I had small potatoes from my garden last year that I used to grow slips/shoots. I cut them in half and put the cut ends into growing mix (and these have been in my GH). They were slow to go but now almost everyone of them has multiple shoots growing on them.

I have pulled off the bigger ones and put them into water, where they formed roots very quickly. I put my first batch into soil and they also seemed to be doing well...the roots on those were probably 4 inches long or so and multiple roots on each shoot.

Finally, there are all sized shoots on the half potatoes in the growing mix and I just keep pulling them off as they get some size to them.

What appears to be happening is that the potatoe in the growing mix has become rooted (probably a normal thing) but my first time ever doing this....so I"m just asking to be sure to do it right.

Do you ever do anything with this "starter" potatoe? or is the goal to just use it to grow the slips and root the slips and then plant those as the main plant?

PS: I have also discovered ants in the soil under these potatoes...they are in seed starting trays that were on a shelf in my GH, I have not seen any aphid on them , and the ants seem to be in the ground under them. What on earth would they be doing? They went WAY out of their way to find this location, so it's kinda puzzling to me. I think I have finally blasted them off but I"m curious as to what they would be doing there.