Chaman I always start my roots that way. Don't have any real documented proof, but I believe that they are less prone to have rotting problems when started in potting medium (vs. water) and intact (instead of cut). "Horizontal" put more of the root in contact with moisture and thus, likely to grow sprouts. That's just my reasoning. But there are people who have done the toothpick and water approach for MANY YEARS and they get sweet potatoes! Glenn Drowns, at Sandhill Preservation Center, has been doing quite a bit with sweet potatoes. He has the most extensive collection of varieties, available for sale, that I know of. But he, being in a Northern environment, has also been doing a lot to learn about the plant's requirements. Probably the #1 thing I've heard from him, over the years is that the sweet potato requires HEAT to grow and prosper. Glenn often counsels folk not to plant their starts until the nights and soil are warm. Starting slips in the garden early does not give better results than starting late but with plenty of warmth. Last year he started some varieties towards the end of July and still got good results. I started my last planting here on July 18 and found that two out of three varieties did not plump up quite as well I would have liked. My theory on this is that here in OK we have a number of weeks in the summer, when temps are so high, and we get no precipitation, that a lot of plants just sit there, rather than growing. Still, I would not hesitate to plant any sweet potato (here) anytime in June or early July. Sweet potato vines are incredibly resilient! I do not know why I do lose a slip or two almost every year when planting. But most of the time I put them out and water them (from a can), mainly for my own sake, not for theirs. When we lived in the high desert, in Hidalgo, Mexico; we helped a private school with agronomy. We used flood irrigation, as it rained infrequently. Anyway, I once saw a student harvest sweet potatoes and drop a vine in an unused garden plot. That plot received no irrigation or rain for four months. The vine was crisp and brown. When someone irrigated that plot the vine grew sprouts and rooted again! This was a native variety so folks, don't try this one at home, unless you just want to satisfy your curiosity. In my opinion, sweet potatoes are one of the most neglected and most useful crops a person can grow, and, I believe Northern gardeners really should try them. If one has a really short season or cool nights, then go with earlier varieties and use black plastic mulch. George Tahlequah, OK

True, also, heat is key. If it is at all cool, they can take a LONG time to get going. I suppose variety is also a factor. I had an infestation of fungus gnats, in my planter, this year, and had to start over twice, toughest sweet potato year of my life, so far. One suggestion for the future: take it for what it's worth to you. Don't cut the roots you want to use for starting slips. This may give opportunity for disease or ... fungus gnats. Just bury the root at least half way in the soil. It'll work. Grandad, they are incredibly hardy, aren't they?! We lived over eight years in the high desert of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. There was very little rainfall where we lived. But we did use flood irrigation. I once pulled a sweet potato vine, while harvesting, and tossed it into an adjacent (unused/dry) plot. Over the course of a couple months the vine dried, turned brown crisp. Then, someone flooded that plot, in order to work it, and... presto! The vine sprouted little sweet potato plants along the leaf nodes! George

chudh - For future endeavors, you can take one potato, and submerge about the bottom third of it in a glass of water. You can stick toothpicks in the potato about a third of the way down and rest the toothpicks on the glass. The potato will begin to sprout. After the sprouts are about 6 inches long, you can pop them off of the potato and put them in water and they will make roots. These small plants are called slips, and you can make multiple slips from one potato. In fact, I have a barrel of sweetpotato plants growing in my garden right now that all came from one potato. I didn't throw it out when I finished and now my kitchen window is filled with potato vines. You will have to add more water to your glass from time to time. Easy to grow.

Yeah I can read what you said. But since I am hardly the only one who is telling you that planting the potatoes themselves, or even a part of the potato, is never done, unnecessary, of no benefit, pointless, and potentially detrimental to new production, it's obvious you will do as you wish no matter what any of us tell you. That's fine. It is your garden, your choice. Hundred of thousands of sweet potato slips are planted annually, some with roots on them, but many with no roots on them at all. Yet they manage to quickly develop their own roots just fine and those slip roots produce new sweet potatoes. All without any part of the mother potato being anywhere near them. Dave