I started this experiment a couple of months back. My sister in law passed this along to me-she got it from her sister in law's neighbor. Needless to say, I've got something growing (I think) and now I'm a little concerned about the proper care for it. She told me to put a sweet potato out on the counter until it had ears (eyes?), then submerge it in water until roots grew, and then plant it for a nice plant with flowers. I just planted it today in a hanging basket. It had good roots, and a couple of green/purple shoots-1 of which is long enough to stick out of the soil (is this the plant?) I need help please!

I probably would have been better off leaving it in water-my 3yr old decided i guess that it looked a little dry. I can't even guess how much water he put in there-it's still draining out the bottom every time i pick it up, and this is hours later! So that purple/green thing is the plant then, right? I had a couple of them (still small) growing, but just from one end of the potato-will they grow from all over? This is exciting. I love propagating things so this is like a great science project for me! How long did it take for yours to get real viney? Thanks for your help!

Hi Rozy ~

I just posted some pictures a few days ago of some sweet potatoes that I grew from a store bought one. I cut it into thirds and stuck them into pots of soil with just the very tops sticking out. Before very long, I had 3-4 shoots growing from each piece. In the end, 2 of them grew into really nice plants on my deck this past summer, and I harvested some potatoes just the other day.

my sweet potato pictures

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Lynne's knitting journal
"I'm spayed, declawed, and housebound - how's YOUR day going???"

Wow Lynne! Those look fantastic! I can't believe all those potatoes came from 2/3 of a sweet potato! That is so cool! How did you know when to harvest them? I'm starting to think I did something a little wrong tho, after reading these posts. I had my potato on it's side, lengthwise i guess, not on it's tip (vertically). And that's the way I planted it. I kind of had to cuz the majority of the roots were coming from the shoots. I can't wait to see what happens. Maybe by the time it fills out, I'll find my webcam to share some pics. Wish me luck!

I also don't think it makes much difference how you orient the potato. Since I had cut mine into 1/3s, I put them flat side facing up and the shoots found their way to the top. I think after Thanksgiving I'll try potting one up for indoor vines and see what happens.

I harvested them when they were calling for an overnight frost that night - didn't want to chance losing what might be in the soil, plus I was cleaning up the deck for winter.

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Lynne's knitting journal
"I'm spayed, declawed, and housebound - how's YOUR day going???"