I just stumbled on this thread while googling around for info on the sweet potato vine. I think I'm gonna try this: " Inside, they were once common houseplants grown on kitchen windowsills, the beautiful vines trained up and around window frames. To help your kids grow their own vine, choose a firm sweet potato. Some are treated with heat to keep them from sprouting on grocery-store shelves, but most grow roots in a matter of days after being placed in water. Using four toothpicks, have your child suspend the vegetable on the rim of a jar or mug filled with water. Make sure the bottom half - the pointed end - is under water. Place in a sunny spot, and change or add water as needed. In a few days, roots will form below the water. And, two to three weeks later, leaves and stems will sprout from the top. Continue to grow the plant in water or, after a month or two, pot the sweet potato in a houseplant potting mix. Keep the soil moist. The stems are weak, so help your child tie them to strings, wire or a stake. Feed once a month with a balanced water-soluble fertilizer such as 20-20-20. As the vine grows, cut it back a few inches to force the plant to grow bushy." Here is a link that might be useful: Additional details here

I am growing sweet potatoes for the first time. Our weather, which features cool nights, makes this difficult. I am growing them under a small plastic tunnel which I close at night to preserve heat. I have read the SP should be watered with warm water. The shock of cold water, even in a climate such as yours, will set them back. I am accomplishing this by watering from a long hose left in the sun. My plants are well behind yours. They are just beginning to take off. Good luck to you...it looks like you have a fine patch!

Love asian sweet potatoes. I have a couple of Japanese varieties in my garden. Here in S. Florida they are perennial, so when the vines start getting longish, I strip most of the leaves to eat except the very end, stick the cuttings in water until they have nice roots and then plant them out, so there is an endless supply of new plants. I put the leaves (including the leaf stems) in stir fry & soups. I also lightly sauteed some in toasted sesame oil with just salt, and that was delicious. The vines themselves are very sweet, but fibrous. They ooze a sweet whitish sap. Could probably extract the sweetness by chopping up then boiling and discarding the fibers, or running the stems through a juicer.

I dug up ONE tuber a couple of weekends ago. I know there must be more, but I couldn't reach way down inside that planter box - it's about 4' deep. It was about 6" long and about 6" in circumference. Not too big, really. But I put it in my cabinet where I store my potatoes. Looks like a regular old sweet potatoe to me. Moni - yours is HUMONGOUS! Susan