Sprouting Potatoes

So, I tried sprouting potatoes this year. I haven't actually found out if they'll produce, but I do have some very healthy looking plants. I tried twice before I finally landed a healthy sprouting technique, and even then I lost some. Oh, and I did this using potatoes from the grocery store.

The first time, I tried taking potatoes whose eyes hadn't yet formed. It didn't work. I found out that many companies/producers spray a chemical on the potatoes to delay or prevent eye formation so the potatoes stay good on their way to the store. Just one more reason to wash your vegetables, 'cause who wants to be eating that!

So, next I let some potatoes sit in the cupboard for a bit (they were from Costco's gourmet blend potato bag). I found some with some great eyes sprouting. (For those who may not know, the eye of the potato is the little growths that sprout out at various spots.) I cut the potato about a 1/2" below the eye, making sure they could sit flat with the eye up. Then I used the rest of the potato. I put the piece with the sprout in an old applesauce cup (dang those things are useful!) with water just up to the bottom of the eyesprout. After a bit, they put out roots. Here are some pictures:


You can see the roots coming from the sprout in the eye. I actually had the hardest time with the white potatoes rotting where they contacted the water. I changed the water every morning at breakfast time, cutting out any rotting spots. After a few weeks, I actually had leaves forming. When the roots were just getting too long for the applesauce cup (wrapping in circles around the bottom), I put them in pots ('cause we still have pretty difficult clayish soil).

From what I've heard, potatoes need to be covered with new dirt every once in a while, so I planted them as low as I could in the pot. Even still, the plants shot up, and I was covering them with dirt every 4-5 days. I finally ran out of pot to fill. Here's a picture of what they look like 2 months after I started:
I'll let you know how it goes!