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My wife ordered my all my seed potatoes as a christmas present,and they were delivered before christmas!, i wasnt expecting them until the end of January. Can anyone advise what I should do with them? Will they be ok?

If you have got somewhere that is cool, frost free and in the light, then I would start chiting them there.

If, like me, you don't have anywhere cool, then I have no idea how well they will be if they are chitted somewhere warm, but I will find out as I am trying this with some saved spuds.

They would have been kept in cold storage, so guess they should be happy in your fridge for a while, but I have never tried it.

there is no need to chit your potatoes so no need to worry

Our purple majesty turned up before Christmas. I've got them chitting in egg boxes on a table in the spare room. We've never had seed spuds before Christmas before  :-\

Doesn't chitting stop the development of long shoots which may happen if they are in the dark?
Therefore it is a good idea to chit if they start to shoot even if you do not feel there is a need to chit.

ps I think I know what I mean but wether it makes sense to anyone else ;)

I'm using my own saved tubers and they had started growing all over place in the dark in Oct/Nov. So I sorted them and put some in egg boxes on the windowsill in the spare bedroom. Been there 2 months and have chitted nicely. The light slows them down coz they realise they aren't underground. They'll be off as soon as I pot or bury them.

pumpkinlover you may know what mean but you terms and definitions are wrong.

chitting just means sprouting it does not matter if they sprout in light or dark it is still sprouting aka (chitting).

also the rhs has found that chitting aka (sprouting) provided no benefit to potato production after extensive testing.  the need for chitting is old wives tail like several other garden practices in UK.

Oh but it means I can look at them lovingly for a couple of months!!

Makes perfect sense to me Pumpkinlover, if stored too long in the dark chits get overly long and spindly. As others have said, I find keeping them in a cool and well lit position works best.

I found these informative, 2 links to guides/information from RHS another one at JBA

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Children/For-families/Grow-it!/Chit-early-potatoes
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=716
http://www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk/chitting-sprouting-potatoes

Although I do choose to chit, I have planted un-chitted maincrop potatoes with good results.

Quote from: plainleaf on January 02, 2012, 20:02:12
also the rhs has found that chitting aka (sprouting) provided no benefit to potato production after extensive testing.  the need for chitting is old wives tail like several other garden practices in UK.

The RHS test, also repeated by gardeners world showed that chitting did produce ealier and biger crops for first earlies but made no difference for main crop.

You could store them outside in damp sand, compost, soil, or similar. That way they won't chit as it'll be too cold. Chitting is, as Chrispy says, worthwhile for earlies, but it's a bit of a meaningless ritual for maincrops, unless you really want to drool over your tubers. My saved seed can stay in damp sand for a while yet. Most of it's mini-tubers anyway, and I plan to mollycoddle them, rather than leaving them out in a nasty dry atmosphere.

Chitting, in other words keeping any shoots short and tough in light conditions, is the  only way to stop them sending out long fragile shoots that break off when you plant them.

So what is the argument against "chitting"?