Growing Sweet Potatoes: Plant Your Own? Here's How to Do It Step by Step!

Want to plant sweet potatoes in your garden, greenhouse, or even in a pot on your balcony? A pot is ideal for those with limited space or who prefer to keep things under control. Growing sweet potatoes is easy and enjoyable, and you'll be rewarded with a bountiful harvest of flavorful tubers.

In this guide, you'll discover how to grow sweet potatoes from cutting to harvest—and everything in between; the entire process is covered.

The sweet potato plant (also known as a yam) grows into a vigorous vine with edible tubers. The flesh of the sweet potato can be orange, white, purple, or spotted and varies in texture and flavor depending on the variety. Both the edible tubers and the edible leaves can be used in a variety of dishes. Unlike regular potatoes, sweet potatoes are not part of the nightshade family. This makes them a beautiful addition to your vegetable garden , greenhouse, or balcony project.

You can start growing sweet potatoes indoors as early as mid-February . Growing them indoors is recommended because the cuttings require a lot of warmth ; high temperatures accelerate the process and often shorten the growing time. Experience shows that using a plastic bag or foil over the glass works very well to maintain high humidity and temperature. Read our additional tips for more experiences and advice on growing sweet potatoes.

You can't grow sweet potatoes from seeds. They're propagated via cuttings or slips. You can easily make your own:

1. Soak an organic sweet potato in a glass of water. First, check the bottom of the tuber for mold or rot and cut it off if necessary for a healthy start.

2. Note: When sprouting in water, a white film may appear on the underside of the tuber. This could indicate mold or spoilage; in that case, use a different tuber.

3. After 2–3 weeks, shoots grow on the tuber, which serves as the mother plant .

4. Cut these shoots back once they are 15 cm and place them in water to root . The cuttings will root in the water.

5. After rooting, you can pot the cuttings in a larger pot to allow the roots to develop further before planting them out.

Want to save time?

You can buy sweet potato cuttings **directly** from us as planting material!

There are sweet potato varieties with orange, yellow, and white tubers . The orange ones have the highest carotenoid content and have become the most popular variety. But all sweet potatoes are generally very nutritious, especially if you also use the leaves and shoots. Sweet potatoes literally feed your brain and are good for your gut.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a plant that produces more nutrients per square meter than the humble sweet potato. So, it's definitely worth growing.

View our sweet potato planting stock