Chitting Potatoes

[Clairylou]

I've had my seed potatoes delivered this week and was planning on setting them away to chit in my potting shed at weekend, will temperature make any difference as we are forecast to be freezing up here.
:)

[Clairylou]

[Tee Gee]

will temperature make any difference

Yes !!

They must be kept frost free!!

http://tinyurl.com/27l445

[Cuke]

Liek Tee Gee says, they don't seem to like frost, I've got mine in egg boxes on the window ledges and they seem to be doing really well. The only problem is with us planning on buying some more main crop tomorrow we've really run out of room... Hope they won't mind just being on the dining table...

[Larkspur]

If your potting shed is at home you could always do what I am doing at the moment which is putting them out in the day and bringing them back in at night when frost is forecast ;)

[norfolklass]

I bunged mine on top of the wardrobe in the bedroom and they were fine â€" not too warm and enough light. OH wasn't that impressed though ::)

here's a pic from last year
(just renewed my A4A subscription so I'm posting lots of pics at the mo!)

[theothermarg]

here are my accent. this was taken last week I keep them in a cool spare bedroom. they are not doing much at the moment but that is good as they won,t be going in till next month

have learned how to photobucket, progress
marg

[Clairylou]

Thanks for your advice and great pics.

I think i better wait till this cold spell passes, i haven't got any room indoors unfortunately.

:(

[leiden64]

Does anyone actually find it worth chitting the potatoes. I've chitted them for the past couple of years, but had less successful crops than previously when I just put them straight it. To be honest there is always lots of advice about getting them to chit- the problem I have is trying to stop them from doing it too early! They always seem to be ready to plant when we have a spate of frosts and I can't put them in. I've tried buying them later, but then choice is limited and I can't always get what I want.

The most successful potatoes are always those stray ones that I didn't manage to remove the previous year - I get the best crops from these every year, though I never plan it! ???

[Lauren S]

Monty Don did a trial in sacks where the potatoes he DIDN'T CHIT gave him more potatoes than the chitted. I'm sure farmers don't chit prior to planting a field full.

[leiden64]

yeah I wonder where the whole idea of chitting came from. I know some of my old gardening books recommended rubbing off some of the 'sprouts'on the chitted potato and only leaving a few, but I think this advice has now been dismissed. I have a hunch that the potatoes in the soil have a good idea of when to start growing . By by sitting them on a warm windowsill to sprout nice little delicate shoots before plonking them in cold ground I can't help thinking that the shoots are more likely to be prone to frost damage and the poor potato gets a right shock. But then again, maybe I think too deeply about these sorts of things ;D

[morton]

The point is that you chit the earlies so that they have a head start when it comes to planting them out later. You don't put them in the ground yet because the shoots will get frosted. So they might as well be shooting in the garage/bedroom.
Maincrop have a longer growing season so it is not as necessary to chit them although you won't stop them doing it of their own accord.

[leiden64]

The thing I don't understand is why any potatoes that are left to overwinter in the ground (usually accidentally in my case) don't seem to suffer from any of this 'frost damage' that we worry about so much and actually give a very good crop (in my experience better than those I've chitted and deliberately planted!). Whereas we have to mollycoddle the earlies that we plant.

I know it's not good policy from a disease point of view to leave potatoes in the ground over winter,so it's not something I do intentionally, but I'm guessing all other seed potatoes have been kept at a similarly chilled temperature in storage to prevent sprouting? I suppose what I'm trying to say is that mother nature seems to be pretty good at doing it on her own and when I interfere (i.e. sit my little potatoes on the windowsill and wait for warmer weather) I usually get a mediocre crop.

With a family of 5 to feed I would really like to get a crop that is proportionately bigger than what I planted (judging by last year it was marginal!). Seed potatoes are so expensive relative to my rather small budget, that I'm starting to wonder if it's worth growing them at all.

[jennym]

There are many tonnes of seed potatoes that are chitted for use by farmers.
The process is carefully controlled temprature, light and humidity-wise. They don't let the sprouts get long, they aim for short stubby ones. The purpose is to age the potato so that when growing, the plants do reach maturity sooner, and more uniformly for harvesting.
Chitting properly is definitely a good idea when blight is prevalent, because the potatoes will get to a reasonable size before the blight hits.