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08.16.10 / Tuberrific!

I’ve planted sweet potato vine for the last 5 years in various places.  I love the chartreuse variety.  I don’t know the correct botanical name.  I could google it, but I’m feeling lazy.  This year I planted it in 2 window boxes just outside our master bedroom.

Last winter I clipped a few leaves at the stem and rooted them in water over the winter to use as houseplants and then replanted them outdoors in the spring.  It worked like a charm.

To my surprise this past Sunday morning, I noticed actual ‘potatoes’ growing at the roots of one of the vines.  In all my 5 years of caring for sweet potato vine, I haven’t encountered this before although I knew it was possible.

There are actually 2 tubers growing here…the golden-ish one in the foreground and another redder one in the background below the soil.  They look like tumors (not tubers) growing right off the vine!  I’m thinking of storing them over the winter and then resprouting vines from the tubers later.  So, my question to everyone out there is  – Does anyone have experience in doing this?  I think I read something about drying them out for a few days in late fall then putting them in a shoebox with peat for the winter but I’m not sure how to sprout vines from them.  I’d be glad for any advice!

1 Comment

17.November.2011

Did you ever get any advice on this? I’ve been wanting to plant potato vines and have been thinking of ordering some online. So they’re not perennials? I like the idea of taking cuttings inside for winter. Might have to try that.