Sweet potatoes seem to like forming slips (sprouts) at my house. I set them on the counter and if they don't get eaten right away, they tend to send out a few slips. Until this year I hadn't gotten serious about trying to actually grow any for a harvest. I cut 6 slips from the most recent sweet potato and potted them in a mix of soil, sand and soil, then set the container in the window. We had snow today so won't be setting these out in the unheated greenhouse! We'll see how planting in containers works out.
I've seen many other gardeners starting the slips by putting the sweet potatoes in water so they will sprout and root. My luck trying to root them that way has never worked well, for me.
Compost, sand and potting mix or potting mix, packaged steer manure and peat moss are a couple of the suggestions for growing in pots. It is also suggested, by some folks who grow in containers, to trellis the vines for maximum sun and to mulch with a layer of straw.
There is some confusion regarding sweet potatoes and yams. What we get in the US, are usual light skinned with white flesh or the darker skinned with orange flesh. Now both of these are sweet potatoes but the stores have us all confused by calling the darker ones yams, which they are not! Sweet potatoes are not a type of yam nor is the yam a type of sweet potato... two totally different plants/roots. Yams are natives of Africa and Asia and are related to lilies.
The difference in the two types of sweet potatoes are:
1. Firm sweet potato (light skinned with white flesh) - remain firm and a little waxy when cooked
2. Soft sweet potato (darker skinned with orange flesh) - becomes creamy, fluffy and moist when cooked
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