Sweet Potato Experiment

I posted this in the "vines and climbers" earlier today.. No response there so I thought I would bring it here and see if someone could offer some advice, thoughts or instruction.

I found an experiment online.. Putting sweet potatoes in water to grow vines. 3 pototoes/Jars/toothpicks... It has been over a month... They sprouted roots some time ago.. Fact is the jars are full of roots trying to come out of the jars.. but STILL no sprouts from the top of the potato. and Yes, the potatoes were some I bought at the grocery. I'm wondering if I should have gotten them from the Farmers Market or a fruit stand.

Since the roots are present and very wild. I'm am thinking of just potting them up and placing the pot in my bed that I already have Sweet Potato/Blackie in, right out in the sun. What do you think?

:) Hi there Tracey! I'd give it a try ... you might just be surprised! I had a (almost full) compost bin earlier summer that my DH needed to relocate to accommodate parking his boat trailer. Well, I knew everything wasn't totally composted/rotted yet but decided to dump it in the yard anyway ... I found potato peels had sprouted and were growing in there! I never expected to have potato's in the compost pile, LOL.

Years ago I grew Avocado's in mason jars with toothpicks holding the seeds just above the water ... got a couple of neat little trees! I love Avocado's but never seem to remember to save the seeds anymore. I might just have to pop one of those seeds into a jar of water the next time I buy an avocado!

Thanks Lin.. I potted them up and put them out this morning before leaving to come to work.. lol. (Can you say addiction?) I noticed a sprout on one.. so I think they may turn out okay after all. I will keep you posted on that. Funny you mentioned the avocados. I bought a couple of them to be used for the same purpose.. Just haven't used them yet to get to the seed. - I know they probably won't fruit here but that is just as well. I love the trees.. and I am more of a foliage girl than flowers and fruit anyway.. Thanks again for your reply.

Hope you trip was nice..

My trip was wonderful. I was in San Diego for a nephew's wedding. The weather was nice except that it was overcast most of the two weeks I was there ... but the temp's were in the low 70's every single day and absolutely NO HUMIDITY!! Florida would be perfect if we could have that kind of weather year round!

Yep, keep us posted on those sweet potato vines!

Daisylovn -- I did the same thing with a couple of sweet potatoes in the late winter, I wanted to grow a few starts to try planting in a new hoop house that I was going to (and eventually did) set up. One of the taters sprouted quickly, the other took so long that I thought I must have the wrong end in the water and I turned it over to try again; it did eventually sprout, but was a lot slower. I somewhat wonder if the store sweet potatoes are treated with a sprout retardant -- maybe someone else here will know. I did get plenty of sprouts to plant, and still have the 2 potatoes in water, vining like crazy!

I also started an avocado a while back -- that thing *really* took forever to sprout, but it's growing well now!