O'Henry, Sweet Potato Slips

O'Henry Sweet Potatoes Slips

Cream skin and pale flesh distinguish this Beauregard mutation
Drier texture makes exceptional baked or fried roots
Delicate sweetness suits savory recipes and desserts
Uniform roots offer a colorful alternative to orange varieties

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Key Attributes

Botanical Name

Ipomoea batatas

Days to maturity

90 Days

Sun

Full Sun

About O'Henry, Sweet Potatoes Slips, Sweet Potatoes Slips

The O'Henry is a unique looking white-skinned and cream-fleshed sweet potato variety with a deliciously delicate sweet flavor. This variety is supplied as slips for transplanting once warm growing conditions arrive. This different looking sweet potato might look more like a potato than sweet potato, but its yummy sweet flavor is all sweet potato! O'Henry cooks drier than other sweet potatoes making it the perfect baking or frying sweet potato.

Growing details

Planting

Days to Germination

7–21 days

Plant profile

Maturity

Fall

Life Cycle

Annual

Plant Height

12 inches

Growth Habits

Vining, Trailing

Seed & variety

Color

Orange

Seed Type

Slips

Growing Season

Warm-Season Crop

Before Planting

Sweet potatoes demand a long frost-free season, abundant sun, and soil warm enough for rapid rooting. Shape loose soil into raised ridges to improve warming, drainage, and harvest. Choose certified disease-free slips and avoid ground recently used for sweet potatoes.

Planting

Wait until frost danger is over and soil reaches about 65°F. Insert each slip 4–5 inches deep with several nodes belowground, firming soil around the stem while leaving the growing tip exposed. Space plants roughly 9–15 inches apart and water immediately.

Watering

New slips may wilt until roots form, so prevent the ridge from drying during establishment. After vines spread, water deeply during prolonged dry weather and root enlargement. Reduce irrigation near harvest to limit cracking and storage rots.

Fertilizer

Too much nitrogen creates vines instead of storage roots. Use compost and a balanced fertilizer low enough in nitrogen for the soil, with adequate potassium. Avoid fresh manure, which can cause misshapen roots and excessive foliage.

Harvesting

Dig before soil temperatures fall or frost damages the roots. Loosen the ridge widely, lift carefully to avoid skinning, and cure sound sweet potatoes in warm humid conditions before moving them to cooler storage.

Tips

Keep the first weeks weed-free, then let the vines shade the ridge. Do not prune healthy runners merely to contain them; leaves fuel root enlargement. Handle slips and harvested roots gently because bruises invite decay.

Pests & Diseases

Fusarium wilt, scurf, black rot, viruses, and soft rots can spread through sweet potato slips. Buy certified clean plants, reject stunted or mottled slips, and rotate fields. Cut propagation slips above the soil line, sanitize tools and bins, cure roots promptly, and store only sound roots.

Wireworms, flea beetles, sweet potato weevils, white grubs, voles, and root rots may cause losses. Rotate planting areas, use clean slips, control weeds, and remove cull roots rather than leaving them to harbor pests.