At the end of May I was presented the idea of sticking a sweet potato in water to sprout vines. It has grown so fast!! Here we are not even 30 days later and it has several fairly large leaves!! I'm assuming I can plant this in my vegetable garden eventually but how???

Here are the pictures

There are several ways to propagate them. I grow ornamental sweet potatoes most years. I start in Feb to have nice plants in May so I am not sure about a timeline for regular sweet potatoes starting now. Yes, put your potato part way in water. I use a longer shallow container rather than the jar and toothpick but either will work. Basically the area in the water will grow roots and the eyes out of the water will grow slips (stems and leaves). Once the slips get to be several inches long I gently pull them off and put them into a jar of water till they grow roots and then plant.
Potatoes can produce slips for several weeks just remove what is long enough and put potatoes back in water to wait for more.

From the potatoes before root growth.


After a couple of weeks in water glass growing roots
and ready to pot up

I wonder why the leaves in your picture are so much lighter than the ones on my sweet potato?

Having ornamental vines will be neat but I was hoping to grow more sweet potatoes in my vegetable garden. Growing up,we had a garden most years but this is my first as an adult so i'm Still learning

The propagation method shown by @HollyAnnS works for both ornamental and regular/edible sweet potato plants. There are many different varieties which is why the leaves are a different color of green.

I believe those plants were Ornamental Sweet Potatoes (OSP) Margarita. Which is a lime green color with a heart shape leaf.

'Margarita' potatoes are just as delicious as potatoes with leaves of the non-cultivar color. Having differently colored leaves does not make other varieties of Ipomoea batatas inedible.

And if you buy organic sweet potatoes to sprout, the leaves are edible. As you get ready to plant your rooted slips out into the garden, keep a few slips growing in water and harvest the leaves for food.

Interesting! What do you do with the leaves? How can you describe the flavor?

The latex sap gives me a rash. My husband always digs up the sweet potatoes because of this, and It's why I quit messing with slips in potted plants for summer. The thought of eating that foliage gives me the heebie-jeebies!

purpleinopp said:The thought of eating that foliage gives me the heebie-jeebies!

The thought of eating Brussels Sprouts gives me the same negative feeling. Each of us has different ideas about what tastes good. All I can say is try it. If you don't like it, smother it in bacon and try again. If it still tastes bad...well...

Absolutely, that's why I was curious. ;)

I've read that the leaves can be good raw or sauteed. The catch-word is "can". This might be a good article to read if you're considering trying some sweet potato leaves... Growing My Own Sweet Potato Leaves

@Sky3, sweet potatoes are a long-season crop (90-120 days) that loves the heat. I'd recommend that you go ahead and get them in the ground if you really want to try them this year.

Great article, Ed, TYVM!

You're very welcome!

For the edible sweet potato leaves, most of the recipes I use are Asian and include garlic, ginger, spicy hot peppers (just a little bit because I am a wimp ) and coconut oil. I pretty much wing it when it comes to cooking.

So do I plant the slips or the whole potato?? Can I plant some slips in a pot inside for just the vine?? I'm totally oblivious

Pull the slips off the potato. Put the slips in water and allow them to form roots. Then plant the slips in the garden. Yes, you can plant some slips in a pot but I don't know if there will be enough sun or light if they grow inside.

My house gets very little sun inside because of the overhang to keep the interior shaded. But I had some slips growing on a plant shelf with lights this winter. The vines seemed to be happy with a strong light; nothing special like a grow light, just a regular LED shop light from Home Depot.