Heirloom Varieties Perfect for Planting Sweet Potatoes

By Andrew Weidman
Published on May 22, 2015
1 / 6

Cooking with leaves from sweet potato plants adds another layer of nutrition to meals.
Cooking with leaves from sweet potato plants adds another layer of nutrition to meals.
2 / 6

Covington is good for mashing or roasting.
Covington is good for mashing or roasting.
3 / 6

Use All-Purple sweet potatoes for a different take on side dishes.
Use All-Purple sweet potatoes for a different take on side dishes.
4 / 6

The Ginseng sweet potato likes growing in the Virginia soil.
The Ginseng sweet potato likes growing in the Virginia soil.
5 / 6

The white Violetta has a sweet and nutty flavor.
The white Violetta has a sweet and nutty flavor.
6 / 6

Carolina Ruby sweet potatoes provide a quick turnaround.
Carolina Ruby sweet potatoes provide a quick turnaround.

Columbus had no idea how much he would change the world when he landed on what he thought was the East Indian island shore. Thanks to his confused sense of geography, several garden staples spread across the world, notably maize, tomatoes, peppers, Irish potatoes, and the unsung hero of the garden — sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes, or yams as many people call them, create more than a little confusion with their name. They’re not yams at all — African vegetables related to lilies, which are never grown in America — and they aren’t even related to Irish, or “true,” potatoes, either. They are, however, the first vegetable to be called “potato,” thanks to their Native American name, “batatas.” Their botanical name, Ipomoea batatas, reflects that early name.

Ipomoea includes morning glories and some moonflowers as well as two edible cousins, Asian native water spinach, and Man-of-the-Earth, a North American wildflower. The broader family, Convolvulaceae, contains more than 2,700 species across 85 genera.

The sweet potato is a groundcover vine originally from tropical Central and South America. Its vines tumble rampantly across the ground, but cannot climb wires or structures like morning glory or cypress vines. A sweet potato’s roots are a fibrous mass, stretching 8 feet or more from its crown. Like potatoes, the sweet potato is often called a “tuber”; more accurately, it’s a “tuberous root,” a thickened section of root, without a potato’s eyes.

Sweet potatoes display an astonishing diversity. Their leaves can be shaped like hearts, arrowheads, palmetto fronds, or just about anything in between. Leaf color can be just as varied, ranging from pale lime green to purplish-black. The potatoes can also be white, yellow, orange, pink, red or purple.

Around the world

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-803-7096