Sprout a Potato

Potatoes are fun and easy to sprout and their eye-catching vines can be trained around a window frame. We'll show you how to grow your own potato plant.

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Materials

Firm potato
4 toothpicks
Wide-mouthed watertight container. (Choose a clear glass jar so your children can spot the first rootlets growing.)

Optional
Potting mix
Small pot

Instructions

step 1Insert four toothpicks into and around the middle of the potato. Space the toothpicks equidistant from each other, as if they were hands of a clock at "twelve o'clock," "three o'clock," "six o'clock" and "nine o'clock." The toothpicks will act as the supports you need to suspend the potato on the rim of the jar.

step 2Fill two-thirds of the container with water.

step 3Suspend the potato, pointy side down, into the container of water with the bottom half of the potato in the water.

step 4Place the container with potato in a sunny place.

step 5As days pass, change or add water as needed. Don't let the water get cloudy.

step 6After a few days, you should be able to see roots forming below the waterline. In two or three weeks, stems and leaves will sprout from the top. That's your clue to stand back—potato vines can grow quickly!

step 7After about a month, you can plant the potato in a small pot filled with potting mix and watch it grow even more.

step 8For a bushier plant, cut the vine back a few inches at a time as it grows. The stems can be weak, so consider tying them with twine to a small stake.

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comments (17)

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recent comments

1/11/2010 ,

Mary Ann L.

Fantastic idea! I have 4 grandchildren and this will be a super fun project that they can do. Great learning experience for them also. Thanks.

1/8/2010 ,

jackie w.

I remmber doing this in grade school.I love plants that dont cost alot i think i will do different potatos too.

10/24/2009 ,

Nancy J.

I have done this with a white potatoe and then planted it in the ground, some time had passed leaves died out and I forgot about the potatoe. Weeks later I saw green leaves come up and then found little white potatoes just below the surface of the ground. What a suprise. I cooked them and they tasted good.

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Sprout a Potato

Materials

Instructions

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