About a week ago I took one of my cured sweet potatoes and put it in a jar of water, suspended with 3 toothpicks. There are a few little sprouts on it now and some roots as well. I will use this to get plants for next year's garden if I can keep it alive. It is in my eastern kitchen window.
Update:
After three weeks of growth that sweet potato has some new healthy roots and 3 healthy shoots. When the shoots reach 5-8 inches, depending on how many leaves there are on the vine, I will detach them from the potato and root them, then plant them in a pot to grow over the winter.
I was reading a very informative site about sweet potato growing. It said to place a vine with several leaves in shallow water so that where every leaf joins the vine it is in the water. Keep the water level constant and in a week there will be little roots at every leaf joint. When the roots are long enough you then cut the vine between each leaf and you have your new sweet potato plants, or slips as they are called. These can be planted directly in your garden. It doesn't save time to transplant them to a pot then to the garden because they will have to go through transplant shock twice. This will cause a set back in their growth.
