roots," as opposed to "water roots" which is what they develop in a glass of water. Now, they were doing this with houseplant cuttings they wished to propagate, but swore by this method. The same couple also grew sweet potatoes as a houseplant because they make long, luxurious vines if they're kept in a hanging basket sort of arrangement, and they said the same thing you've observed: not to keep a sweet potato in a glass of water, which is the traditional method; as you said, it gets gross and smelly and, they added, *slimy* and nasty and you end up throwing the whole disgusting mess out. So, they said, grow your ornamental sweet potato houseplant in soil. A couple of years back we bought sweet potato slips from a commercial nursery and seed house, and they were definitely floppy and starting to yellow a bit, but we followed the directions that came with them. Well, we did initially, but the shipping, receiving and planting times didn't line up as we'd hoped, so we ended up putting the water-rooted slips into soil in seed starting cells and because we didn't have the timing correct from the off-go I have to say we did everything regarding these sweet potatoes *wrong.* And they survived and thrived and flourished anyway. Much gardening love from Northeast Ohio! 😊💚💚💚💚💚😊

You can totally propagate regular potatoes just like this. Just pick off the shoots once they are a few inches long, often with roots already forming, and pot it up. I've kept individual potatoes going, pumping out shoots, until they shrivel up like raisins 😂

I bought slips one year- 5 years ago-never again! Like you, I have some small ones from last harvest..I’ll try this method this year! Thanks Ben!

I started some just like this on January 20th. First time for me and I'm so excited to see how they do! Still waiting for growth tho.

i do my slips just like you!!!❤

For the love of God, who sings the song you play at the end? My kids love it and sing it every time your videos end. I need to hear the rest.😂

Ben, your shirts are getting roomy! On a serious note- thank you so much for sharing your honesty and knowledge. I watch all the videos with a notebook and take serious notes. The only request I make is how often you fertilize. I finally found a mentor and we’ll see how it goes, but have been listening/watching here for my gardening education.

This is how I’ve kept them going for a couple years. Wasn’t sure of the method, but felt my way through it. I did not want to buy overpriced slips again. The variety is Covington. My sandy-ish soil where I grow them is productive, but there always seems to be either a scale of sorts or tiny pinholes on them. But, WOW, we really celebrate having them for Thanksgiving. Hoping to end up with more slips this year.

The forecast if for 81F today. I'm already wearing shorts and a t-shit, and going barefoot. Any warmer, and I'll have to cover my parsnip and carrot beds with shade cloth. If I'm having to do that already, I may have to purchase more. Yesterday, I was supposed to sow radish seeds, but I got side tracked and sowed seeds for amaranth, alyssum, purple cone flower, cosmos, strawflower, bachelor button, butterfly weed, butterfly flower, and zinnias. On my to do list for today, is sowing seeds for Malaga Radish, and Giant Radish of Sicily. In a week, I'll reevaluate the weather. If it is still favorable, I'll sow seeds for snow peas, shelling peas, purple top turnip, and golden beetroot. I just got Net Zero in the Wild Wild West back from editing, and am getting the publishing links ready, so I can send it off to my reviewers. I'm looking at a February 23rd book launch. In the mean time, I've already started Writing Net Zero Star Crossed, and I've made covers for it, and my next project, Net Zero on Venus. After that, I'm going to put together a ten book box set. I'm going too fast this year with my writing, but I'm enjoying it, so what the heck? Besides, it keeps me too busy to work on global domination.

Sweet potato season passed us by last year due to some unexpected health issues that demanded our time. This year, we will have some. In the past, I have grown Georgia Jet and Beauregard. I will look for the Carolina Ruby. Happy Gardening!

Thank you so much. I am in Central Texas and being tricked with false spring too!

Ben, I grow my own slips, and have been doing so for over ten years. I use the same method of laying the potatoes sideways on soil, many years ago I tried the toothpick method that was a mess. Happy Gardening 🧑‍🌾 from Southern California.

Thank you! 😊

The sweets I stored last fall started chitting so I have tiny slips starting all ready. The potatoes with the most were saved from the canner. I will be using your method and get them in soil over the next couple of days. Two or three of the potatoes will go to my SIL for her garden when we visit tomorrow. No sure what type they are, but super dense and sweet!

Spring is almost here

I can never get my potatoes to successfully scab over. I live in Wilmington, NC, next to a swamp, and the moisture in the air makes the potatoes grow mold faster than they can scab over.

Sweet potato video: plant sweet potato. Done

this is what I needed! Thanks!

Thank you

I"m upping my potatoes this year. I needed to buy another 100 pounds last fall from a local organic source otherwise we were close to enough. Onions are my big learning curve this year. I have over 1000 babies going from seed. I've had to trim them 4 times now (zone 5a) so we have a ways to go before planting out. I also put a bunch of potatoes in the ground in the fall to see if that works. If so its a game changer.

:)😊

❤❤

During the summer use it as a compost bin . The heat will turn it quicker

I always do better with my volunteer taters. I have some growing in my wood chip pile right now 🤣 I planted some last year and they all turned to mush due to an abnormal amount of rain. (they were in grow bags too!)

