Chitting

The method of ‘chitting’ is to concentrate the energy of the potato into the development of healthy buds before planting the potato into the ground. It is believed to speed up and increase crop production thus allowing a larger and slightly earlier harvest. Whilst I do not disagree with this, you do not see farmers chitting their potatoes and placing them heads up in neatly prepared trenches. If you wish to chit your potatoes, remove all but 3 healthy looking ‘eyes’ (buds) by rubbing them off with your thumb and place them ‘eyes’ up in an empty seed tray or egg box. They then need to be kept in a cool frost-free place with moderate light until those eyes develop to a length of 3/4in (2cm) long. This will take approximately 6 weeks to happen, and then they can be planted out when there is no longer a chance of heavy frosts.

Written by Day Lily on 2006/12/04 | Permalink to this article