Growing potatoes from pull sprouts is a method of increasing overall yield from a single tuber.  It is more labor intensive than growing from typical seed potatoes.  Pull sprouts tend to produce larger (but fewer) tubers than potatoes grown from seed tubers.  Since I prefer to have larger tubers for cooking, the extra planting work is worth the effort.  This method works best on ‘late’ potato varieties because it tends to speed up the growth cycle of the plant.  Early potato varieties generally don’t have enough time to form a good crop from pull starts.  I experimented with this method successfully in 2015 and will continue to use it in 2016.  Potato varieties that produced well from pull sprouts include Magic Molly, German Butterball, Adirondack Red and Austrian Crescent.

Here is a photo guide to planting potatoes from pull sprouts: