Grow your own sweet potatoes

Got some sweet potatoes in the pantry that are starting to sprout leaves or roots? Stick them in the ground and watch them grow! Of course, Hawaii's tropical climate makes this even easier. I recently dug up over two pounds of Molokai (orange inside) sweet potatoes I'd forgotten in one of my neglected planter boxes and decided to replant again. What a nice surprise! We also found lots of asparagus and a couple of lovely butternut squash growing right out of the compost. Even when I do nothing in the garden, the island gives me something. This has inspired me to get back into gardening mode, more on that later. For now, here's how I planted my sweet potatoes.

Start by cutting off the parts of the sweet potato that have sprouted

 Find a fairly large pot, you want it to be at least a foot deep. I do this because the sweet potato plants tend to spread out a lot and take over, I wanted to control this as well as not have to dig all around to find the potatoes once they are ready to harvest.

Add dirt and place the potatoes leaf side up. I'm not sure how long it will take to harvest the potatoes, but at least 3 or 4 months.

My secret ingredient! Compost, compost, compost.

The can on the left is the fresh kitchen scraps, the can on the right is the stuff that's been marinating for awhile. I rotate once one fills up and I've used all the black dirt. Notice we drilled holes in the plastic to let the stuff breathe.