Can You Still Eat Sweet Potatoes That Have Sprouted After Being Stored Too Long, and Can You Grow Them as Potted Plants?

 The sweet potato is a high-yield, highly adaptable food crop native to South America, and it is now widely cultivated throughout our country. Many people also buy sweet potatoes to eat, so if a sweet potato has been stored too long and has sprouted, can it still be eaten? Can it be grown as a potted plant?

1. Basic facts about the sweet potato

1. Other names and places of origin of the sweet potato

Although the sweet potato is grown on a fairly large area in our country, it is actually an “introduced species.” It first came to China roughly during the Wanli period of the late Ming dynasty, so at first it was specifically called fan shu (foreign potato). To this day it has many names, such as gan chu, gan shu, zhu shu, jin shu, fan ru, hong shan yao, yu zhen shu, shan yu, di gua, shan yao, tian shu, hong shao, bai shu, e e, meng fan shu, and so on. The sweet potato is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions.

2. The sweet potato's morphology

What we generally refer to and eat as the sweet potato is its underground storage root, which is round, oval, or spindle-shaped. The color of the skin and flesh varies with the variety and the soil. Its stem has several branches, and the nodes easily produce adventitious roots. The shape and color of the sweet potato leaves differ by variety, and sometimes even the leaves on the same plant differ in shape. The leaves are mostly broadly ovate with a tapering tip, nearly hairless on both sides, and are mostly dark green, yellow-green, or purple-green in color. Sweet potatoes usually flower in regions with high temperatures and relatively short daylight.

3. The value of the sweet potato

The sweet potato is a nutritious natural health food and can also be eaten as a staple food. Eating sweet potatoes regularly can boost resistance, delay aging, prevent cancer, and prevent the occurrence of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. A jin of sweet potatoes mashed and squeezed for juice has a very good effect on treating eczema and shingles. In addition, the sweet potato is also a high-quality livestock feed and helps fatten animals and build up their condition.

2. Can you still eat sweet potatoes that have sprouted after being stored too long?

Sometimes when you buy too much food, it gets stored for a long time. Foods like sweet potatoes and potatoes will sprout if kept too long. Everyone knows that sprouted potatoes are toxic, but are sprouted sweet potatoes toxic, and can they be eaten? Many people are not very clear about this question.

1. A sprouted sweet potato is different from a potato and does not produce substances harmful to the human body the way a potato does. As long as you remove the sprouts that have grown on the sweet potato, it can be eaten, and the legendary symptoms of poisoning will not appear.

2. After a sweet potato sprouts, because its nutrients and water are largely consumed, it not only tastes bad when eaten but also loses its food value. So the sweet potatoes you buy must be eaten promptly; once they sprout, it is a pity.

3. Although sprouted sweet potatoes can be eaten, note that if the skin of the sprouted sweet potato also has brown or black spots, do not eat it anymore, because it has been contaminated by black spot fungus. The toxin released by the black spot fungus contains ipomeamarone and ipomeamaronol, which make the sweet potato hard and bitter and are highly toxic to the human liver. Even after boiling in water or roasting over fire, the biological activity of this toxin will not be destroyed. After eating it, symptoms usually appear within twenty-four hours, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal symptoms. In severe cases, there may also be high fever, headache, wheezing, unclear consciousness, vomiting blood, coma, and even death.

3. Can sweet potatoes that have sprouted after being stored too long be grown as potted plants?

Besides being edible, a sprouted sweet potato is also very good for making a potted plant full of greenery. The steps are summarized below:

1. For a sweet potato potted plant, you can choose either soil culture or water culture. If planting in soil, choose deep soil that is fertile and loose. For water culture, just use clean water.

2. The container for planting the sweet potato can be a nice flower pot or another container that can hold it. Cut the sprouted sweet potato into pieces and bury them in the prepared flower pot; for water culture, just place it in water. Make sure the sprouted part is exposed and facing upward.

3. A water-grown sweet potato potted plant needs to have its water changed regularly, generally once every one or two weeks, and do not use too much water each time. A soil-grown sweet potato is usually watered once every three or four days.

4. The sweet potato is a light-loving plant. So during its growth, make sure there is sufficient light. Generally, keeping the daily sunlight time at eight to ten hours is enough.

5. Once the sweet potato grows long vines, it needs to be pruned. The pruning style can be done according to personal preference.

After reading this introduction to making a sweet potato potted plant, don't you think it is very simple? Friends who like it can try making one themselves, because the sweet potato's vitality and adaptability are still very strong, and growing it is not troublesome at all!