Sweet Potato

 A potato is a tuber.     A tuber is a plant structure which saves energy for the parent plant; tubers can also be used for vegetative reproduction by most plant species which form tubers. This differentiates tubers from roots; roots are capable of taking up energy, but they cannot store it, and they also cannot be used for propagation. Many cultures eat tubers, because of their stored energy and dense, fleshy texture. The best-known example of an edible tuber may be the potato, a South American plant which has been cultivated for food for thousands of years.

There are two forms of tubers: stem tubers, and root tubers. Stem tubers form from underground stems known as rhizomes; potatoes and begonias are both stem tubers. Stem tubers are closely related to corms like cassava, which form when the stems of their parent plants swell. Root tubers are formed when sections of the root swell and bud; cassavas and dahlias are two familiar examples.

A sweet potato vine is easy to grow.  Take it home and  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