Personal notes from over 40 years of gardening.

How to ‘Chit’ Potatoes and Why?

February
Potatoes laid out to 'chit'. Photographer Sean James Cameron.

When your seed Potatoes arrive you can keep them in their bags (if paper bags, otherwise remove from plastic bags) until it is time to plant them. Most gardeners do a process called ‘Chitting’. This is achieved by placing the seed potatoes with their ‘eyes’ facing upwards and kept in a light, frost-free location out of direct sunlight.

It is thought that this process helps to achieve an early crop ahead of just throwing them into the ground.

If you use an egg box the potatoes will nicely sit in each compartment without falling over.

During the coming weeks you will notice stumpy green shots appear, this is good. If you have put them into a dark space you would have long white shoots which brake off the moment you touch them and are there useless for a decent harvest.

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