It has been a long time since I saw sweet potato vines growing but when I did they looked lime green to me. This potato was listed organic at Walmart. I ate a couple and they had a good taste. Is the color of these sprouts normal?
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yup, mine sprouted purple then turned a bit green.Some are greener, some are purple. some have purple stems and green leaves.
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Thanks
Yes, it’s very normal for some varieties, for example the ‘Vardaman’ sweet potato is that way! Last year was my first year growing sweet potatoes, I had 4 varieties and all were green with exception to the ‘Vardaman’. What variety is in that plastic cup?
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The bag just listed them as organic. It might be Vardamn as you mention.
how did you like vardamann? i’m growing that this year.
As far as I know ‘Vardaman’ is the only bush sweet potato. Bush in sweet potato means short enough to not need serious support. If it’s a bush sweet potato with orange sweet potatoes then it would probably be ‘Vardaman’.
So you got sweet potatoes from Walmart twice on two different years, and this time it was a different color sprout? That would not surprise me, walmart probably changes their sweet potato tuber supplier every now and then. I have not seen a variety name listed on them either.
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Unfortunately all my sweet potato slips last year died from the severe heatwave, I planted them later than I should have to begin with, and last year we had a severe heat wave, one of the hottest years I have ever seen here in North Carolina. I planted them June 28th, and it was 90s day after day by then. ‘Vardaman’ was clearly the most heat resistant variety of the 4, although even that variety could not handle that kind of heat right after planting, even watering twice a day, and even in a spot with limited hours of sun, with cardboard blocking the sun.
It’s a bush variety and so it does not need much support, that is good. This year I am getting the slips in April, and planting them soon after getting them. Last year I did not choose a source that could deliver early enough for here in North Carolina. I have learned my lesion, I can tell you what I think this year.
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Did you plant them outside already? I hope they do well for you! 
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There is a bush version of Puerto Rico. There may be a few other bush varieties though I don’t know of them. Glenn at Sandhill would likely know.
I planted a 50 foot row of sweet potatoes yesterday (2026/05/15). These are the purple skin yellow/orange interior sweet potatoes from Korea that are used to make gungoguma.
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I stand corrected.
Awesome as I can see the place that I bought the ‘Vardaman’ sweet potato slips also has the ‘Bunch Porto Rico’ Sweet Potato as well, which is the one that you are talking about.
Have you tried ‘Vardaman’, and ‘Bunch Porto Rico’. I am wondering how they differ from each other.
I just checked ‘Sandhill’, they have 10 different varieties of orange fleshed sweet potato that are bush, and they have 2 different varieties of yellow fleshed sweet potatoes that are bush
Here is a list of them
Orange flesh
8633 (Early Season)
Arkansas Red Leaf (Early Season)
Bush Porto Rico (Early Season)
Cordners Red (Early Season)
Amish Red (Early-mid-season)
Caromex (Early-mid-season)
Painter (Mid-season)
Sharp (Mid-season)
Stevenson’s (Mid-season)
Vardaman (Mid-season)
Yellow flesh
Arkansas Gold (Early Season)
Norton (Mid-season)
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Not yet! Shortly after I bought the slips the temperatures dropped drastically, so I’ve kept them inside in water. Two more days and temperatures will rise sharply again. I divided them over three vases to give them more space. They rooted nicely and are looking healthy.
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Ugh tatorman had to cancel my order of okinawan. Anyone know another source? They just didnt ship when I asked and 2 weeks went by and I reached out and they said they lost a huge part of their crop and wont have any till july. At least they refunded me
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Walmart has it Robot or human?
The have it on etsy as well https://www.etsy.com/listing/4440410704/okinawan-sweet-potato-slips-for-planting?gpla=1&gao=1&variation0=6208880722
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My order from Sandhill arrived over the weekend so I got my growbags set up for the year. May have to plan on watering them myself 1-2x a day this first week to get them established since natural rain has been so scarce this year here, but excited to try some new varieties come fall.
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That looks like a really dense planting. Is the the room for all the roots and tubers? I put 3 slips in a half wine barrel and didn’t get anything worth eating.sybe I did something else wrong like not enough water.
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what di dyou end up getting?
Yeah I probably have it a bit overcrowded.
Last year I planted about 8-10 slips per each bag and they did pretty well. (Actually oddly enough, the one bag I only had 6 slips in was the least productive by far but maybe the Delaware Purple in there just didn’t like my climate or something).
Think it worked out to about 12 per this year so might be pushing it. Will see.
Partly growing them for leaves though so if they start acting stressed from crowding I may just cut back an entire plant here or there and make an extra batch of sweet-potato-leaf artichoke dip worst case. Granted several of these varieties arent typically going to set very large roots anyway from how they are described.
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