Chitting potatoes
Our friend Janet popped in to see us yesterday which was lovely as we hadn’t seen her since before the Christmas holidays. As usual she passed on all manner of fabulous gardening and cooking knowledge and before long had the children outside ‘helping her’ take down a wire fence from our vegetable garden to use next door (Janet is the reason we have the veg patch as it was her very dear friend Emmie’s until she passed away last summer and Janet had gardened it for many years) and to find the box of beetroot I’ve stored in the shed so she could make some more beetroot chutney.
This visit we learnt how to chit potatoes properly. Thankfully I had opened the two enormous bags of seed potatoes and had laid them out on trays on top of the piano in the unheated front room just the night before her unexpected visit. What I didn’t know was that there is more to just plonking them out on a tray, why some varieties are called ‘earlies’ and others are ‘main crop’ and when to plant them into the ground… Janet told me everything I needed to know & here almost word-for-word is handy description from the Royal Horticultural Society:
Choosing and chitting seed potatoes
Choosing
After dry summers seed potatoes supplies may be shorter than usual. You might not be able to get the cultivars (varieties) you want if you wait too long before buying. Seed potatoes tend to be available from garden centres and from mail order suppliers from January.
Avoid using ware or eating potatoes as there is a risk that you will be planting virus-infected tubers that will give a disappointing crop. Tubers you have grown yourself are also likely to carry disease.
Certified seed sold by seed suppliers, garden centres and DIY superstores is guaranteed to be virtually free of pests and diseases.
Chitting
Once home, seed tubers are best ‘chitted’ or sprouted. Unpack and lay the tubers out in a single layer in a tray with the ‘rose’ end uppermost. This end has the most eyes or buds and sprouts will arise from these. Some suppliers offer ‘pre-chitted’ seed.
Keep the trays of tubers in a cool but frost-free place with at least moderate light, such as in an unheated room. Direct sunlight is best avoided. Sprouts will form within a few weeks. The tuber is therefore ready to grow away as soon as planted. Tubers can be laid out to chit from January onwards, but planting should be delayed until March in sheltered and southern areas or April in less favoured districts. Earlier plantings can rot in the ground or the shoots can be frosted off on sharp nights. By this time the sprouts should be about 5cm (2in) long and dark coloured. Longer thinner sprouts are caused by excess heat or too little light or both, and tiny sprouts suggest conditions are too cold. Chitting takes about six weeks.
If the weather is unsuitable for planting, tubers can be left to chit further, even into May, without too much loss of crop.