What kind of plant produces the sweet potato?
You can start a sweet potato plant growing right in your own home. Slice the bottom from an uncooked sweet potato and stick in a few toothpicks to form a stand. Place it in a glass of water with just enough water to reach the cut surface. The potato will sprout roots and a trailing vine. Some people confuse the sweet potato and the yam. Both of them are brownish yellow tubers with sweet, mealy stuffing. But the two delicious vegetables are not related. The yam is a tuber of Asia and other tropical lands. The sweet potato belongs in a different plant family. It is related to the blue eyed morning glory and it is a native New World plant. However, like the yam, it cannot abide cold winters. We grow a few sweet potatoes as far north as New Jersey. But most of our crops are grown in the warm winter states of the South. A new crop is started from bits of roots taken from older plants. They are set in flat boxes of damp, sandy soil and these hotbeds are kept warm in a greenhouse. In about fo
