Potatoes.....

To chit or not to chit?

I seem to remember BBC's gardeners world having better success with un-chitted maris peer seed potatoes than those "chitted".

I've recieved my seed potatoes, 6 varieties in total (1 was a freebie) and no Maris Peers.

20 tubers of each variety so I've decided to experiment for myself.

I'll plant half chitted and half un-chitted all in the same plot under the same conditions.

My International Kidneys (jersey royals) should be interesting because I'm growing half as earlies and half as maincrop.

I'll report back on the outcome

 

I hope that you are better organised than I am! When I try that kind of trial I invariably mix up my varieties or animals dig up my labels and I lose track of what was planted where and when. It makes for interesting gardening but I don't end up with any worthwhile results!

 

I assume I'll get mixed up too prastio, more likely with my other plants though? The potato and onion beds are done in my garden, got the allotment ones to go LOL

 

The RHS ran trials 2 years ago, and Monty Don did same last year for the BBC( I think ) and there was no discernible difference.
I always chit mine, grandad always did his. It seems the most logical approach.

But, there's no guarantees it seems, whichever you do.

I must say it seems a bit early to receive them, but that does give you a head start.

Good luck

 

will be interesting to hear your results, this year I'm doing mine in the bags you can buy as my first ever try with potatoes last year didn't go to well and I didn't remember to earth them up and the end result wasn't worth the money I spent on them. Must do better this year.

 

Same here Jo-doing it your way except this is my first year ever ( intentionally that is,-every year I have some turn up in my compost heap from over thick peelings!LOL) growing spuds and will be using bags, I also remember there being no particular difference on the trials-I will have to google Geoff Hamiltons advice-when in doubt follow Geoff is my own personal mantra.

 

A little tip about earthing up spuds. If you tend to forget to do this as they are growing. Which I usually do. Earth them up WHEN you plant them.:gnthb:

 

I tend to think chitting only help earlies, that are going into cold ground, but the shoots should not be more than an inch or so long.
Maincrop, why bother.

As to earthing up, bit confused David, if you earth up on planting you may as well just plant deeper

The earthing up process covers the nodes on the stem which then go on to form shoots with spuds on the end.
These stem nodes are formed, some below ground, but the shoots are trying to reach the surface as fast as possible, so dont make many on the way up, once it breaks surface, growth slows and produces leaves and nodes, which we earth up, the more nodes under the ground the more spuds, which is why growing in a barrel produces more spuds per plant.

That how I see it anyway.

 

If you think about it, Pete, you ARE planting deeper. The potatoes grow ABOVE the roots. Earthing up does NOT encourage spud production, it just prevents the crop from turning green.:thumb:

 

And if you think about it David, as I said the shoot grows as fast as possible in the dark looking for light, at which point it produces a leaf, cover that leaf node with soil and it will grow a spud or two at that point, extra ones, the more you earth up, the more spuds, they form on the stem as you say.
But only really if the stem is under the ground.

 

And, as I said, the main reason for earthing up, is to prevent the crop from turning green.:thumb::flag:

 

Agreed.:flag:

 

Happy New Year Pete, and I look forward to giving you more lessons in 09.:rotfl:

 

Happy New year to yourself David, I'm sure the new year will bring more differences of opinion, but thats what makes it interesting.:gnthb:

 

I planted several bags of spuds last year. For a couple of them I earthed up fairly deeply before leaf nodes formed and I didn't get much of a crop. The bags that I earthed up gradually produced many more tubers, so I tend to side with Pete on this one!

(The ones that I didn't earth up sufficiently produced several green surface spuds, so Dai is right too!)