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...to start sweet potatoes shooting?  I ask because I was filling up the potato basket this afternoon and found one of the sweet potatoes has started by itself.  I left it too late this year and only managed to get sweet potatoes the size of dates but I don't want to go the other way for next season!

PJW,
Go for it. Next summer can't be worse - can it?

Given that you either have to bin the shoots or plant them I think planting them is a good idea. This year has not been so clever but still rewarding. My best results were from plants grown in deep buckets.

I think I might follow your idea and plant them in something other than the ground.  My plot suffers from wireworm damage and the few sweet potatoes I did get had been nibbled, some beyond use.  How deep do you think the buckets should be?

The buckets I used are 14" deep and ended up with a huge wad of roots at the bottom so maybe something in the region of 18" or more would be ideal. I may experiment with shorter bottomless buckets as starters to end up sitting on top of the deep buckets.