Sweet Potato Leaves

 

 

 

 

Have you ever noticed how beautiful the leaves of sweet potato plants are? Did you even know that sweet potatoes have leaves? Well they do. And while growing, this delicious root vegetable is actually quite a gorgeous plant. And if that’s not enough, I recently learned that sweet potato leaves are also a tasty, nutritious vegetable all on their own.

It seems that in some other countries sweet potato greens are a regular part of the basic diet but have gone relatively unused here in the States. However, a recent article published in HortScience Journal (abstract) noted that the leaves have 3 times more vitamin B6, 5 times more vitamin C, and 10 times more riboflavin than the tuber itself, so we just may be seeing more of this leafy green in the markets.

 

 

 

 

Growing sweet potatoes is all too easy here in the South. To harvest the tubers we are accustomed to, we usually plant the vines, called slips, sometime around May and let them grow all summer for an early fall harvest. You can harvest leaves as the roots grow, as they are very abundant. However, you can also plant slips now to harvest just the leaves until the first frost. To get slips, simply purchase an organic sweet potato, sit it in the pantry and wait for vines to start growing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture here shows vines, or slips starting to grow on one I have in my pantry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snap these vines off and place them in water and a sunny window to begin rooting like you see here. Roots will form in just a few days. After the roots reach several inches or so, plant them in a pot or in the ground.

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