Starting Sweet Potato Vines

 

Last winter I read this post on the Always Fixin Never Sittin blog.

 

I thought it was a great idea.  I love to plant sweet potato vines in my window boxes and planters.  They have such pretty lime green foliage and are so easy to grow.

 

So I went to the grocery store and bought some sweet potatoes from the produce department, brought them home, stuck some toothpicks in them, placed them in canning jars filled with water, and let them sit in direct sun. 

 

And then I waited.

 

And waited.

 

 

 

 

And in about a month I saw little tiny, hair-like roots.

 

And then I waited.

 

And waited.

 

And waited.

 

For like three months!

 

And then, finally, I found a tiny leaf.

 

And then a few more leaves.

 

And then I had to wait til May 15th when it's safe to plant them outside. 

 

I planted the whole potato with just a little bit of it sticking out of the dirt.

And here they are today.

 

 

I started with four.

 

One got some kind of mold on it and one didn't produce any roots or leaves.

 

But I did end up with two pretty nice little sweet potato vines.

 

The foliage isn't lime green.

 

And I probably could have bought two nice little sweet potato vines with the money I spent on the four sweet potatoes.