Chitting Seed Potatoes

Although it doesn’t seem like it outside right now, spring is definitely on the way!

In our 10m x 5m edible garden this year we are going to be growing some new potatoes.

Potatoes are a real staple in the kitchen and early varieties are so useful in recipes such as our Cheese & Onion Potato Bake and they are also perfect for our Homemade Crisps

Understandable with very limited growing space we will not be growing then in the ground but instead we will be growing them in sacks either on the patio or at the back of the garden, near the raised bed.

Growing potatoes in sacks or bags is a very easy option it is much easier to water, feed and ‘earth up’ the soil around the stem, which saves you a lot of back-breaking digging!

Where to Buy Seed Potatoes

Seed potatoes are available now from garden centres and shops like Wilko. We have 2 different varieties bought from Wilko, Pentland Javelin & Wilja.

You can also get them mail order but it is better to see what you buy so that you can choose good tubers that are not dehydrated or with long spindly shoots.

Wilko sell their seed potatoes in 2kg packs and we have got 22 Pentland Javelins & 31 of the Wilja.

But before we can get around to planting the seed potatoes, they first have to be ‘chitted’.

This is done to allow the potatoes to form good strong sprouts, which will give them a good head-start and hopefully result in a quicker and larger crop.

How To Chit Potatoes

Chitting seed potatoes is very easy and only requires some old egg boxes to hold them and a frost-free sunny place to allow the shoots to form.

On each potato locate the ‘eyes’. These are the indentations in the skin and this is where the sprouts will form. Place the potatoes into the egg boxes with the eyes facing up so that they get lots of light then pop them onto a sunny windowsill or into a frost-free greenhouse until good strong sprouts form. This will take a few weeks but there is no hurry as we won’t be planting the potatoes until late March or early April.