Chitting Potatoes

[glallotments]

We don't really water our potatoes either and have always felt maybe we should when we have seen others dowsing their so it's good to know you don't JB.

[oldherbaceous]

Well my seed potatoes have arrived from Alan Romans this morning, and very impressed i am indeed. They are all of a good equal size, about the size of a hens egg, and with no damage.

My chosen varieties are,

Accord, Charlotte x 2, Internatinal Kidney, Kestrel, Lady Christl, Picasso and Swift.

Just Maris Bard and one more late variety to get now.

[glallotments]

We are still waiting for ours from AR hope he hasn't given you all ours too.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Glallotments, have you had the email saying they have been dispatched, yet?

I got my email Monay.

[glallotments]

Hi OH,
No - we just had an email explaining there was a delay in sending them out! Hope they haven't forgotten us or I'll have to withdraw my recommendation!

[Nature's Babe]

Hi Johnboy, re Jersey royals, I grew up in Jersey, after spring tides the farmers collect the seaweed from the beaches, and stack in heaps to allow the salt to get rained out, then they use it on the land, chitting was done in wooden boxes in a cool shed, they used natural manure too, the flavour was always superb, a lot were grown on steep slopes by the sea and with all that going into the soil there was no erosion or loss of topsoil, apparently topsoil used to be about 4 ft deep, our modern farming methods have depleted this considerably.

[Geoff]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8483779.stm

However you grow them reinstate them as part of your five-a-day!

[Elle's Garden]

Ok, reviving this thread as slightly panicking.

My chosen varieties arrived about 2 weeks ago. I put the International Kidneys into module seed trays on end on the bedroom windowsill (which is both cool and light) as I intend to plant these into tubs & bags that I can protect from frost.

I put the others in what I thought was a coolish darkish place thinking in my naivete that being maincrop they perhaps wouldn't start anything too early! I have just checked them and the Maris Pipers are nearly as far on as the International Kidneys, the King Edwards and Desiree are also starting to sprout. The freebie Rudolph things are quiet so far.

My panic is about how long they can sit about chitting without overdoing it. I won't be able to plant any of these varieties until April ideally. Can I hold everything back - how? Do I need to? Should I put them in modules too and leave them to it?

Advice appreciated

p.s. last year's anya's turned out to be lovely and very productive in their pots and bags.

[alan refail]

I put the others in what I thought was a coolish darkish place

Dear Elle

They should be somewhere cool and light. Dark will bring them on too fast.

Alan

[Elle's Garden]

Dear Alan,

Thank you, so if I whip them up to the same place as the others will they slow up a bit? We are talking just tiny buds at the moment, nothing I could call a shoot.

[alan refail]

Hi Elle

As they are only just starting to sprout, if you move them now to the light and cool they should behave for you.

A potato sprout is a wonderful thing seen close up

Potato sprout.jpg (31.94 KiB) Viewed 3537 times

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
A great photograph. If you were to leave that shoot for a few more days you could remove it and grow it as an individual plant. I suspect that this is what is done with bulking up for a new variety.
I no longer chit potatoes and I plant and mound-up in the one operation as the commercial growers do and my yield is good enough for me as is the quality. It also save one hell of a lot of faffing about!
JB.

[Elle's Garden]

Thanks guys, potatoes all now in the light - hopefully they will behave

How do you go about not chitting JohnBoy? The potatoes were delivered and have started sprouting - what can be done to avoid this? Could I have done something different that would have kept them 'as delivered' for longer? Do you have some special storage method?

Sorry, lots of questions I know...

[Johnboy]

Hi Elle,
My potatoes are bagged up in paper potato sacks and kept in my old dairy which is on the north corner of my house and is as cold as charity even during a heatwave. I even go in there to cool off during a heatwave.
They do have signs of life when they are planted but I do not physically put them out to chit.
The only potato I would chit would be International Kidney which need shoot removal during chitting. I grow Maris Bard here and I get a very good yield and that is normally the only spuds I grow. Maris Bard although classified as an extra early here the go in a second early and what you do not eat as 'new potatoes' will mature into a superb potato that will do everything Maris Piper is said to do only better in my humble opinion.
This year I have promised to grow some of the blight resistant varieties and give them a fair trial and will be doing just that.
JB.

[Tony Hague]

I'm pleased to hear that Maris Bard is a good one - I'm growing those this year.

I do try to chit, but don't get sprouts as impressive as the one above ! I plant all the potatoes in one go, in mid March, on the flat, no ridging up at all, but deeper than many recommend. I can't see the point of all the ridging up, save for the bit weed control that results. Potatoes have a lot of stored energy and will make it up from a long way down !