Sweet potatoes are a great vegetable to grow in Florida. You can use organic sweet potatoes from Whole Foods. Leaves are also edible. Plants work great as ground cover. They can be part of permaculture designs. Don't forget, sweet potatoes produce more calories per acre than any other crop.
To make new sweet potatoes, start with an old sweet potato. An organic sweet potato (the non-organic sweet potatoes may be treated with sprout-suppressing chemicals). Slice the potato in half, across the middle. Place each section of sweet potato into a container with water. Use enough water so that about an inch or two of the potato is submerged.
How to propagate sweet potato - cut in half and soak in water.
Sweet potato with seaweed mulch around the base.
Place the container near a window. The sweet potatoes will send out little baby plants. Keep water level constant. After 4-6 weeks, there will be little baby sweet potato plants. These will become your slips. Some of the sweet potato sprouts will already have roots. These little plants-to-be are ready for planting. Remove the sprouts by snapping them off at the point where they emerge from the sweet potato tuber and plant them.
Planting and Growing Sweet Potatoes The Easy Way - from slips (cuttings of an existing plant). Once you have some sweet potato vines growing it's easy to start another bed... check out how I do it (video):
References:
Grow your own sweet potatoes :: Outlaw Garden http://bit.ly/1wqXDFZ
Sweet potatoes in bushel baskets — a success!! :: Outlaw Garden http://bit.ly/1wqY6YT
Are the leaves of beans edible? Okra leaves? Secondary Edible Parts of Vegetables (complete list) http://bit.ly/1wqY9UC
Related reading:
White Potatoes vs. Sweet Potatoes: Which Are Healthier? Cleveland Clinic's infographic is a clearcut win for sweet potatoes http://buff.ly/1tdo5j5
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