Start cutting your sweet potato:

Sweet potatoes will not grow from seed like most other vegetables, they must be taken from cuttings. Cuttings are sprouts that grow from a ripe sweet potato. You can order plants online or at a local nursery (quite rare), but it’s best to start by cutting your plants from a sweet potato you bought at the store (preferably organic) or in your own garden if you’ve already started growing sweet potatoes. If you’re shopping at your grocery store, find out if your sweet potato is a creeping or climbing variety.

To get started with cuttings, you need several healthy, clean sweet potatoes. Each sweet potato can produce up to 50 leafy cuttings. To create cuttings, wash the potatoes thoroughly and cut them in half or into large sections. Place each section in a jar or glass of water with half of the potato under the water and the other half on top. Use toothpicks to hold the potato in place.

Cuttings need heat, so place them on a windowsill or radiator. In a matter of weeks, your sweet potatoes will be covered in leafy shoots at the top and roots at the bottom.

Properly root your sweet potato cuttings:

Once your sweet potatoes have formed leaves and small roots, you need to separate them into plants. To do this, you take each cutting and carefully remove it from the sweet potato. Take each sprout and place it in a shallow container with the bottom half of the stem submerged in the water and the leaves on top of the container. Within a few days, several roots will sprout from the bottom of each new plant. When the roots are about 3 cm long, the new plants are ready for planting. To keep your cuttings healthy, be sure to keep the water fresh and discard buds that aren’t producing roots or that appear to be dying or moldy.

Plant your cuttings:

Using a small hand trowel, dig a hole about 10 cm deep and 7 cm wide. Place a sweet potato plant in each hole with the roots facing down. Position the plant so that the bottom half is covered with soil and the top half with all the new leaves is above the soil.

Fill the hole carefully with soil so as not to damage the new plant. Sweet potatoes don’t like to be pushed too hard and are quite fragile. When you have completely covered it with soil, gently press the plant and surrounding soil to put the plant in place and remove any remaining air pockets. Continue in the same way until all of your plants are in place.

Water frequently and keep watering as much as possible.

Once all the sweet potato cuttings are in place, water them well. You’ll need to give them a thorough watering until all the surrounding soil is moist. Stop watering before your mound begins to erode. New plants, such as cuttings, should be watered daily for the first week and every other day for the second week. Each week, watering will be a little further away before watering at least once a week. If the soil is very dry or rains heavily, you may need to adjust this schedule in your own garden. Sweet potatoes can withstand drought, but they will produce less, so be sure to water them during the hottest part of summer.