Just want to preface by saying, i'm not a gardener, but am competent enough to water regularly and have just researched growing sweet potatoes. I came across things about slips and growing the cut potato in water, then rooting the slips, etc. But prior to that, a sweet potato got buried in the back corner of the pantry and started to sprout at my mom's house. She then took it and dumped it in a container of loose soil, and threw some water on top of it. Literally, the potato is clearly visible, sitting on top of the soil in the container, and seems to loving it there? The vines that were shooting up quickly began to grow and spread in the container, and are now looking for a trellis, which we'll get soon. But, before we do, I just wanted to check with experienced gardeners. . . Is this alright for the potato? I didn't know the vines could be so beautiful, and really wanna make sure it thrives.

Hi clementinesmom,

Your Sweet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) looks very happy and healthy so I'd say keep doing exactly what you've been doing! Years ago, I threw potato skins into my compost bin and a few months later I had to empty the bin to move it for something or other that was going on in the backyard and I found potatoe's sprouting everywhere in the compost! So, I guess your's is just doing what's normal! My sister once stuck a sweet potato into a glass of water to root and had a pretty vine growing and many folks do the same with tubers from the ornamental sweet potato.

Over the years, I've only grown the ornamental variety like Ornamental Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas 'Blackie') and Ornamental Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas 'Tricolor') shown below but those tubers can be saved and re-rooted for new vines too:

If pot has drain holes, it will grow a plant, but don't count on any taters
in that size pot. 😞
It would need, probably a 30 gallon trash can, with drain holes, or be planted in ground to get any taters.

Last year, I grew one in a five gallon bucket. At end of season, I dumped the bucket out. The whole bucket was solid roots. I tore it up. The result was. Two taters, the size of my middle finger. 😭😭😭

Hay !!! Did you know that you can eat the leaves and 3 inches of the tips ? There perty tasty 😋😋😀
Ttfn Partner.
😎😎😎

@plantladylin ,

You know I figured, it'd be alright since it seemed to be growing, but just wanted to make sure! I'm happy to know what we're doing is working for it. Those ornamental sweet potatoes are so pretty!
Just curious though, should I cover the the potato with more soil? Or will I eventually need to move it to a larger container?
Edit: I see now that @Philipwonel, says it'll need a bigger container, thanks for that! Afraid I can't move it to the ground tho, cos the soil on our land is very heavy with clay. However, yea! I did just read that you can eat leaves. Gonna have to look into that soon, i'll make sure to come back and let you know how it goes.
Also, do y'all know if this is a beauregard variety??
Sorry for all the questions, like I said, super new to gardening, in general. lol.

I don't know if it's possible to tell whether it's Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas 'Beauregard') unless you purchased that particular cultivar. There are many different varieties listed in our The Sweet Potatoes Database and I have no clue what their differences might be ... here are just a few from the database:

Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas 'Carver')
Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas 'Centennial')
Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas 'Covington')

@plantladylin, yea, that makes sense. I guess I just thought it might be cos of the description on this page I found here with a few varieties: https://garden.org/learn/artic... and then across the internet I read they have heart shaped leaves. Regardless, y'all have helped me out and answered some of my questions, so I appreciate that!