sweet potato slips

Sweet potatoes are an edible perennial vine - the entire plant can be eaten, though the tubers are obviously the most popular, the leaves are very delicious, nutritious, and work well fresh in salads, as a wrap, or cooked.

Sweet potatoes are perennial in USDA Zones 7 and up. They make long, trailing vines that tend to stay low and create good groundcover to suppress weeds, and which coexist well with taller plants, but can also overwhelm some garden veggies or seedlings if left untended.

Sweet potato plants like full sun but can tolerate shade. They thrive in the heat, so definitely prioritize sunny spots in cooler climates. If your soil is thick with clay, sweet potatoes may develop better tubers if you plant them in raised mounds/beds and/or into loose compost or mulch.