To chit or not to chit

Now having bought some seed potatoes from the Potato day (see my earlier post), I only had a week to chit them before I was planting the other, previously bought and chitted first early seed potatoes.  So it made me wonder if chitting really mattered.  What is chitting anyway?

Essentially chitting is sprouting, exposing the seed potato to light so that shoots develop, it is the start of growth for the seed potato.  Green shoots as opposed to white shoots are preferable as these are stronger, white shoots are very brittle.  This process gives the seed potato a head start, before going in the ground, it also means that potato crops will be ready earlier; it is in fact an ageing process.  Chits are the stems of the new plant, off of which your new crop of seed potatoes will grow.

To chit your seed potatoes they need to be laid out in a cool, well lit room, with their eyes, or small sprouts upper most, to let the chits grow strong and green.  Different varieties produce chits at different rates.

There is some school of thought that chitting is not necessary, in fact a warmer soil temperature will do more good, and therefore not age the potato prematurely.

Another idea is to rub off any more than two sprouts that appear, this then doesn't overwhelm or stress the tuber unnecessarily.  This tends to lead to less potatoes in number, but bigger tubers.

It's interesting to find out why these things are done, even if it's just to find out that that is the way it's done, end of story.  I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome of the chitted tubers versus the only a week old chitted tubers, yield and size.

Chitted tuber, planted with sprout facing upwards

Will keep you informed when we start to harvest as to yields etc.

Stats today -
Sales = nil
Expenses = nil
Eggs produced = 7

This year's potatoes - First earlies

We had already bought a 'net of first early potatoes before I went to the Potato day at Stonham Barns last weekend, so they have sitting, chitting quite happily in the office and are now ready to go in the ground.  The variety is Duke of York, a very old, high quality Scottish bred potato.  They are an excellent first early, boiling potato, quickly maturing into a good all-round potato as the season progresses.  Shall look forward to trying them, can't remember that we've had them before.

Duke of York, first early seed potatoes, chitted

Potatoes bought from the Potato Day were researched for their high resistance to Common Scab, which on our sandy soil we suffer from quite badly.  On entry to the Potato day I purchased  - 'A guide to seed potato varieties', by Alan Romans, and it's thanks to him that I was able to do the research, something I've never done before, so I shall be interested to see the outcome.

Common Scab is a bacterial disease that affects potato tubers particularly in dry soils when the tubers are forming and growing.  It doesn't affect the yields of the potatoes, but does affect their saleability, rendering tubers unsightly.  We live with it here, but try and get as much manure into the soil and water like mad whilst they are growing to try and alleviate some of the problem.

Arran Pilot is the other first early I've got, again an old variety, probably classed as Heritage by now.  Again a Scottish bred potato, bred by Donald Mackelvie, a potato breeder on the Isle of Arran (hence all 'his' potatoes are pre-fixed Arran).  It was hugely popular in the commercial world for approx 30 years, but earlier 'earlies' have taken its place.  It's a good boiler, not disintegrating to mush if over-boiled, but sizes do vary.  This should be a good variety for me as I do have a tendency to over boil them.  Looking forward to tasting these.  I may even plant these non-chitted as a trial, to satisfy curiosity and something that I have just read too, but more on that later.

Arran Pilot, first early seed potatoes, un-chitted currently

Stats today - 

Eggs produced = 6

Sales - 1 dozen eggs £1.95

Expenses - Seed potatoes £9.45 (forgot to add them in on Sunday's post)