Sweet potato

Ipomoea batatas

A tuberous root. A true root swollen with food. It has no buds of its own: new shoots come only from the crown where the roots join the old stem.

Whole

Cut open

Store	Tuberous root. A cluster of fat fingers joined at a crown; a finger with no crown piece will not sprout.
Depth	10 cm to the base of the tuberous root
Spacing	30-45 cm apart
When	Tender: start indoors, plant out after frost. Start indoors: 6 weeks to 3 weeks before your last spring frost. Plant out: from your last spring frost to 2 weeks after. Work out your dates.
Pets	Not on the ASPCA list: treat as unsafe to chew

About Sweet potato

A swollen root, not a stem tuber: grown from rooted shoots called slips and needs warm soil.

Depth and spacing

Typical range: 10 cm deep and 30-45 cm apart. A general rule is to plant at two to three times the height of the tuberous root; check the label for your variety. The drawing is to scale for 10 cm deep and 37.5 cm apart (the size of the organ is illustrative); try your own measurements.

When to plant

Tender: start indoors, plant out after frost. Start indoors: 6 weeks to 3 weeks before your last spring frost. Plant out: from your last spring frost to 2 weeks after. These are rules of thumb for the northern hemisphere. Enter your frost dates for real dates.

Dividing and propagating

Grow slips by half-burying a tuber in warm damp compost; remove shoots to root them.

Lifting and storing

Cure after harvest in warm humid air for a week or so, then store warm and dry rather than in the cold.

Not on the ASPCA list

The ASPCA plant list has no entry we could match to this plant, so we cannot say it is safe. Keep pets from chewing it and digging up the tuberous root, and ask your vet if in doubt. Search the ASPCA list.