cynister, don't give up all of your sweet potato plants just because they're annuals. Sharing is a great idea, these are tough little guys and root pretty easily. But you can also dig up some and bring it inside, and grow it as a houseplant over the winter. I bought a gangly Blackie on sale last fall, cut it up to share with friends and kept some, and it's still doing okay... all right, my mom's is now doing better than mine but she has a greener thumb. Point is, they can make good houseplants. Mine even flowered inside once. :-) Spider mites tried to set up housekeeping but Blackie just shrugged them off with the occasional strong water shower in the sink. Likes the strongest sunlight you can give it. This is all presuming you have room indoors... I know some of us don't anymore. lol Best wishes. Terri

Hi - I have these plants for trade; *** You may, want to google these to get more details for your area. variegated spider plants ipoemea batatas; some plants and clippings blackie margarita tricolor passionflower caerulea; clippings buddliea bush; clippings nanho buzz house plant christmas cactus ; NO I.D. clippings house plant ; creeping charlie, clippings I, am looking for plants. I ship, priority and would like the same. Thank you, Mistee

Beth, pot it up and grow as usual. When the vine starts to die back, stop watering, cover all of the potato with dirt and keep it in the pot. Put it in a cool, dark place and ocassionally water through the winter. About March 1 take it out of the pot, wash it and put it in light. It should begin sprouting. You can cut off the slips with a litle bit of the potato and pot them up. Each one wil give you a vine and grow potatoes. BTW, my mother used to cut off slips for a grower in Cullman when she was a little girl. She got paid 10 cents per thousand slips she removed from the potatoes.

My friend forwarded my this information from the Arcamax website/ A freshly harvested sweet potato has a tender skin that bruises easily. Damaged roots will decay in storage. Allow the harvested potatoes to dry for a few hours and then spread them on a tray lined with newspaper, hay or sawdust. Place them in a dry, warm area (about 80-85 degrees for 10-14 days). This will "cure" them and set the skins so they store better. They should be stored in a cool (55-60 degrees) dry place. Sweet potatoes treated this way will store for several months. Remove any roots that show signs of deterioration or decay. Next spring, lay the sweet potatoes on their sides in a hotbed about a month before the nighttime temperatures stay above 60 degrees F. Cover the sweet potato roots with 2 inches of moist sand and keep the hotbed between 75 degrees and 80 degrees F. When the sprout develop, remove them with a twisting tug and pot them up for rooting and growing into new plants. Additional transplants (slips) will form from the bedded sweet potatoes if you leave it in place. The vine segments can also be rooted if you wish to make more plants than the above method provides.