HI! I read about this recently in one of about a dozen garden books I read this summer. Never tried it, but it works just like you said. The moisture from the potatoe is supposed to help the roots and eventually it rots away, I suppose.

Some people over on DG tried it and couldn't get it to work.

I tried it once with something and it did not work. I don't put much confidence in single trials, not even my own, so only add my experience to whatever else you read.

I remember reading a few times that back in the settler times, when they were constantly moving, grandmothers and others took cuttings of their favourite roses and stuck them in potatos. I believe the site also said that they should not root in the potato, but the reason for doing this was to keep the cuttings moist. Imagine a few hundred years back, you want to bring some of your favourite rose cuttings across the plains on a horse back wagon...imagine trying to put them in a jar of water on the wagon to keep them moist, would a potato be eaier and less messy or a jar of water? This was just done for convenience

This does seem like a reasonable method for keeping a cutting alive, say, during a car trip or plane flight, till you have the change to move it to a destination like a properly prepared pot or garden plot.

Thanks.

I did try that once,the cutting rooted and so did the potato.The cutting started growing so I knew it had rooted. I just pulled the potato up and repotted the cutting. I told a friend about this and it worked for her too.

Regine, what time of year did you try this? Did you plant the potato outside? Did you put a plastic dome, bag, or glass mason jar over the cuting? Did you plant them in the shade, or just a pot in the house and provide low level filtered light? Did you mist the cutting or did you simply keep the soil watered?

In otherwords give us more details. Thanks