the sweeties in the shops mostly have been treated so as not to sprout.

if you seek out an organic food shop or go to a local flea market and buy from a home gardener you will have success.

i prefer to sprout the tubers and grow from that than use slips (cutting of vines) but you gotta use any method when all else fails.

i could send you some slips from the red skinned variety, my favourite along with the white skinned type as well, because come eating time you only need to scrub them with a plastic scourer pad. can't stand that pin commercial one not as nice to eat as the others.

len

Perhaps I need to do the old school experiment way - put slices on damp cotton wool on a saucer?

Thank you for your kind offer - if I give up after the next trys, perhaps I could take you up on it.

Just visited your website. Terrific! Congratulations. It is so interesting, seeing your experiments with the tomato plants. That is my greatest wish - great tomatoes.
I am trying the water spikes & bottles to try and get water down to the deep roots and they seem to be standing up to some dreadful heat.

Sprouting them in the fruit bowl is not a common method though :-) It's recommended that the tubers be buried in a box of moist sand and placed in a warm spot until they sprout, and then planted out. Yates says they need a growing season of 5 months ... I wonder if perhaps night/soil temps have been too low when you first started sprouting/planting out your potatoes? They like sustained warmth. I gather that's not a problem in your area now, so you should have better luck than ever with your most recent efforts.

Once you've got them in the garden, though, they seem to resprout from any tiny tuber/root left in the ground.

when i use the sprouting the tuber method in most cases it is a resonable sized tuber so i cut it 1/2 across and stand each cut end in a littel water you don't need much but keep the water up as it will evaporate. i leave them in a well lit area and never miss getting shoots.

once they shoot mostly from the top most part and those shoots are about 4 or 6"s long i cut that section of tuber off, sometimes it can be divided and plant that/those sections.

so the remaining section of tuber will again grow more shoots, you don't need roots with the shoots they will all grow often the sections would grow roots in the water layer but like i said not always did i plant the whole section often i cut off the sprouting bit.

also if they are going to sprout they will do so rather quickly, or the tuber will rot.

you could of course just buy some tubers and plant them this i find is a bit hit and miss, the water trick has never failed me. i use shallow dishes or icecream containers.

len

Len
I have had the water 1/2 way up the uncut tuber, so will alter it this morning. Cutting it in half and standing in shallow water.

Well, if I don't get results now, I should just bury my head in the sand, along with one of the tubers.

Many thanks to you both

if you heavily mulch the area wher you plant them this will keep the soil warmer, and they will produce without full or much sun, one of the rare things we can grow that will grow in the shade and produce. but i always keep mine heavily mulched.

len