Sweet potatoes love to grow in the heat of Florida summers. At a time when many other crops are struggling, the sweet potato vines spread vigorously.

You can buy sweet potato slips, or you can grow them yourself from a sweet potato.  Maybe you did a project in elementary school where you stuck toothpicks in a sweet potato, then set it in a glass of water to grow leaves and roots. You had to make sure you changed the water or it would get stinky.

I rooted mine differently.

I used the ” Stick it in a Pot and Forget about It” method.

All I did was to take a sweet potato and bury it about halfway in some of my compost. I put the pointy end down and the end that had the little scar above the ground.

Depending on your sweet potato’s mood and the heat of your climate, you should begin to see green leaves within a few weeks, earlier if your potato was showing signs of sprouting anyway.

If you have never rooted anything in your life, start with sweet potatoes-they are so easy. Tomatoes are pretty easy to root too, and I have gotten many free tomato plants that way.

To get your plants, snip off sections of the vine, being sure that you have at least 1 node(intersection of leaf and stem) that you can bury, preferably 2.

Tear the leaf off of the node and bury the section as deeply as possible. I am sticking my shoots into flats filled with my homemade compost.If some of the shoots are short, just rip them off of the potato and poke them in the compost or potting soil. You may think that some of the little sections of stem will not be able to root, but they will surprise you.

Within a week, roots will begin developing and soon you will be able to see them poking out from the bottom of the flat. The sweet potato slips are ready to be planted in your garden and soon the vines will be everywhere!

Just let them grow for at least 120 days, then start digging!

Have you ever rooted your own sweet potato slips? What method did you use?