Nope. You will need a piece of the root with a bud eye on it. Most are sold with a minimum of 3 bud eyes. It is worth it to get the root from a vendor or friend and take good care of it as it will give you flowers for years if you do.

I started potting up my dahlias at least a month ago. ..they got potted as eyes started to sprout. Ten minutes ago I was going to give up on the last few tubers that weren't showing any promise yet and toss them into the compost. But yet another little Rock Star tuber now has eyes, so I guess I'm giving the rest of them yet more time. When I saw those new eyes (2 days ago I couldn't see anything on that tuber, even with a magnifying glass...now it's visible to the naked eye), I thought of this thread and had to come tell you not to give up!

They have to have eyes to grow, however you can't always see them at this point. I've planted many that I didn't see the eye when they went into the ground. I'd say at least 50% grew but that does leave a pretty large percentage of failure. There are ways to encourage eye development before planting but I'm not a good one to discuss that. Someone else will jump in here I'm sure. They are fabulous plants, worth the risk! Ginny

Some tubers just don't develop eyes. They are used mainly for the storage of food. From my experience, if there is no eye, there will be no plant. That being said, put it in the ground, and if you get surprised, lucky you. Probably though, it will decompose and enrich your soil. Just don't bank on getting a plant.