Topic: Chop-Chop! Twice the tatties?

[Nigel B]

I've managed to bag a small bag of Pink Fir Apple seed potatoes, all ten of them for £1.99.  :o
But that's ok, because I can grow them out and store the produce for next year, and they are a reasonable size. So I was wondering, will be ok to give each one the chop, producing twenty to plant out?
Cheers folks.  :)

[Hi_Hoe]

From Alan Tichmarshes "The Kitchen Gardener" :-

"Dont cut large ones in half; the open wound makes them rot"

Sounds reasonable to me!

You could always cut two or three though, just to try? (im curious if this works myself!!)

Good luck and let us know how you get on

[Nigel B]

Actually Hi_Hoe, that thought had crossed my mind but I thought I might get around it by dusting the cut end with powdered charcoal.
I might just wait a while though before wielding the knife, to see if anyone has already tried it.
I'd hate to tread on soil already dug. :)

[louise stella]

They did this during the war - cutting each piece so that it had an eye.  You can even grow spuds from peel with an eye!  But do we really need to do it today - and risk introducing disease?  I don't know!

[aj]

They still cut them in many countries - it's only the Brits that seem to have one spud per plant...If you cut them a couple of days before planting it gives the surface time to heal.

[Kleftiwallah]

My old Dad used to do this and dip the cut side into flowers of sulpher or lime.    Cheers,     Tony.

[cornykev]

Some of the Italians do it on our site and one of the lads said that he used to do it when he worked on a farm in Ireland as a lad.
You need to heal the ends before planting, I've heard of lime doing this but always found it strange as you keep the spuds away from lime to prevent scab.    ???  :-\

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've often chopped them in half, and it works. I don't get why everyone has to plant a complete potato every time. Just make sure you've got eyes in each half!

[pumkinlover]

Aye Aye Robert ;)

[dtw]

I would have thought there would be one shoot per eye, so that if you cut them and space out the shoots, you would get a more even spread of foliage and roots utilising the amount of water available more efficiently.

[powerspade]

I cut my spuds and dust the wounds with Sulphur

[elhuerto]

Everyone here cuts their spuds in half and I haven't seen anyone treating the cuts. I did it last year with some potatoes given to me by a neighbour and there was no difference in product / plants between those and the ones that were uncut. I would certainly do it again if necessary.

[saddad]

I've managed to bag a small bag of Pink Fir Apple seed potatoes, all ten of them for £1.99.  :o
But that's ok, because I can grow them out and store the produce for next year, and they are a reasonable size. So I was wondering, will be ok to give each one the chop, producing twenty to plant out?
Cheers folks.  :)

Given PFA/s natural tendency to "break" I'd snap rather than cut them...  :-\

[Kea]

My mum always did (in New Zealand) however we were in a 'virus free/disease free' area the part of the country where potatoes were grown for seed...like Scotland. Having worked on a research project on Potato blackleg/tuber soft rot I would expect it would make them more susceptible to that disease, depends on the weather as well. It is worth having ago just as long as you're prepared to accept the loses if it goes wrong.