Potatoes at home: use for other purposes

We know that potatoes can be fried, boiled, or in extreme cases baked in the oven. But cooking is not the only way to use potatoes at home. Here are some useful and economical life hacks with this vegetable.

We clean silver

No need to buy expensive polishes and rub forks and spoons for hours. Just boil a few potatoes in the peel. When the tubers are cooked, turn off the heat and remove them. Put the cutlery in the potato broth, leave for half an hour, and then just wipe it with a cloth. Silver will shine like new. And eat potatoes.

We remove the rust

The raw potato tastes fresh, but it actually has an acidic Ph. Thanks to this, the tubers are able to dissolve rust deposits.

To clean old dishes:

1. Cut the potatoes into 2 or more pieces.
2. Rub the rust stain with a fresh cut.
3. Wait 20-30 minutes.
4. Wipe the stain with the hard side of the sponge.

You will see that the rust is washed off like ordinary dirt.

If the stain is not completely removed, repeat the procedure. You can leave a slice of potatoes right on the rust to enhance the effect.

Polish shoes

Potatoes can handle dirt on leather shoes too. Cut the tuber and wipe the skin with a wet cut. You will see that the surface darkens, becomes dull. Do not worry, it should be so.

After 5 minutes, wipe the shoes with a cloth or brush. Shoes will shine, as after a long polishing.

Show magic tricks

Want to tell your child about electricity? Use potatoes. The juice of this root crop is essentially a natural electrolyte: it contains salts and acids that produce a small amount of energy.

For the experiment, take:

• single-core copper wires, better than a large cross-section;
• galvanized and copper nails or screws;
• large raw potatoes;
• low power LED.

We begin the "laboratory work":

1. Cut the potatoes into several pieces. If there are no large tubers, take a few small ones.
2. Then stick 2 nails in each piece of potato - zinc and copper. Zinc will be the minus anode, copper - the plus cathode.
3. Strip the ends of the wires and degrease them, like nails.
4. Then connect the nails in series with the wires. Only combine plus and minus, that is, a copper nail with zinc. Otherwise, the circuit will not work. Ideally, the wires should not be coiled, but soldered - this will reduce energy losses at weak contacts.
5. When all the potato slices are connected by a “grid”, take the 2 free ends of the wires and connect the tips to the LED. You will see a faint glow.

The final phase of the experiment is best done in complete darkness, the result is too plain. But still you can get current from potatoes! The child will be impressed.

Some sources advise taking 1 potato and connecting an incandescent bulb to it. Do not do so. A “potato generator” can produce up to 2 Volts, and if the contacts are soldered - up to 12. For a bulb this is too small, the focus will fail.

Rooting roses

If you liked roses from a bouquet, try to root them:

• Take raw potato tuber.

Use white and pink varieties, they are most suitable for rooting roses. Tubers should be young, recently dug up - they have the maximum concentration of nutrients. Old spring potatoes are not good. The eyes of the tuber must be cut so that they do not germinate.

• Choose a rose.

May-June shoots are suitable for rooting. Choose a branch with a bud or a young flower. If the flower has withered, it will not be possible to root the shoot.It is better to take flowers directly from the flowerbed or from grandmothers-traders. In stores, roses are very beautiful, but thoroughly saturated with preservatives. It is unlikely that something will grow out of them.

• Make a stalk.

Remove the leaves and, of course, the flower from the shoot - they will stretch all the forces from the stem. Then cut the stalk 15–20 cm long. Use very sharp scissors, or better, a pruner. The stem must be carefully trimmed, not pressed, otherwise you will ruin the workpiece.

The bottom cut is done at an angle of 45 ^about, It is located 2 cm below the kidney. The upper one can be either straight or oblique, located 1 cm above the kidney.

• Treat the stalk with a light pink solution of potassium permanganate.

Leave the twig in solution for 12 hours.

• Soak the rose in the root.

Use Cornevin, Heteroauxin, or any other drug of this type. You can take natural aloe juice. Leave the shoot in the root for 24 hours.

• Stick a rose in the potato.

To do this, make a narrow hole in the tuber so that the flower stalk fits tightly into it. It is better to use not a knife, but a screwdriver.

A potato with a handle is planted on a flower bed - where the future rose bush will grow. Do not forget to water, and soon notice the first leaves.

These are not all ways of using potatoes in everyday life. This is an excellent cosmetic product - masks and lotions are made from it. Potatoes are used as a compress on joints, they drink freshly squeezed juice in case of gastrointestinal tract diseases, they pin them with a cut to wounds and burns. It’s amazing how much good an ordinary potato can bring.