I discovered a sweet potato/yam in my veggies that I guess I must have overlooked because it had been there long enough that it had some little nubby things on it...like maybe it was starting to sprout, y'know? I thought, hmmm....it'd be a good thing to show the grandkids as a kind of a teaching moment. So I did, and we talked about how things grow, and putting out roots and shoots, and such, and before I knew it I was putting the thing in some water and explaining how it would grow. And it did!!! And now I have this .... thing. And I have no clue what to do with it!!! Should I plant it? Outside? Inside as a house plant? What the hell do I do with it? It's growing so well I just can't throw it away! But Jeez. I feel like I've created a monster.
You can put it in a larger pot of dirt and let it spread out. Have you ever seen pictures of regular ivy just growing along a shelf or the top of a kitchen cabinet? That's what it will do as it gets longer. If it lives to warm Spring weather then you can put it out in a flower bed to become a ground cover just like the sweet potato vines you see for sale at garden centers. You can also trim it back and stick the pieces in a glass of water or pot of dirt for them to root or throw them out to keep the plant under control.
Each of those sprouts/slips will grow sweet potatoes in your garden. Just break them off from the potato itself and either stick in water for a week or so or when spring arrives plant directly into damp soil in the garden. So the question is,,how well do you like sweet potatoes ? You have the start for about a half bushel. They do have long runners so if you just want to keep it as a house plant you can remove the longest runners and let the smaller ones keep going. The potato will keep producing runners till it is depleted as long as it has moisture and a little sunshine. That is how we get sweet potato slips for planting rather than cutting up the yam itself.
Thanks guys. It's not a perennial is it? The idea of using it as ground cover is intriguing, but I live in Tennessee (zone 7A) so it gets below freezing sometimes. Also, Paige cultivates a veggie garden every year. I love the idea of giving her some rooted cuttings for her to plant. That would be way cool!
Nope they are not perennials but if that plant works for you this coming Spring and Summer then getting a new sweet potato in late winter and starting one or more is cheap enough and you get a pretty houseplant in the mean time.
