go ahead and plant them, if you want to. When I plant potatoes early (I am in zone 6a) I try to cut the potato into quarters with each quarter having at least one bud. Let them dry for a day if you can two is better, but one day is enough. plant them about 3 inches deep, and cover them with 3 to 6 inches of mulch (straw, dried leaves, grass clippings,etc) and then wait. After 10 to 14 days you should see small plants trying to grow through the mulch.

Well I know I'm a bit of an idiot about advanced gardening, so although I know how to plant and harvest things, I certainly don't always know the right terms to call parts by, so I wasn't sure if they were roots or sprouts. :-) I've seen plenty of potato plants, but frankly the sprouts coming off of old potatoes don't look to me like much of ANYthing that a potato plant makes, unless the same growths would just look drastically different if they'd been grown in an environment of dirt and sunlight instead of a box. :-) Thanks for the input, everybody, I appreciate it! I think I might leave the shoots on-- should I cover them completely or allow them to stick partially above ground?

We are in the middle of January and in many areas with mild winter now is the most suitable time for planting potatoes. If you have sufficient experience in growing potatoes in your backyard (preparing the soil, planting, fertilizing, irrigating, harvesting etc.), you can read, edit and enrich our potato growing guide.

I grew potatoes in containers last year. It was actually my first time ever growing potatoes. I don't know if my harvest was great since I really have nothing to compare it to but i was happy with what I grew. I used store bought potatoes. If I remember correctly, my growing medium was mostly miracle grow potting soil but I did mix in some layers of dead fall leaves. I put my potatoes near the bottom of the pot and as they grew, added more soil little by little until the pots were full. I harvested mine before the foliage died back and may have gotten more if I would have waited. I made a harvest video if you are interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_HURJd3U_I