We gave opur snow right jow in western wa. Nothing of substance, just enough to make it dangerous because people are too warm in their car (and we have so many Californians move here in recent years) and they think at 27° that parking lots arent icy. Watching dummies slide and take corners like its clear was making me cringe. Especially since we lost my Wife's vehicle last month due to a drunk driver. I eill tell you what, Yukon Denali held up good when she hit us at about 50 mph head on. If we would have been in my car, the cops said she would have gone over us instead of under us. Definitely want another Denali.

I got Yukon Gold for the first time last year. Did them in my inground garden and they did awesome. I usually do Russet and Baby Red. But Yukon and Reds are my thing mow

I was thinking about taters yesterday but here in TN they calling for 2 t0 3 ins of rain the next five days

Here in Texas we grow determinate potatoes best so we don’t have to hill them

That wood prairie is super expensive. Hard to imagine it’s worth it.

I FINALLY located your address. I have potatoes available for you with 2” ‘buds’. Do you want them?

Our local hardware or feed stores sell seed potatoes cheap. Like super cheap. Last year was my first go in my raised bed i planted 10 potatoes in 4x12 like a foot deep didn't hill mound or nothing i got 2 plantings yielded 100# first go and like 50 the second. The second plant i used different potatoes from a different store. I was highly impressed

Last fall I sorted thru my harvested potatoes and set aside a bunch to use as seed potatoes. I stored them in a dark cold stairway. I've noticed them starting to sprout. I need to pull them out and sort thru them and get them ready. I still have a bunch of potatoes from last Summers harvest. Yukon (Canada) Gold, Norland, kenabec. I don't think I need to plant as many as last year. I got way too many last year!

Thanks for the video. I have also been starting to work on my potatoes. Normally I don't start until March but I have too much else going on in March with seed starting. I was afraid I was crazy for starting this early. It's 50 degrees out today. I'll be starting on bed prep.

I've had a couple good tater harvests, but mostly they are marginal, or okay. In my area of Alabama, between the freezing temperature and soil temperature, the best planting time is March 1st-March 7th. After that, it gets too hot, too fast. They need cool temperatures for the best production, and to prevent rot. There is nothing worse than sticking your hand into the soil hoping to pull up a big tater, you feel it, and it is big, then squish. That happened to me one too many times last year. This year, I am going to do something different. I am going to grow a crop of mustard and radishes in my potato bed to pull out any excess nitrogen. Around May 1st, I'll harvest our the raised bed, and plant sweet potatoes. They love Alabama's summer heat and humidity. Then in the fall, I can plant a crop of Asian greens, Yellow Heart Winter Choy, Tatsoi, or Komatsuna. Getting three crops out of the raised bed will make me very happy. Last fall the cool weather came very late. December and January were normal, but February? So far it has been very warm for February. No complaints. The outlook for the month has cold days, but more like what I would expect in the middle of March. So insane me, is going to chance sowing seeds early for parsnips and carrots. I'm going to hold off one or two weeks before sowing seeds for snow peas, shelling peas, turnip. and golden beetroot. The seedling are doing great. I did some reseeding for shortages yesterday, and I have full trays of seeds waiting to sprout on my heat mat. As soon as I get enough room, I'll move onto cilantro and flowers. That will pretty much end needing to use it for germinating seeds. Everything else can be started outside, and transplanted later, zucchini, cantaloupe, mammoth and watermelon. I still have other seeds that I will direct sow, i.e. Mammoth Sunflower. I'm going to sow them between the fruit trees. So far, the 2025 garden is going as planned. I just sent Net Zero in the Wild Wild West to Merry Old England (Oxford area) for editing by an Oxford educated editor. I'm getting my notes together for the next serial episode, Net Zero Star Crossed. I'm going to take a couple of days off from writing before starting it.

One more try with potatoes this year, 2 50' rows produced a plastic grocery bag of mini potatoes. Ben that sunshine looks amazing, getting freezing rain this morning I79 and I80 closed to commercial vehicles. Have a great day!.

I love sweet potatoes I have some on my bar they have sprouts I will be planning them soon.

Got my seed taters Saturday. Got em in the dark waiting for them to chit. I'm in North Alabama, so it's getting close to planting time here too

I started two varieties of tomatoes indoors and one of the varieties germinated a couple of days ago. I ordered another variety and will be starting that this week. I can’t wait to get some tomatoes this year! ❤🌱

im trying to keep my peppers in the pots as long as possible i want big strong roots. i am gonna leave my maters in their cells as long as possible

those trays are invaluable for moving plants. Well worth the initial investment in them.

I hate tomatoes but I love growing them!! BUT those ground cherry are sooooo good!! I managed to grow two plants last year. MIgardener has them still and that’s where I got mine.

Another wonderful video from you chock-full with great information. Thank you Ben!

I have had the worst time trying to grow San Marzano. But Amish Paste is amazing!!!

Ben, I’m pretty sure I have some ground cherry seeds left over from last year. I’ll look through my packs and get them out to you tomorrow. I’m only 3 hours north of you but who knows with the usps

Grow lights and heating pads going into week 2

Thank you for your videos. I appreciate the information.