Chitting spuds

KT53 · April 2016

I've just bought a bag of seed potatoes and some of them already have quite long shoots on them, should I leave them or remove and let them start again?

Logan · February 2016

Where did you get them from ? Their no good like that I'd take them back or if they were sent get in touch with them.

jennifer18 · February 2016

Leave a strong one and remove the others, they will be fine!

KT53 · February 2016

l got them from a local garden centre. Most don't have shoots, but a few do. The potatoes themselves are good and firm. I'll remove the straggly ones.

chris 172 · February 2016

Hi

i have removed long growth before and they just rebud, however keep them in as much light as possible so that they grow strong chits dark in colour ahead of planting as they must have been dark at the bottom of a pile for too long

happy gardening

KT53 · February 2016

I suspect the problem must have been where they were stored before display. They have only been on sale there for the last week or so.

james dawkins · February 2016

ive put my seed potatoes in a tray with newspaper under each 1 for a bit of warmth as they will be in my shed,would it pay me to cover them with newspaper to shield them from the light?

Dovefromabove · February 2016

No James - when you're chitting seed potatoes they need as much light as possible so that they grow short sturdy shoots, rather than long spindly ones.

chris 172 · February 2016

Hi all

attached picture of my seed pots chatting in my utility room at home.

The sprouts are just starting to appear and will only get half to three quarters of an inch long maximum and will be dark in colour and strong ahead of planting in APril.

Big thanks to my better half for giving up the space for the fifth year in a row

Happy gardening

Zoomer44 · February 2016

Chris...that's a lot of spuds...after growing in bags, have grown them for the past two years in the ground but have been disappointed with the yield... I could be planting them too far apart... do you get good yields and how close do you plant them.

chris 172 · February 2016

Hi Zoomer

i have been very fortunate in the past five years that I have had some great yields from my potatoes at my allotment. I have the equivalent of two plots in one as a corner plot which before I offered to take on was four feet high in weeds and left untouched for a number of years.

i always rotate the beds and have used plenty of good manure and have planned well the lay out of my beds which I try to keep fully utilised as much as I can with stage planting. I also have an abundance of comfrey plants around the perimeter of my garden and cut as often as I can pending on growth and you the leaves as mulch around the plants. It breaks down really quickly and also keeps the weeds at bay. I actually got five cuts of comfrey last year which produced a mass of foliage to use.

I planted Charlotte 2nd salad type, rocket 1st early, nadine 2nd, Picasso, cara, Desiree main crop and had an excellent return with still 2 hessian sacks left.

I plant all my potatoes approximately 15inches apart and am also careful about where I have limed previous areas for brassicas as one of my friends last year planted main crop Desiree on previous limed ground and his were covered in scab and mine were fervent with no damage.

unfortunately I lost a lot of photographs from last year so cannot send you any of my crop however I attach one where I had 27 rows of potatoes last year as my garden is rather large as mentioned.

Its my free gym happy gardening, ps there is a fellow gardener on YouTube type in allotment diary where you will see and maybe pick up ideas on container potatoes. His yield of Sarto Mira main crop is outstanding and worth the watch.

cheers

Chitting spuds

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