Despite spending 3 years on a research project growing potatoes i still have managed to have something go wrong!
i was trying to hold off chitting my seed potatoes because my plot is so wet and is heavy sticky clay. I had them stored in the garage...coldest darkest place I have and they had been fine but I checked them yesterday and they now have long pale sprouts. That happened very quickly I guess it was last weeks 'warm' weather.
What is the best thing to do to salvage the situation....is trimming the sprouts back ok?
I've put ours in the cold greenhouse in the hopes of stopping them a bit ;D
I bought my seed potatoes about 4 weeks ago to get the varieties I wanted, then placed them in the fridge (this is an old one in the garage) they are still fine and haven’t sprouted, you can rub off the sprouts and they will re-sprout later.
Why slow them down??
I find the best way to look after them is to get them chitting in maximum light as soon as I take delivery of them.
Mines have been chitting for around two weeks now and won't be planted out till mid April at the very earliest!
Has it not been said before - nature will do what it wants, when it wants, despite our poor efforts?
As said, go with it & expose to light to strengthen them up.
They are not going to rush madly ahead.
And dark won't stop them.
take them into the light and remove the biggest sprout. Thats what I'd do.
We had some that had white sprouts on, and moved them into the light, and now the sprouts seem to be greening up and have stopped growing at the rate they do when kept in the dark.