How to Start a Sweet Potato Plant?

Sweet potato grows fast in a warm climate. Vines sprawl on the ground and conquer new areas of your garden. Once you have a patch established, you can store this vegetable till spring to grow it again. Buy how to start? A sweet potato plant can be rooted in three ways.

Start from cuttings

If you want to propagate sweet potato during the growth season, cut off a foot long runner from an established plant. Remove all the leaves but the pair on the top of the stem. Good news: you don't have to dig. Just place the vine on the ground where it is supposed to grow. Cover it with soil, keep moist and roots will develop at the nodes.

Start from tubers in the ground

If you start a sweet potato before the season begins, you have only one option: sprouting the tubers. To begin, cover them with the soil and keep moist.They will form the sprouts called slips. Are you thinking about planting that tubers now? Don't do that. Ever. They would rot. When shoots are about half foot long, cut them off and plant like cuttings.

Start from tubers in the jar

Photo by Rachel Zack

Let's say it is too cold to start sweet potato plants outside. If you don't want to bring any soil to your home, sprout the tubers in the water. The process is similar to sprouting an avocado from seed.

Stick a few toothpicks in the middle of the tuber. Put it in the half filled jar. Let the toothpicks rest on the edge of the jar, so that the potato is suspended in the water. Keep it warm and it will sprout. When slips develop, cut them off and plant. You remember the procedure for planting, right?

Now that you know how to start a sweet potato plant, don't hesitate. This vegetable is easy to grow. You will be surprised with the amount of tubers it can produce!