Chitting or not?

Partly due to incompetence and partly to lack of money, I ordered my potato tubers late and they only arrived last week. they are sitting on the windowsill just beginning to shoot but as time is getting on I wondered if I should plant them and not wait. searching online suggests that chitting may not be necessary.
Has anyone tried planting out straight away?

 

Just plant them they'll be fine it makes no difference really. Better to get them in.

 

The later you leave them, the later you'll get potatoes but they'll still grow. Save some earlies for very late planting in pots so you can have new spuds for Christmas dinner!

 

I had the same problem however i planted most of them at the allotment and some in planter bags at home the ones in the bags are showing at the moment but they were planted a week before the ones in the allotment so they should be fine.

 

Hello Liz, on Gardeners World they did a trial to see if there was much to be gained by chitting early, maincrop and late potatoes. It seemed to indicate that the early crop potatoes benefitted most by giving a slightly better yield, the later crop pots didn't seem to gain very much. In a way it's reassuring to see some healthy shoots on the tubers before you plant them and it might help that you can plant them with the shoots uppermost but they seem to sort themselves out if you just plant them as Sawfish ( who seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to Ivor Cutler ) says, good luck.

 

I have not yet planted my main crop. I will be planting them out this next weekend. Do not despair they will still grow. Might even grow better as the soil temperature is a little higher now.

 

Well done T Digger you discovered my alter ego.

 

A sad loss, there are all too few originals like Ivor these days Sawfish, a fine alter ego to have If I may say so. Mediocrity and normality should be avoided at all costs, Cheers T.D.

 

I'm in favour of mediocrity. I excel at it.

 

You sound like me T Digger! If you think differently nowadays you're branded weird. Sorry for the highjacking, back to the post!

Potatoes are tough and leap up when you least expect them after thinking they've all died.