How to Sprout Store Bought Potatoes

Sprouted potato plants thrive in soil temperatures above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can sprout store bought potatoes to grow healthy potato plants. Potatoes are the swollen starch-filled tuber section of a subterranean rhizome. Rhizomes grow from buds which are often called eyes on a potato. Under the right conditions, the buds will sprout and form green leaves to begin producing food for the new potato plant. Turn a single store bought potato into a sustainable crop of new potatoes with some water and a few toothpicks.

Things You'll Need

• 4 toothpicks
• Rain or spring water
• Glass
• Plant pot
• Soil

Instructions

1. Place the store bought potatoes in an unsealed container. Move them to a part of the house that is dry and stays above 70 degrees F. Check on the potatoes after three week to see if the eyes have begun forming small white buds.

2. Set a budding potato on a level surface, the end with the most eyes pointing downward. Push four toothpicks halfway into the potato about two thirds up its length and equal distance from one another.

3. Lower the potato into a glass until the toothpicks rest evenly on the rim and support its weight. Pour rain water or spring water into the glass until it is filled to just below the rim. Carefully move the glass to a window sill or somewhere indoors that is warm and often sunny.

4. Dump out and refill the water each time it appears cloudy or gets low. Look for small roots growing down into the water after two weeks. Leaves usually emerge from the top of the potato after three weeks.

5. Move the sprouted potato to soil to continue growing after the leaves have opened. Remove the toothpicks and bury the potato up to the stem in the soil. Keep the soil from drying out completely with regular watering.

Tips & Warnings

• Discard the potato and try another if the one you are attempting to sprout begins to grow mold or develop a foul odor.

References

• Idaho Museum of Natural History: Potato Projects