Seed potatoes

[flight2529]

Hi. I have just been to our local garden centre where seed potatoes are on sale. Now, am I missing something, as they all say plant from march onwards and we have had some sharp frosts just recently. Taking into account 2 weeks chitting, isn't it a bit early for planting spuds?

[airconednightmare]

yeah it's a little early unless you are lucky enough to live on the channel islands. the seed tatties will store in the fridge under some peat or sand but there's no point if you can just wait.

i know a guy who used to farm tatties for a living and he never bothered to chit them, strait in the ground and earthed up strait away is how the farmers do it and that's what i did last year...didn't notice any difference in yeild etc.

[johnmichael]

Mine are in a spare fridge in garage,to postpone chitting,were o/k last year without peat or sand.(seed potato companies store them at 3-4 degrees c,which is about fridge temp.)

[solway cropper]

If the weather is not too cold I'll be planting spuds in containers in the greenhouse in mid/late February as I did last year so I have some chitting now. My first crop of new potatoes (Lady Christl) was lifted on 29th April and they were delicious.

I can't see the point of chitting maincrop as they're in the ground for so long but I always do it for earlies.

the recycled gardener

[sandy115]

i saved some potatoes for christmas ,stored in peat and never used them all, i have discovered some have started to grow shoots can these be used for seed potatoes this year.

[airconednightmare]

yeah but only store last year's tatties if the crop was free of pests and disease.

[Just Jan]

Help - my seed potatoes have arrived and I don't know how to store them before it is safe to plant them. Please help. Just Jan

[airconednightmare]

put them in the fridge, they will be fine for a month or two. make sure they can breath and/or put some sand or dry peat round them to absorb any mositure.

[Saturna]

Originally Posted by airconednightmare

yeah it's a little early unless you are lucky enough to live on the channel islands. the seed tatties will store in the fridge under some peat or sand but there's no point if you can just wait.

i know a guy who used to farm tatties for a living and he never bothered to chit them, strait in the ground and earthed up strait away is how the farmers do it and that's what i did last year...didn't notice any difference in yeild etc.

Chitting has no influence on yield but plenty on emergence, the only thing you will gain is a 10-14 day head start on the plant growing over unchitted seed.