You can use store-bought sweet potatoes for to grow starts. There are a couple of things to watch out for, though.

1) They are often treated with a sprout inhibitor. It's best to try to find some which already have sprouts on them if at all possible. Generally, if you hunt through a pile of them, you can usually find a few starting to grow.

If you can't, buy the freshest, nicest, least-blemished or bruised ones you can, and put them in a paper sack in a warm, dry place for three or four weeks. This will often start them sprouting. Alternatively, just plant in moist potting soil and see what happens.

2) Cutting in half isn't really an appropriate way to do this. I suppose it could be done, but I've never really heard of the pracice, and I think they would most likely just rot. Unlike "Irish" potatoes, sweet potatoes only have meristematic tissue capable of growing shoots on one end, in my experience, and the other end (generally the more pointy end) grows root tissue. So, if you do try cutting them, you need to cut them in half vertically (lengthwise) so that each half has some tissue from each end.

3) The usual method of starting sweet potatoes is from "slips" -- rooted cuttings. Generally, you can plant a sweet potatoe in potting soil, and it will send out several to many shoots. These will grow rapidly, and can then be cut into about 4 to 6 inch lengths, rooted in water, and then planted out in the garden (be sure to acclimate them to outdoor conditions first).

You CAN grow them by planting whole tubers, I've done it, and it works fine, but it's more expensive than just buying one tuber and growing slips -- you can get many, many slips from one tuber.

Hope this gives you some guidance. I'll be interested to see if anyone knows about cutting them in half.

Great tips here. I often grow my sweets from tubers bought at stores, organic preferred. Just want to add that you probably want a variety with smallish roots as opposed to those big bohunkers. A couple of years back I grew some little red-skinned cuties I bought at Greenlife, and they did great.

Sweetpotatoes make a great goundcover, you know. The vines need help, but if you tie them you can run them up a trellis, too. I think they're a great edible ornamental.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website

also the vines don't need to be allowed to grow rampantly they can be kept pruned to a tidy form, also will grow well in shaded well lit areas.

and the young tip ends and leaves are edible as well often eaten in place of spinach/silverbeet but only steam them until they wilt.

len

I love my accidental sweet potato vines. I had one that rolled to a hiding spot in the pantry. By the time I found it, it was all shriveled up. I thought...hmmm...the new garden ground cover rage is sweet potato vines...why not. I took it out to the bare area next to our front walk and buried it. For the past 4 or 5 years, it has spread happily in this area, filling it with beautiful vines each year. I don't eat them as they are tiny, reedy, and possibly contaminated with termite treatment. They don't give up at all. And they grow new pretty vines each year too. What a neat accidental discovery!

tamrootbeer (and everybody), you can eat the leaves. I had read about this but figured that they would just taste OK or even bad, but my filipino maid says they're tasty, so I'm going to grow some sweet potato vines this year.

My question is, when making slips by keeping a sweet potato half-submerged in water, would it help to add water-soluble fertilizer? I know it's not necessary and I wouldn't normally do it, but my father just bought me some for my aerogarden, so it's sitting right there next to the jar with the sweet potato. Would it hurt? Also, the sweet potato isn't sprouting, and it's been almost a week. Will it not sprout? Do I need to try another one?

Peanuttree,

It may take a while to start sprouting. Make sure that it is warm. If it is not warm, as in over 70 F. it will just sit there until it does warm up. Actually, 70 F is probably just a little on the cool side. Mine sprout best if I start them while we are still using our wood burning stove to heat the house. Then the planter is in an area at about 80 F. The sweet potatoes really go to town under those conditions. A couple of times I started them when we were no longer using the wood stove. Though we were comfortable, the sweet potatoes were very slow to start sprouting.

I doubt that the soluble fertilizer would make it sprout sooner, but have no idea about whether it would be beneficial or not once the root starts making vines. If no one can give you advise based on experience I'd recommend caution. I do know that they will sprout very well without any fertilizer. Personally I prefer to sprout mine, on their sides, in good potting soil. But that's just preference.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I live in the UK and I bought sweet white potatoes from a London based Arab shopping centre, after I also bought sweet potato seed online from a Polish grower. I cut the ones from the London shop into 2 and placed in plastic cup topped with water for over a month. The ones from Poland sprouted first and gave me lots of roots and and fantastic seedling, although smaller in size. The shop bought took a long time to start sprouting, but once they did, they kept going like a seedling machine, I must have gathered 15 seedlings from them and about another 10 from the Polish, but i did not use all of them, as I do not have much space and i think if i had an allotment i would have grown them all. In summary, be patient with the shop bought, it will sprout but for quality and assurance, buy the seedling online. Also, I need to wait to see what the yield will be.