Sweet Potato Vine
Sweet potatoes aren’t just good to eat they’re also good to make a beautiful vining house plant! The quick growing vines will have purplish green colored leaves that are very attractive. You can grow them any time of the year and it’s an excellent activity for children to try their hand at gardening.
There was a time when sweet potato plants could be found growing in many kitchen windows. They were a cheap, easy yet beautiful way to have indoor plants. Sweet potato plants are making a comeback and once again are showing up in homes everywhere.
When choosing a sweet potato, pick one that is nice and firm. You can use either the yellow or red variety and if at all possible choose one that already has buds or “eyes” to produce a faster plant to enjoy.
You can use a jar that has a wide mouth or any type of container that isn’t really large at the top. Insert toothpicks into the potato on all four sides at the center of the potato. The toothpicks are to support the potato on the jar or vase.
Sweet Potato Vine
Fill a jar or vase with water and place the end of the potato that is more tapered into the water. Now all you have to do is set the potato where it will get lots of sun and wait for it to grow. Normally within just days you’ll begin to notice shoots starting to grow from the potato.
Within a week or so there should be roots growing down into the water and you should have more shoots growing up out of the potato. It’s a good idea to change the water about once per week, stale water might start attracting gnats or other insects.
You can actually just keep the vine growing in water, but if you want you can transplant it into soil after about three weeks. Just carefully remove the potato, remove the toothpicks and plant it in a pot that is large enough to completely bury the potato.
You’ll be really surprised at what a beautiful house plant a sweet potato can become. With it’s purple colored stems and leaves mixed with green it’s a really pretty vine.
Written by Connie Corder for HouseplantsForYou.com, Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved.
Whenever I see one of these I always think of my grandmother. She had these sweet potato vines growing in her kitchen window and often had cuttings growing in jars of water.
can I just put the whole potato in a pot without starting it in water first?
Hello Nancy, Yes you can do that but it may take it a little longer to root and you will need to make sure that the soil is kept moist enough.
I have tried this twice now, gave each potato over a month and neither one of the would do more than grow a tiny root, and that might have been my imagination. lol. Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong? I am usually pretty good with plants.
Melissa, Your potatoe most likely had been sprayed commercially to keep it from sprouting. I have had many vines, but I tried one potato that I bought at the market, and it never did anything. Also, the potato could be too old and dried out. Try again, but ask if the potato has been sprayed to prevent sprouting.
Thanks! I am so glad to know the reason.
I will see if I can get a locally grown potato and try again.
My potato (bought at the supermarket) had plenty of sprouts growing on it and even miniature leaves growing on the sprouts. I put it a jar of water and it won’t grow roots. It has been about 3 weeks now. Perhaps it isn’t getting enough sun?
Try setting it in a window and put a VERY weak fertilizer solution in the water. Don’t let the potato sit in the water more than one third of its length. Let chlorinated water sit out for a while before adding to potato. Chlorine will evaporate in a few hours. Be patient; you can make it work!
Im not sure witch part of the potato to put into the water do the eyes go in the water?
Lynn, as mentioned here, put the tapered end in the water. It won’t matter if the eyes on the part that goes in the water go underwater- most sweet potatoes have eyes all over.
I’ve got a potted sweet potato which I rooted in a jar of water, and have taken lots of cuttings which root very quickly in a jar of water. These plants are very hard to kill! Since I have MS, there are times that my plants are really neglected, but sweet potato plants are real fighters.
Hope you have success, and get to enjoy a nice plant and the fun of rooting cuttings. Best of luck!
I’m trying this for the first time, but passing on the water part since you said they can go directly into soil. I bought a couple organic sweet potatoes and after only a couple weeks they started sprouting on their own, no water, soil or anything but a little light, heh. It’s been a week since I first noticed growth- the stems are already 3-5 inches tall, with small leaves all over.
So I guess they want to be houseplants instead of dinner. Thanks for the tips!
I did this once and had a beautiful plant. Every time after that I have had the potato sprout and then rot with a really bad smell. I want to try another, but I am apprehensive.
i planted my cut in half. The cut side in water and rest out out water. Would this work? I read it on another webpage, but I think i did it wrong.
Please help.
Jinal – I planted mine exactly how you did. I had 3 sweet potatoes, and I cut each one in half. I have three Tupperware jars filled with water and put two potatoes in each with the uncut end being the end that sticks out of the water. One set of the potatoes has been growing like crazy, stems, roots and leaves all in just a couple of weeks. I am getting ready to transfer them to soil. I haven’t had as much luck with the other two sets, two halves are growing a stem, but no roots yet. All of these are from the same batch of potatoes, and have been in the same spot, so maybe it just depends on each potato. Hopefully they will start flourishing more with time…
I have a sweet potato growing in a jar of water. It has lush growth of vinesd and leaves and an abundance of roots. I want to plant it in soil, to place in a hanging basket.
My one question is: YOU SAY TO PLANT IN SOIL, THE ENTIRE POTATOE MUST BE COVERED IN SOIL? So, am I supposed to bury ALL the vines and leaves beneath the soil?
