How to Grow a Sweet Potato Vine in Water
Sweet potato vines have a dark purplish hue and bright green leaves, making them a very attractive house plant. Growing your own vine is not difficult and can be done directly in water without soil. The only maintenance required once you have started the vine is watering and fertilizing, just like any other house plant, and guiding the vine to grow where you want. In addition to yielding a great decorative plant, this project is also a simple science experiment to do with kids. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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1
Select a good potato for the project. The potato should fit inside the glass jar you will be using and should already have several eyes (buds) on the surface.
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Push toothpicks about a third of the way into the potato spaced an inch apart around the circumference of the potato. The circle of toothpicks should be about a third of the way down from the top of the potato when it is positioned as it will be in the jar. Don't put toothpicks through any of the eyes on the potato.
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3
Place the potato inside the jar so that it is suspended by the toothpicks on the lip of the jar. Two thirds of the potato should be inside the jar with the top third held up just above the lip of the jar.
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4
Fill the jar with water so that most of the bottom two thirds of the potato are submerged. Check the water level daily and add water as it evaporates.
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5
Add a teaspoon of fertilizer to the water. Repeat once per month.
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Place the potato somewhere that gets a lot of sunlight. The first thing you will notice is the potato putting roots down into the water. The roots will soon be followed by the vine growing from the eyes on the top of the potato.
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When the first stems of the vine emerge on top of the potato, use twist ties to tie them to sticks or toothpicks until they become strong enough to stand on their own.
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Tips & Warnings
If the vines grow in length without producing very many leaves, trim them back. Trimming will cause the vines to fill out with leaves. Clippings harvested in this way can be grown separately.
Change the water every so often; otherwise it will take on an unattractive brown coloration and begin to smell.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit sweet potato image by luda berlinerblau from Fotolia.com
