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2:44 pm
February 14, 2011
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Back in Feb, Suzanne posted about starting a sweet potato vine. Years ago I used to have a few, but either gave them away or whatever. This post reminded me of my sweet mom and grandma, they always had these growing, so I needed to give it a try again.
I had read where some people were having troubles, and also someone said that the potatoes are sprayed with something to keep them from rooting. So hmmm, this was now a challenge.
So on March 9 I took two ( did two because I figured it would improve my chance of success incase one didn't make it 
) I put tooth picks in the upper half of potato to keep the bottom of the plant off the bottom of the cup. These cups are just the plastic soda cups, I think 32 oz. So about 1/4 of the potato was above water, the rest submerged in water. Once a week I totally dumped out the water and refilled with fresh water. Last week when I changed the water the only thing I saw was some hairy looking strands on the side of one. I was thinking this just might not work, but refilled the water and thought well another week won't hurt. So this morning I was thinking I guess I will just throw them away and when I looked in the cups I was surprised! Both potatoes had sprouts and hairy roots!
4:58 pm
February 8, 2009
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How exciting, I would love to grow some sweet potatoes myself, can you do that with the vines your have grown or are they only for decoration?
If you/I can grow potatoes from the vines…can you explain to me how?
5:20 pm
February 14, 2011
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Hiya flatlander! I found this explanation on eHow.com much better than how I would probably explain it and there are pics too!
My plan was to attempt just a vine, but since I have two plants and both are producing I am going to use one - cut the "slips" and see if I have success planting in my garden.
My mom and grandma did this all the time. I have to admit my gardening the last few years has been real limited. Now that I am retired I am planning on a much larger scale.
Wish me luck!
5:38 pm
February 26, 2010
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MB 
I did mine with the soil…and I'm finally having babies!!! Yours are looking more advanced ))))
Good question Flatlander! I only know them as an annual that adds a wonderful, bright green contrast to hanging pots or containers. I think to grow sweet potatoes you would have to start with a chunk of potato with an eye or two, or seed potatoes?
I've never thought to check the 'pretty vine' soil! One company does the planting and seasonal cleanup. I do the daily loving part…until the first killing frost.
Pam
5:10 am
February 14, 2011
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Howdy! Just thought I would give you an update on the sweet potato vine. It is amazing how this thing is growing. And to think a couple of weeks ago I was considering throwing it out. Now I swear it is growing before my eyes. When I went to change the water today, this was growing out of the back side that faced the window, I didn't know it was there.
I looked up sweet potato vine on ehow and from what I gather this particular sweet potato, which can be eaten, is not the sweetest or most favorable.
I gotta say, first I am thankful to Suzanne for reminding me of this vine. My grandma and mom used to have them all the time. But now I am obsessed with it! I know how crazy that sounds, really, but what can I say?? I read on one of the other post here at CITR, sorry I don't remember who, but they are going to grow on their porch this summer in a hanging pot. Since I have two I am going to give that a try too and keep one inside to see what happens. I will keep ya'll posted. Call me crazy but I am having fun with this, it takes so little to amuse me.
7:55 am
November 20, 2009
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If you want to grow sweet potatoes in the garden to eat. Start them the way mountain blessings shows, or just stick one end in some moist potting soil. When the sweet potatoes have half a dozen or so shoots (about 3 to four inches long) pull them off the sweet potato and put the base of each one into a pot with moist potting soil. The sweet potato itself will continue to put out sprouts even after you have taken the bigger ones off, at least for a while. I usually put a dozen or so sprouts to a good sized pot, this way they grow upright and develop roots like the slips you can buy in bundles from the garden store. If you want to eat them do start with a sweet potato meant for eating, the sweet potatoes that have fancy colored leaves and odd colored tubers are meant for looks and I have found that they do not store well at least for me. When the ground is warm you just set out the slips in a row about a foot apart, as they start to grow it helps to hill them up a bit, they do take up quite a lot of space once they start to run. They are such an easy thing to grow, I have two crates full under my computer desk right now, (the cellar is not warm or dry enough to store them) they are just beginning to sprout so I will can a few then cook a pan full each day to feed out to the chickens till they are gone.
8:18 am
November 20, 2009
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I am still having picture problems so I hope this works.
2:46 am
February 14, 2011
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THANKS Joyce! I really feel like a stooge. After that post today when I went to the grocery store I made a point to go to the sweet potatoes. Now here is where I really show my ignorance, and please forgive me. This time of year alot of our fruit and veggies come from Mexico and S. America. As I stood there I remembered that when we used to buy them or if they came from the garden in Oklahoma, they were fatter and differed in color, being more of a beige brown, like in your pic. Am I getting them mixed up? Unfortunately my mom and grandma are no longer here to ask.
I emailed my cousin in OK and asked her if she remembered exactly what the grandparents used to plant and she didn't remember, cuz has always had beautiful gardens, but has not grown any sweet potatoes. She thinks I am getting sweet potato and yams mixed up. But now she is going to start vine. 
Am I? getting mixed up?
I know at this point I sound like a broken record. But could you give me the name of the best variety for eating? 
Also, I assume you can start a vine from them too?