Also, is it necessary to wait until the vines are very long, or can I do this when the weather becomes hot?
Please advise
We live in Iowa, and have had some cooler night, frost & a little snow already which is unseasonable. I dug up my sweet potatoe vines and they are large potatoes, red variety. Can I plant these indoors and try to save for next year to transplant outodoors?
i visited this website a few months ago and i planted some sweet potatoe vines i just love my front year thanks for the help
Thank you for all of this useful info!
My sweet potato vine’s leaves are not opening all of the way – could there be a household toxin that is damaging the plant? It looks healthy otherwise.
Also, one of the vines is turing yellow and dying while the others coming from the same potato are thriving – is the plant just over-extended? They grow so fast.
Interestingly, I have two sweet potatoes that are growing differently. One has sprouted roots from the bottom of the potato, and stems from the top. Very convenient, and looks lovely.
The other, however, has sprouted roots and stems from EACH spud – I have had to trim some of them because it looked more like a ball of green leaves than a plant. The leaves are also jaggedly shaped, and more purple. Perhaps different species?
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Nik
I just tried to plant my first Sweet Potato houseplant recently. I got the idea when I mentioned to my Mom that my sweet potato started sprouting in my pantry, so she told me to plant it as a houseplant. So I did. I couldn’t believe how FAST it grew – like inches per day, it seemed. It was a beautiful light green happy plant until about two weeks ago when I noticed -what looked like dirt – all over it. Upon closer inspection, I found the “dirt” to be little bugs – ALL over the plant. Within a week or so, the plant started to fade to yellow and dry up – even though I was watering it. What happened? I cut it way down to stems, watered it, and am keeping it in the window for now. I would like to save it. Any ideas, anyone?
Holly, I’ve had that same issue with other plants. You might want to try a houseplant pesticide spray, if it’s safe to spray the leaves and soil without damaging the plant. I’ve had a lot of success with the brand Garden Safe: Houseplant & Garden Insect Killer on other kinds of houseplants. It gets rid of the bugs without killing the plants.
I want to fill my garden with sweet potato vines, but I’ve never planted anything before. I plan to root them in the house now while it’s still pretty cold and then transfer them to the garden at some point. Can you give me an idea of when is too early to transfer them? is there a particular average temperature that is best? For example, should I wait until most days are in the 70-degrees-fahrenheit range before I plant?
Also, will these grow well in my office with no real sunlight as long as I keep them watered?
Thanks!
I have a sweet potato that has grown shoots and leaves all over the one end just sitting in my kitchen basket, can I plant it directly in soil without starting roots?
Most of the sweet potatoes in the stores have been “kiln-dried”; I am not sure of the reason – maybe to keep them from rotting in storage, but that seems to hinder their ability to sprout new plants.
I have grown these most of my life and they’re really pretty houseplants. I’ve had better luck using sweet potatoes that have already sprouted eyes. You can put them in a dark closet and just watch for the eyes to sprout and then place them in water.
You can cut them in half, but I rarely do. If the potato keep falling into the container you want to use you can stick toothpicks in them to support them on the top of the jar. Mine look great as long as they get a lot of sun, but as soon as they get too big and I have to move them away from the window they get real scrawny. The vines get long, but the leaves are really small.
Help !
It’s my first time,
…My slips were fine, I wanted to plant them out, but it is too cold, here in England, I have planted them in pots, but the leaves are turning brown on the edges…I am keeping them well watered, should I stop ? Do they like drying out a bit ?? Thank you very much…
I have one store bought sweet potato that I put in water months ago. It only sprouted one vine that is now about a 5 foot vine. About 2 months after that, I put an organic sweet potato in water. That one has several sprouts and pretty green and purple leaves on it. I think I will plant that one in a pot. Also, the store bought potato is rotting I think. They both took a long time to start sprouting…but once they started they really took off. Maybe it takes longer depending on the time of year??
I tried my hand at growing a sweet potato vine and it has turned out really well. It is beautiful, but I would like it to be fuller. Can I cut back the long vines to make it more bushy? Also, if I can cut it back can I root the cuttings?
Hi-
My sweet potatoe vine is nice but the leaves are regular green – not the pretty bright electric green I have seen on many other sweet potato plants (like the photo at the top of this page). Any idea why?
My sweet potatoe was on my counter in my kitchen for a couple of months and started to grow vines. I put it in a bowl with a little water. How do I plant it . Can I have it just as a house plant.
Hi! I live in north Italy where my husband and I have an organic vegetable farm and Bed & Breakfast. We have tried growing organic sweet potatoes but, so far, without success. This year, I am growing them in jars with water. My hope is to keep them happy throughout the winter and then plant the ships outside in spring. The vines are getting quite long and sometimes the leaves become yellow. Here is my question: Should I cut the vines and keep them short and do you recommend planting the potato in soil if the “slips” will eventually be planted outside to grow sweet-potatoes? Thank you for any help you can give…Judy Rosso