Inspired by seeing how well ornamental sweet potato vines grow in our hot summers, I decided to try growing edible sweet potatoes this year. As I understand, ornamental and edible sweet potato plants are the same species...just different varieties. The ornamental vines are bred for attractive leaves, and the edible ones for tasty roots. I looked for sweet potato slips several places and was unable to find them, so I eventually decided to try growing my own from a sweet potato I'd gotten at the grocery store. I'd read some warnings that grocery store potatoes might be treated to prevent sprouting, but this one sprouted just fine. I followed these directions.
After the slips sprouted roots, I put them outside in potting soil in this old aquarium on our back patio. I've found the aquarium works better than the plastic mini-greenhouse peat pot kits for starting seeds, because I don't have to worry about leakage and I think it helps keep the humidity up a bit once the cover comes off. We also have a cat that will eat anything vegetative growing in the house, so I can't keep seedlings inside. This cat once ate a miniature rosebush we'd been given, thorns and all
The slips have gotten to a size now where I really need to plant them in the ground. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a heat wave and expecting record high temperatures this week. I'm going to try planting them at dusk and then mulch heavily, keep them moist, and hope for the best. And next year I will start this process earlier in the spring!
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