Sorry to be such a pain. I just recently lost my mom and this was one of her hobbies. So when this vine took off it was like I could see her in my kitchen window and she doesn't seem so far away. I also will be visiting my brother in OK in June so I was thinking about starting a vine for him. When I was telling him about it he remembered all her plants too.
Thanks so much!
7:55 am
May 14, 2005
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Mine in the jars w/toothpicks and water never did work but maybe I didn't wait long enough. I actually forgot about these in the soil that I cut in half and just happened to look at them yesterday and was surprised to see them sprouting! And that had been about two months, so like I said, maybe I didn't wait long enough on the ones in the water in jars, but I got tired of dumping the water and putting fresh water in. They started looking rotten. It was much easier to just cut these in half and put them in the soil, cover with plastic, and forget about them.
9:16 am
November 20, 2009
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Mountainblessings I was so sorry to hear of your loss, it is nice that you can remember some happy things about your Mother. It would be lovely to keep several vines growing as a memory of her.
I am sorry I can't help you on the sweet potato varieties. When we first grew edible sweet potatoes we grew the white ones but DH liked the orange better so we changed to them. At the beginning we started with slips purchased from the feed store. It has been fifteen years or more since that purchase and each Spring we just start new slips from a couple of the previous years potatoes. It has been so long that I have no idea what variety of sweet potatoes the original purchase was.
My sister in law gave me a two of the decorative sweet potatoes a couple of years ago, one had lime green leaves and the other had dark purple foliage. These sweet potatoes made lots of leaves and looked wonderful in the flower borders, though I did have to trim them back a couple of times. However they only made a couple of potatoes (unlike the eating sweet potatoes which make pounds) and these rather odd looking purplish potatoes did not store well, I managed to get one through to the following Spring but next year none made it.
Most of the local grocery stores here seem to carry just the orange or white sweet potatoes, for the fancy colors you might have to go where flowers are sold. I have no idea if the fancier ones are edible as we never got enough of them to try. I wish I could have been more help and again sorry for your loss.
9:08 pm
January 9, 2011
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So I pull off the growing vine and plant that?? Not the hairy stuff growing from the submerged end of the potato?
1:08 am
January 16, 2011
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Mountain B….I found a picture with some varities….
http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/sp-varieties.html
I remember seeing on another board that several folks liked the Beauregard variety.
Here is a link to Garden Web that tells a couple of ways to grow slips…
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/market/msg0319531224783.html
Some sources for already grown slips…
3:40 pm
February 14, 2011
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thanks gakaren!
4:41 am
February 14, 2011
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Ok, I know what your thinkin, this woman has no life. I do, really I do! But I just have to give you the latest update on my sweet potatoes.
On the 18th I posted this little surprise (vine coming out of left side) I found when changing the water….
This is what it looks like today, just a week later….
Aren't these leaves beautiful?
gakaren posted some links ( thank you) and this potato is the Centennial, it does not have a reputation for flavor, so I bought another potato and did my own taste test. It's true they have no taste! Beautiful color but YUCK!
Thanks for puttin up with me!!
1:26 pm
May 3, 2011
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When I was a little girl I remember my Grama always had a sweet potaoto vine growing. I loved the colors of the leaves. I had forgotten about this until reading your post. I'm going to start one today!!! Thanks Mountain Blessings.
Blessings, Sue
4:08 pm
December 28, 2008
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Somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 years ago I stuck an already sprouting store bought sweet potato (or yam, or whatever, who knows!) into a glass jar with a small enough neck to keep it from slipping into the jar, put enough water into the jar to almost touch the bottom of the potato and set it on a shelf near a window. It grew to the point that I took it to work and set it on a bank of filing cabinets in an area that had the lights on 24/7. When I left less than 2 years later, the vine had taken over the tob of the cabinets. We never changed the water, just added to it as needed, but never letting the potato sit in the water.
Eventually the roots did pretty much fill the jar! But the vine was very pretty.
9:02 pm
February 14, 2011
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Hey Pete, I can believe how fast they grow! When I was a kid I never paid any attention but after my experiment with the two potatoes I bought it has given me a project. I am so easily entertained! Tomorrow, May 9th will be exactly two months since I put them in water, and was about to give up, was just about to throw them out when I saw little stringy hairy looking things coming out, so I gave them another week. Here are a couple of pics of them today.
May 9th will be 2mos
As you can see below I do have them submerged in water, and there doesn't seem to be any rot yet, but I have been wondering if I leave in water much longer would rot take over.
I had planned this week to start them in pots so I can have one for a hanging planter on the porch. I also started 3 more potatoes. If my project works out, next year I will start earlier, I think for mother's day a hanging vine would make a nice gift, I mean I paid 72cents for 3 potatoes.
Today I found on one of the plants on two leaves what looked like sugar, I had to go get a magnifying glass and they look like crystals, nothing was moving 
yet. This was the best pic I could get being so close, any ideas what it is?
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Mother's Day!
11:58 pm
February 8, 2009
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mine rotted.
12:49 am
February 14, 2011
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I'm so sorry flatlander! what a bummer.
7:49 am
December 27, 2008
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I grew them for the garden last year. I got a nice small harvest from them and some good sized tubers too! I wrote a blog post about it with pictures. You can see it here "Growing Sweet Potatoes in the North".
One tip: They need heat to sprout and do well. They just won't sprout in the cold house in the winter - maybe use a heat mat?
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