Undergraduate research experiences can be extremely valuable for students, but can also be very time-consuming for mentors. A series of surveys were administered to plant biologists during the last 4 years to understand the perspectives of mentors on training undergraduate and high school student researchers. The survey responses provided a wealth of ideas about how to save time and increase lab productivity while training student researchers. We have synthesized the practical advice from more than 900 survey responses to suggest the following 10 tips for undergraduate research mentors: design a simple project with clear goals, provide hands-on supervision, ensure good communication and explanations, involve students early, sign a student-mentor contract, maintain well-written protocols, establish student research communities, capitalize on inexperience, create a template file for student posters, and increase retention.