Science Activity

SPROUTING SWEET POTATOES

Are you curious about how sweet potatoes grow?  Follow along with our step-by-step guide that shows you just how easy it is to sprout (and grow) your very own sweet potatoes.

With only a few household items and some sunlight, this is an easy, mess-free, and almost foolproof science activity to keep the kids engaged and learning at the same time.

SUPPLIES

  • Sweet Potato
  • Clear container or jar
  • Water
  • Toothpicks or pins
  • Knife

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Use a knife to cut the sweet potato in half
  2. Fill the clear container or jar with water. The clear container makes it easy to observe the sweet potato roots growing.
  3. Insert toothpicks into the middle of the cut sweet potato and place it in the container of water. The toothpicks will help to keep the sweet potato in place – ideally, between 2-5cms of the sweet potato needs to be submerged in water with room at the bottom for water to circulate.  If you have a larger sweet potato you may not need to use the toothpicks to hold it in place (as shown in picture) or you may need a bigger container or jar.
  4. Place the sweet potato experiment in a location that gets sunlight.

 

HOW THIS SWEET POTATO EXPERIMENT WORKS

When the bottom half of the cut sweet potato is submerged in water and the upper section is exposed to air and sunlight, roots will begin to grow from the bottom and sprout will shoot from the top.  This experiment will take a few weeks to complete – patience is key.

It is exciting to see how the sweet potato changes over time – especially when the roots and sprouts start to appear.  You may like to take regular photographs of your sweet potato sprouting progress to see how much it has changed each week.

If you want to take this sweet potato experiment further, plant the sprouts in your garden or veggie patch outside and watch them grow.  You’ll be a sweet potato farmer in no time!