Rooting Okinawan Sweet Potato Vines

With the cold temperatures we now have in Southern California (below 50 degrees), it is getting a little hard to to get the Okinawan Sweet Potato cuttings to root.

The picture below shows my Circular Raised Bed where I had planted several Okinawan Sweet Potato cuttings a month ago (see this blog entry).

I believe the cold weather is hampering growth. I have had to replace a couple of the cuttings because they had shriveled up.

Today I harvested my Winter Melons and dig up all of the Winter Melon vines (see this blog entry), and I noticed that there were Okinawan Sweet Potato vines growing over the area where I had Winter Melon plants (see picture below).

So, after I dug up the Winter Melon plants, I put soil over the Okinawan Sweet Potato vines. I left the Okinawan Sweet Potato vines connected to the rest of the plants. I am hopeful that this will enable the Okinawan Sweet Potato vines to root better than the cutting method. Next week, I will cut the connections and let these vines survive on their own.

The picture below shows how the Okinawan Sweet Potato vines look after I covered part of the vines with soil.