Sweet potatoes have been highly valued since their import on the one hand as lush ornamental plants but also for culinary use. Growing your own is also pretty easy. Why not cultivate two or three plants at once? With the tips on this page, you don't even have to travel long distances to the tree nursery to buy more specimens. If you already have a sweet potato plant, it is possible to propagate it with little effort. Find out how to do it here!
How to propagate sweet potatoes?
Sweet potatoes can be propagated by tubers or cuttings. Cut off shoots in spring or summer and either place them directly in the ground or place them on a cut tuber. Under appropriate conditions, new roots develop quickly.
Sweet potatoes root incredibly quickly
The sweet potato is a fast rooter. Given the right location conditions, it will form the first new shoots after just a few days, so it can soon be planted in the ground.
The right time
If you want to multiply your sweet potatoes, spring and summer are the best times. Then the plant has shoots that are long enough to take cuttings from.
Different approaches
There are several methods you can choose from for propagating a sweet potato.
Propagate sweet potatoes with tuber shoots
- cut off both ends of a tuber
- let the interfaces air dry
- fill a pot with soil and place the cut tuber on top
- place the pot in a warm, bright place at 20°C
- If the new shoots are 10-15 cm long, repot them in individual containers
- the shoots will soon form roots in the new pot
Propagate sweet potatoes with unrooted cuttings
- cut off at least 10 cm long shoots from the mother plant
- put these in the ground
- Roots form here too after a short time
Propagate sweet potatoes with rooted cuttings
- take cuttings from the mother plant again
- place them in a pot filled with soil (€16.00 on Amazon)
- cover the pot with foil and store it at 20°C (for example in a greenhouse)
What else is important?
Even if your sweet potato has already developed roots. You can only put them outdoors in mid-May. Batatas are very sensitive to frost and must have reached a length of around 10-15 cm in order to continue to develop well.
