Before planting, you need to ‘chit’ your potatoes. This involves letting the potatoes grow shoots, which will give you a bigger potato crop. Place seed potatoes in trays or egg cartons with the end that has the most eyes uppermost. Stand in a cool, light spot until 1-2cm long shoots have formed.
How long should potatoes be chitted for?
Seed potatoes should be chitted around 6 weeks before you plan to plant them – so, for many, that will mean chitting in February ready for planting in March/April. You can chit first and second earlies, and maincrop potatoes, at the same time.
Why do you chit potatoes?
Chitting potatoes is the traditional practice of placing seed potatoes in a light, frost-free spot in late winter to encourage sprouting. The argument is that this process artificially elongates the growing season, resulting in an earlier crop and greater yields.
What is the fastest way to chit potatoes?
To speed up the sprouting process, place onions or apples alongside the potato tubers. The gases released by the fruit encourages the potato to sprout. Keeping a moist rag or even damp leaves alongside them will also help stop the tubers becoming all wrinkled and dried out.
Do potatoes need to be chitted? – Related Questions
Should potatoes be chitted in light or dark?
Too little light and the sprouts will be long, spindly, and liable to break off. Ideally you want short, stubby sprouts which are deep green, almost purple in colour. Indirect light for the entire day is the best way to achieve healthy sprouts when chitting seed potatoes.
How do you force potatoes to chit?
Step 3: Trigger the Potatoes to Sprout
Locate the seed potatoes in a warm dark area, around 70˚F (21˚C) to break their dormancy. You should see some sprouts a week or so. In about two weeks, move them to a cooler location 50˚F (10˚C) with some light. The light makes the sprouts turn green and healthy.
What makes potatoes sprout faster?
You can make potatoes sprout faster and earlier by exposing them to high levels of indirect light, ideal air moisture, and adequate temperature. Get potatoes to grow eyes or sprouts by placing them with ripening fruits that emit ethylene gas.
Can you chit potatoes in direct sunlight?
So you need to keep your potatoes somewhere cool, but frost free – in the region of 10-13C will do the trick. Equally, they need good light conditions, but not direct sun, so that the chits grow fat and green, rather than pale and lanky. Ideally, they should be about 2.5cm long at the time of planting out.
Where is the best place to chit seed potatoes?
A garage or porch, slightly warmed by the house, is ideal for chitting potatoes. Light is important so don’t shove them off to the back of a shed. If you have only a few potato tubers, line them up in egg cartons.
Can you chit potatoes for too long?
The Disadvantages From Chitting Potatoes
Chits can be too long and get damaged at planting. If we get a cold wet spell and can’t plant you have chitted potatoes that need planting but can’t be. Long chitds get damaged and yields drops. Chitting takes time and space that not everyone has.
What to do after chitting potatoes?
Handle your chitted tubers with care, gently setting them into the trench with the shoots pointing upwards, being careful not to break the shoots. Cover the potatoes lightly with soil. As soon as the shoots appear, earth up each plant by covering it with a ridge of soil so that the shoots are just buried.
How many times can you grow potatoes in the same soil?
In a normal crop rotation plan, potatoes would only be grown in soil used for a previous potato crop every four years. If you grow potatoes in the same soil more frequently than that you risk them suffering from pests and diseases. So, when growing potatoes in containers always use fresh compost.
Can I cut my chitted potatoes in half?
As long as your seed potatoes have ‘eyes’, which are shoots on various parts of the potatoes, they can be cut in half and planted.
How many potatoes grow from one seed potato?
You should get about four pieces from an average-size seed potato. Fingerling potatoes have many eyes, and can produce as many as six seed pieces.
Can you harvest a few potatoes without killing the plant?
If the potatoes are too small, replace the covering carefully and let them grow on a bit longer. You can even harvest some potatoes from a plant and leave the others to grow on.
Can you chit potatoes from supermarket?
Can I use potatoes bought from the supermarket as seed potatoes? It is best not to because many shop bought potatoes may have been treated to prevent them from sprouting. They will also be more prone to disease. Buy seed potatoes from a specialist and you will have many different varieties to choose from.
Will store-bought potatoes grow if planted?
You buy a bag of potatoes and before you can use them, they begin to sprout. Rather than throwing them out, you may be contemplating growing grocery store potatoes in the garden. Will store-bought potatoes grow though? The answer is yes.
How do you chit store-bought potatoes?
Place your potatoes into the pot, burying them slightly into the soil. Try to allow about 6 inches between each potato or piece of potato that you plant. Plant them with the sprouts facing upward out of the soil. Then, cover them with more soil as needed until they are completely buried under 1-2 inches of soil.
Why can’t you plant supermarket potatoes?
The main reason is that store-bought potatoes are not certified seed potatoes, which means that they can introduce harmful potato diseases into your soil which will be difficult, or even near impossible, to get rid of once they arrive.
What should potatoes not be planted near?
Potatoes are members of the nightshade family, so avoid planting potatoes near any other nightshade family members such as peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, and okra. And, avoid planting potatoes is the same location where nightshade plants have recently been grown.