Week 1

● Just bought potato on Nov. 5

● Nice and firm
● Has 23 spuds
● Pretty large
● Date when first branches appeared: None
● Total number of branches formed: 0
● Average length of branch: 0
● Date roots appeared: None
● Total number of roots form: 0
Week 2
● November 13
● Starting to smell
● The forks couldn’t hold the weight
so it began to sink a little
● Water started to fog
● I notice a bit of mold I tried to cut
off at the tip
● Was slimy :(((
● Date when first branches
appeared: None
● Total number of branches formed:
0
● Average length of branch: 0
● Date roots appeared: None
● Total number of roots form: 0
Week 3
● November 20
● Absolutely disgusting
● Smelled really bad
● I changed out the water in the middle of the
week and it instantly got murky again
● Mold had grown back
● I had restabbed it with the fork for more
stability
● The top was mushy and wrinkly
● Still slimy
● No growth
● Since it was in the kitchen I had made the
decision that it was best to throw it away
● Date when first branches appeared: None
● Total number of branches formed: 0
● Average length of branch: 0
● Date roots appeared: None
● Total number of roots form: 0
Week 4
● November 27
● Bought new potato with some
pre-existing growth
● It was a lot smaller than my last
potato and I had consulted a few of
my classmates and they said that a
different approach to doing the lab
was better and had given them
better results. So I put my sweet
potato in vertically instead of
horizontally.
● It has about five spuds on the
bottom. Two are growing
● Date when first branches appeared:
None
● Total number of branches formed: 0
● Average length of branch: 0
● Date roots appeared: November 27
● Total number of roots form: 2
Week 5
● December 4
● No sign of lots of growth
● Water got a little murky
● Appears to be healthy
● Date when first branches appeared: None
● Total number of branches formed: 0
● Average length of branch: 0
● Date roots appeared: November 27
● Total number of roots form: 2
Week 6
● This week I realized that I was growing my
potato upside down when I noticed that there
were leaves growing in the water. I quickly
flipped it over and it began growing more
leaves and growing faster.
● Date when first branches appeared:
November 27
● Total number of branches formed: 5
● Average length of branch: 1 inch
● Date roots appeared: N/A
● Total number of roots form: 0
Week 7
● Looks healthy and the leaves have grown
larger.
● Date when first branches appeared:
November 27
● Total number of branches formed: 6
● Average length of branch: 1 inch
● Date roots appeared: December 18
● Total number of roots form: 1
Sweet potatoes contain meristematic tissue (areas of active cell division) in the “eyes” or buds.
The purpose of this lab is to compare the growth behavior of 2 different varieties of sweet
potatoes/yams over a 2 month period.

Purpose​: The purpose of this procedure is to see if we are able to clone our own sweet potato
or yam.
Materials:
1 of 2 varieties of sweet potato OR yam with “eyes” or buds
Aged tap water (tap water that has sat in an open container for 48 hrs) or spring water
Glass, jar, beaker (height equal to sweet potato length)
Barbeque skewers or toothpicks or forks
Procedure:
1. Study the sweet potato-count and record the number of buds above and below the
“equator” of the sweet potato
2. Take 2 skewers, forks or multiple toothpicks and pass through the center of the potato at
right angles to each other so that a cross results.
3. Place over the container and add aged tap or spring water up to a few mm from the rim
of the glass
4. Set the sweet potato near a window (preferably south-facing, 70 degrees). Keep water
level constant and clear
5. Take a photo of it (day = 0)
6. Record observations of growth weekly and take a picture
7. After 8 weeks, prepare a data table that summarizes:
Date when first branches appeared
Total number branches formed
AVerage lengthof branch
Date roots appeared
Total number roots
8. Prepare a bar graph summarzing results
9. Prepare a bar graph showing average number of weeks until branches and roots were
visible using class data

Data Analysis and Conclusion:

My potato ended up producing 6 clones by the end of the week, the class average of clones
produced was 1.823529412. This data is somewhat reliable because we were all doing the
same process and the same steps. The only reason it wouldn’t be reliable is because someone
might have done a different potato or started later than the rest of us. There is also the
consideration of the environment, since we weren’t at school everybody had a different home
environment for their plants. For this lab I definitely would have done my first experiment
differently and changed the way I did it. I would have chosen a smaller potato and done some
more research on which way to do this experiment would be the most effective. Cloning is
beneficial because it produces more in quantity as well as higher quality. It produces animals or
plants with less disease and more resistance to the elements. It benefits the farmers by
increasing their profit margins, and overall it produces a healthier plant that more people will
want to pay for.

This is a bar graph summarizing the class data.