How to Grow Sweet Potato Leaves at Home

Sweet potatoes aren’t just about the tubers – the leaves are a treasure in their own right. Fast-growing and packed with nutrients, sweet potato leaves are a tasty and reliable leafy green that you can enjoy throughout the rainy season.

They work well in place of ugu in some Nigerian recipes, and they can be harvested fresh from your backyard or balcony.

Even if you don’t have space for traditional farming, you can grow sweet potato leaves in a pot, a recycled sack, or any container with drainage. Here’s how to get started.

What You’ll Need to Grow Sweet Potatoes 

1. Sweet potato tubers or slips, or vine cuttings: If your market-bought sweet potatoes sprout before you eat them, don’t toss them out. That’s actually how I started. My first sweet potato plant came from a tuber that sprouted on the kitchen shelf. I planted it in a bucket and a few weeks later, I had a lush pot of fresh green leaves.
2. Containers or grow bags: Sacks, tubs, or shallow buckets all work. Just ensure there are holes for drainage.
3. Loose, fertile soil: Mix compost into regular garden soil to create a light, well-draining growing medium.
4. A sunny or semi-sunny spot: Sweet potato leaves grow well with 4–6 hours of sunlight daily.

What are slips?
Slips are the young green shoots that grow out of a mature sweet potato tuber. They are usually cut off and planted directly into the soil. Each slip grows into a full plant that produces leaves, and possibly tubers, too, if the conditions are right.

How to Plant Sweet Potatoes for Leaf Production

When growing sweet potatoes for leaves, you don’t need deep soil or as much space as you would if growing them for the tubers. My sweet potato vines crawl on the artificial grass covering my concrete backyard.

1. Start by cutting the sprouted tubers into segments, each with a growing eye (you can also plant the tuber without cutting it).
2. Get 10cm vine cuttings from mature plants (from a friend’s garden) and root them in water for a few days before planting. You can also plant the cuttings directly into the soil without previously rooting them in water.
3. Plant the segments, slips, or vine cuttings about 5-10 cm deep in your container. You can space them more closely than if you were growing them for tubers.
4. Press the soil gently around the base of the cuttings to cover any roots completely. Water well.
5. You should expect to see new leaves within two weeks.

Caring for Your Leafy Sweet Potato

1. Sweet potatoes grown for leaves are low-maintenance, but should be watered regularly to keep the soil moist, especially in the early stages. Avoid overwatering, though. You can tell that the vines are thirsty when they appear wilted.
2. Although you might not be looking forward to tubers, they will form. The tubers are the storage organs of the plant and form naturally when the plant is mature. Overwatering could cause the tubers to rot.
3. Feed the plants with compost every four weeks to keep them lush and leafy.

   

4. Trim and harvest often to promote bushier growth.
5. Watch out for pests like white flies and caterpillars. You can use neem oil spray to deter them.
6. After the rains stop falling, your sweet potato leaves start to yellow and dry up. There should be a few small tubers buried in the container, and under the soil surface, along where the vines crawled. They might not be worth harvesting. Leave the pot dry until the next rainy season.
7. I find it quite difficult to keep pests off my sweet potato leaves during the dry spell, so I clear out the foliage and wait for the rains. New plants will sprout from the buried tubers in the soil when the conditions are favourable.

How and When to Harvest the Leaves

You can begin harvesting sweet potato leaves just 4 weeks after planting. Pick the young, tender leaves and shoot tips – these are the best for cooking.

Cut the vines with a knife or sharp scissors. Don’t strip the plant bare. Take just a handful at a time, and let the rest keep growing. With consistent care, you can keep harvesting every week for several months until the dry season.

The more often you harvest the leaves, the less energy the plant channels into developing tubers. As a result, sweet potatoes grown primarily for their leaves rarely produce a sizable harvest of tubers.

Cooking with Sweet Potato Leaves

Sweet potato leaves are tender, slightly earthy, and surprisingly versatile. They cook down like ugu or Malabar spinach, making them perfect for soups, stews, sauces, or simple sautés.

One of my favourite ways to cook them is to sauté the leaves with onions, fresh peppers, tomatoes and eggs. You can also steam them lightly to use as a side with boiled rice and stew, or add them to yam porridge or egusi soup.

Tips for Success

• Shallow containers work just fine if you’re only growing for leaves.
• Harvest often to encourage more leafy growth.
• Regrow from what you harvest: Those trimmed vines can be replanted and will root easily.
• Move containers during the dry season if the leaves yellow and drop off. Stop watering to allow the tubers to rest until the rains begin again.

Finally…

If you’re looking for a fast-growing, nutrient-rich green for your home garden, give sweet potato leaves a try. They are easy, resilient, and endlessly useful in the kitchen. Whether you’re growing on concrete, a balcony, or in a garden bed, you’ll enjoy a steady supply of fresh greens, with very little fuss.

Start with just one container and see how quickly your garden (and your meals) flourish over and over again.

Happy gardening!