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dolivo_gw

its growing in my kitchen window

dolivo
10 years ago

Hi all. My husband likes bountiful baskets and brought this home. Not sure what it is, a sweet potato? Well, it got shoved in a corner and forgotten. When i found it a few weeks ago, it had sprouted some small leaves. I put it in my kitchen window think.g it would die, but it actually has grown quite a bit. Tonight i put it in a sink of water for a bit, thinking its got to need water at some point.
So what should i do with this, if anything? Might it survive til spring? Should i plant it in a pot of soil? Wait for it to give up and die? What do u all think?

Comments (15)

  • nancyjane_gardener
    10 years ago

    If it's a sweet potato, put some toothpicks to hold it in a jar of water and let the vine grow up and around your kitchen window! They make very pretty vines! Just remember to change the water every few days or it will stink to high heavens! Nancy

  • otcay
    10 years ago

    its not a sweet tater, just a regular tater i think.

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    10 years ago

    The leaves are not 'regular' potato leaves.

  • ltilton
    10 years ago

    It's jicama. Normally grown from seed.

    I think I'd treat it as a sweet potato houseplant.

  • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    10 years ago

    If I bought baskets full of fresh produce, I sure wouldn't let it grow vegetatively! It would be on my dinner plate!

    The foliage has me stumped....it doesn't potato-ish to me. If jicama, I'm not seeing the trifoliate leaflet configuration typical to this legume. That could just be camera angle, though.

  • dolivo
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Nancyjane_gardener, should i cut it on half first before putting on toothpicks and putting it in water?

    I cant recall ever hearing of jicama. It doesnt ring a bell as one of the things that was in my basket.

  • ceth_k
    10 years ago

    I've never seen legume grow new shoots from their root. This definitely looks like a potato to me.

  • dolivo
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    ok everyone, I've asked the Bountiful Baskets people and it is agreed upon by many people that it is a white yam.

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    10 years ago

    ceth_k - while the tuber is certainly potato-like the leaves are completely different from Solanum tuberosum.

    I am not familiar with Jicama but I can promise you that some legumes form tubers and will regrow from them. Runner beans, Phaseolus coccineus is one example.

    Rhizo_1, I think that the new leaf on the left looks as if it is going to be trifoliate. The leaves look like the Wiki illustration to me.

  • dolivo
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    it's a white yam. Everyone is telling me to plant it in a pot and put it in a sunny window. Should I cut it in half then pot it? I wouldn't pot the whole yam would I?
    I looked up a growing guide for white yams and it said zones 9-12, so even this summer, if it lives, can I plant it outside in zone 5?
    Thanks!

  • floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
    10 years ago

    I looked up 'white yam' and it's Dioscorea rotundata. The leaves don't look like the leaves on your plant imo.

  • seysonn
    10 years ago

    I second JICAMA. The leave do not look like either potato or sweet potato.

  • dolivo
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Its already been confirmed to be a white yam. The bountiful baskets people said that they had not put jimaca in the baskets for a long time.

  • ceth_k
    10 years ago

    It is a white yam then.I think it's leaves are just starting to grow into ordinary yam shape. White yam usually grow into big and high shrub if left unchecked. People in my country propagate them using their tubers and nothing else.

  • Anne Wolfley
    10 years ago

    Same thing happened to me with an orange sweet potato. After the sprouts got tall enough, I carefully plucked them off and put them in water. Next stop - potted plant!