Chitting potatoes

[Paul Narramore]

I bought two types of seed potato (Anya and Charlotte) a few weeks ago and placed them in a 'seedling tray' for want of a better word, the sort of tray with small compartments. I put the tray and potatoes on a table in the spare bedroom and waited. After a month I went in today and wondered when those little shoots were going to show up. Then I discovered that they all had shoots, at the BOTTOM of the potatoes. It seems that I was wrong placing them in the light and that they needed the dark to shoot. :mad:Digger?!!

PS I have inverted every one of them now.

[sue1002]

I am using egg boxes to chit our spuds on the landing windowsill, and they started shooting within a few days. Like you Paul I wondered why some hadn't sprouted and when I lifted them up to look the sprouts were underneath and were white, since I've turned them the right way up they are turning purple, the same as the other ones.

[Paul Narramore]

Sue

Since they seem to prefer to sprout in darkness, perhaps I should have placed them under the bed rather than on a table top in front of the window? My wife's grandfather used to chit them that way. Like you I've turned then all around.

I'm going to try two methods of growing potatoes this year. The Anya I shall plant in the raised borders using the ridge system, rather as I did last year but I shall plant them more deeply and on a bed of grass cuttings. I tried this many years ago and had a great crop.

The second method is one I got from a T&M advert in the GW magazine but rather than pay their rates, I'm doing it my way. I've bought three hesian 'charity' shopping bags (£1 each) and after putting 4" of garden soil in the bottom, I'll plant four seed potatoes in there. As the shoots get taller, I'll keep topping the soil up until it reaches the top of the bags. In August I'll tip the contents out and should have a lovely crop of Charlotte potatoes.

[sue1002]

How big are the 'charity' shopping bags Paul? if they are about the same size as the plastic bags that get shoved through our door then you should be ok with planting four in each. I found last year with the bucket method that you get the same yield from two potatoes in a bucket as you do with three, so this year I'm only doing two to a bucket. I don't have enough soil to do the buckets and use a general multi purpose compost instead.

[digger]

OOOPs, I was told putting them in the dark would encourage too much spindly weak growth, however if you soak each tuber in a solution of liquid seaweed it will give them a real energy boost for sprouting and you can continue feeding them with a dilute seaweed solutio as they grow.

[Paul Narramore]

My hessian bags are the Tesco Green Bags, about 18" long, 12" high and 8" deep. The advice seems to be to keep them indoors for a few weeks to get the potatoes going before taking them outside. Fortunate I have a largish garden and there's always a corner with a pile of top soil I can go to.

[Phill'n'gem]

Our seed potatoes were hung in the shed for about 2 weeks before i put about 5 on a 4" layer of multi purpose compost in an old black dustbin at the bottom of our garden. they did nothing for about 4 weeks and then all of a sudden they started sprouting. After about 10 days they had 12-14" stems so i earthed them up and planted another 5 seeds. Have just done the same again yesterday and the bin is full now! The stems are already coming out the top of the bin and I havent given them anything more than a bit of organic potato fertiliser, (I have a feeling that they may try and take over the world)
Ill put a pic on later if i get the chance

[carl]

When I was a boy we used to keep rabbits and after clearing the hutches out we used to put the waste at the top of the garden where mum also put the potato peelings. Strange as it may seem we always used to have a good feed from the peelings.

[Confuzzled]

Paul, I grew some Charlotte's in a bag, but I made use of the recycling sacks the local council send round for newspaper :D Worked very well, and I don't use the sacks otherwise :)

[fastgrow12]

Places potatoes in a cool, sunny spot about two weeks ,after check the sprouts on his potatoes. You will find good sprouts, or chits, in a thick green or purple color. If the chits are black, they aren't good. Remove black chits just by rubbing them off with your hands.

[RJonbold]

All this is good advice to someone who once inherited a potato bed in a new home but otherwise have never tried to grow the things. The potato bed I had self-seeded and to this day I don't know what kind of spud they were, they were small and good in stews and such but not big ones. I would love to grow some more, and am trying to learn anything I can about it before starting, and I think I'd like to grow some unusual variety like Peruvian purple potatoes or something else that you don't usually find in the market. Thanks to everyone on this site for the helpful tips.