"Ray Drouillard" writes:
I had some sweet potatoes that had started to sprout, so I cut the
sprouts out (along with a fairly generous amount of potato), put them in
some water to keep them alive until after frost, and planted them. They
grew fine, and produced a nice crop -- which is really amazing because I
live in Michigan.

I have some sweet potato shoots in water at this very moment. I prised
them off the tuber when the shoots were about 4"-8" long, but unlike your
example I took no potato at all, just gently bent each shoot back right at
the tuber until it came off. Standing in water on the windowsill the
shoots have developed dozens of 1" roots and have grown leaves and now
look for all the world like true water plants. They have been in water for
over 2 months now. As summer is coming to an end here in the southern
hemisphere I won't be planting these out. I'll discard them.

I once planted a sweet potato that had some healthy-looking shoots on it.
I just planted the whole thing as is. It grew vigorously, spreading to
occupy a large area with lush green foliage. In late summer I decided I'd
dig just a corner of it to see how big the potatoes underneath were. So
I started to dig, and dug and dug, until I eventually had the whole plant
up. All I harvested was the same old potato I'd planted! There wasn't a
single new one to be found. So sweet potatoes certainly have different
requirements from the South American spud.
--
John Savage (news address invalid; keep news replies in newsgroup)