Potatoes starting to grow eyes? Don’t throw it away plant and start growing more potatoes!
1) cut the potatoes into half, so that each half has an eye or two. If one half lacks an eye save it as it can be used as food for the new potatoes.
2) take the cut pieces and allow them to dry out for 12 hours to a day, dry time can vary based on your local conditions.
3) once dry prepare a large bucket or pot, because these guys need room to grow and will spread out as far as you will let them
4) place the pieces with eyes cut side up you want the eyes to start trying to root, if you have pieces that have no eyes you can bury them as well as they decay the new potatoes will consume them as food
5) once the potatoes plant starts growing up through the soil, put more soil over it just enough to cover the plant. Continue doing this still you reach the top of your pot.
6) once the plant part starts to die off it’s time to harvest.
7) When harvesting from buckets or bags, have a place to displace the soil into. carefully pull up the plants, depending how well rooted you may need to remove soil from around the base of the plant. Some potatoes will come up with the plant, and you may even find pieces of the previous potato that the plant is living off of.
If the plant comes up clean, with no potatoes start working through the soil to the bottom, often the potatoes will fall off as the plant comes out.
This was the potatoes from our first harvest, I could have probably wanted longer but the plants had started to die off. Of course more are planted and trying new mediums from buckets to grow bags.