How To Grow Sweet Potatoes Indoors If You Don't Have Garden Space

Don't let living in an apartment or having a small garden stop you from growing your own vegetables. Start with the hardy and versatile sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). It's actually surprisingly easy to grow a sweet potato vine indoors. You just need to pick a variety that grows compact enough to grow well in pots.

It's important to know that not all types of this sprawling vine will thrive in containers. Traditional sweet potato vines need 3 feet of space to grow outside, but bush varieties are better suited for limited space. 'Vardaman,' 'Beauregard,' 'Centennial,' or 'Bush Porto Rico' types work best indoors because they have shorter vines and don't mind the confines of a pot. 'Centennial' tends to grow smaller potatoes, too, which can be ideal for tight spaces. Sweet potatoes, one of 9 perennial vegetables you can plant once to enjoy an endless bounty, tend to like warmer climates, as they thrive in USDA Hardiness Zones 9-11. So make sure to keep them in a spot in your house that's at least 70 degrees.

To get started, you'll need to grow a slip — a leafy stem that grows straight out of the eyes of the potato. Submerge two-thirds of the sweet potato in a jar of water, pointed side down. You can use toothpicks to secure it along the edge. Or you can plant the sweet potato half-buried in soil. Place the jar or container near a sunny window and then wait about 2-6 weeks for the slips to sprout. Sweet potatoes from a farmer's market might sprout better than those from the grocery store, depending on whether they were sprayed or not to prevent sprouting.

Once you've grown healthy slips, then you can pinch them from the potato. Submerge the shoots in water for a few days or a week to help them grow stronger roots. When you see roots reach about an inch long, they're ready to go in a pot. Sweet potatoes need a little bit of room to grow, so pick a 15- or 20-gallon container.

Use well-draining soil, and don't be afraid to add a bit of loam or sand at the bottom to make sure the roots don't sit in water. The sun will be the most important part of growing indoor sweet potatoes, so make sure to find a big, south-facing window for these sprouts. If you don't have a sunny window, you can use grow lights. Remember to turn them on for about 14-16 hours per day.

Adding in fertilizer monthly might be a good idea, but sprinkle in the low-nitrogen kind. Nitrogen will encourage bigger leaves, but what you really want is stronger tubers beneath the soil. When thinking about the parts of a sweet potato plant, the edible sweet potato actually grows as a tuberous root, so this is where you ideally want to see the most growth. With the right care, your indoor vegetable garden should be ready to harvest in 3 to 4 months. 'Vardaman' and 'Beauregard' sweet potatoes typically need about 100 days to mature.