I have been chitting some spuds in the kitchen during March.
Most of them have a cluster of 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch stubby green roots
now sprouting from one end.

Some questions:

* Should I prune the green down to a single green root?
* What size should the roots grow to before planting up outside?


Thanks,
Bruce

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have been chitting some spuds in the kitchen during March.
Most of them have a cluster of 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch stubby green roots
now sprouting from one end.

Some questions:

* Should I prune the green down to a single green root?

They're shoots and not roots and so will grow upwards. A point
to remember when planting them. Depending on the size of the
potato the usual recommendation is to rub all but the four
strongest shoots out. On a very small seed potato you might
only leave one, and its also possible to cut larger tubers
up before planting, leaving them to callous up first or
dusting them with sulphur.

The purpose of chitting is to give the plant a head start
by having the shoots pointing in the right direction - i.e
upwards, rather than starting under tuber and having to
work their way around and up. So try and select shoots
on the one side. This is also a reason for cutting
up a tuber if the four strongest looking shoots are
likely to be pointing in four different directions.

....

* What size should the roots grow to before planting up outside?

....

There is no optimum size as such.

The only limitation is the weather outside and the danger of
any late frosts. Chitting helps, as it shows you where the shoots
are going to emerge from, and so plant them the right way up, and
it allows you to start them early under protected conditions.



michael adams

....




Thanks,
Bruce

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:23:12 +0100, "michael adams"
wrote:


wrote in message
roups.com...
* Should I prune the green down to a single green root?

... the usual recommendation is to rub all but the four
strongest shoots out.

Though for earlies and news you may want to leave more shoots which
should in principle give more but smaller spuds.

Surely it also depends on what sort of potatoes they are. If they are
maincrop then I think one major shoot is what is required to give you
large potatoes.

If they are first earlies i.e. salad potatoes then more shoots are
better as you will get more pototoes but smaller ones .

Well I think that's right anyway

You may get different points of view on this, this is mine;

1) Some people do! but think of this; you remove all but one, plant it and on backfilling it is knocked off.........result the chitting was a waste of time.

I have found it makes little or no difference.

These sprouts / chits are individual haulms (tops), not roots as you suggest.

The original seed potato rots away, and roots develop from the haulms and the new potatoes are swellings (tubers) that grow on these roots.

This is one of the reasons for 'earthing up',that is, it encourages more roots, and the potential for many more potatoes.

It might then be said that this area of soil will not sustain lots of potatoes so it is better to reduce the number of haulms and get few but bigger potatoes.

So really, reducing the chits to one, a few or just leaving them all on is just a matter of personal choice.

Regarding the length of these; this does't really matter the most important thing is the state of the soil, i.e. it is not water logged or frozen.

In fact you can plant seed potatoes without chitting, by not chitting, this only means that the haulms will take a little longer to emerge.

If you plant out too early the new emerging growth might be nipped by late frosts so this sets you back and the benefits of early planting has been lost.

I tend to work backwards from when I expect the last frosts.(have a look at 'Frost Zones on my website)

I find in my area it takes around three to four weeks for the tops to emerge so I plant out about three to four weeks before the last anticipated frost, assuming the ground is in a fit state to do so.

I think patience and local knowledge is the answer to much of what you ask.

If you look in my website you will see it is a calendar of events brought about from the days I was in your positions i.e. each year I kept notes on what I did and the results, then the following year I adjusted my tasks accordingly.

I always err on the side of safety a sow/plant later if I am in doubt and generally I find that through the resilience of plant life (not me) I get a good a crop of what ever I am growing.

I hope this answers your question.

"JB" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:23:12 +0100, "michael adams"
wrote:


wrote in message
roups.com...
* Should I prune the green down to a single green root?

... the usual recommendation is to rub all but the four
strongest shoots out.

Though for earlies and news you may want to leave more shoots which
should in principle give more but smaller spuds.

....

The less shoots you leave on each tuber, the quicker they develop
I believe.

The point about earlies is that they should never get the chance
to reach too a big a size, by the time you come to pick them in
any case.

i.e when they're big enough, then they should be picked.

It all depends on planting distances as well. If you have a
sackful of seed and only a small garden then its pointless
not rubbing out at last some of the shoots. Otherwise they'd
simply crowd one another out. Whereas by leaving only one or two
shoot per tuber you'd get stronger, quicker developing individual
plants.

Lates are often chitted so as to develop plenty of foliage early on,
on the plants, before any possibility of blight. And the tubers
can be lifted that much earlier, if only a matter of days, before
slugs start doing their worst.

The trick with potatoes at both ends of the season, between
frosts at one end, and blight and slugs at the other is to have them
in the ground for as short a time as possible. If there's room, then in
theory chitted tubers widely spaced should give the best results


michael adams

....

"Janet Baraclough" wrote
snip
After planting I gave the bed a heavy dose of home made compost
(about 3" thick) followed by a layer of seaweed (4" thick). If frost
threatens the new leaves later on, its very quick and easy to flip
some
mulch over to cover the leaves, and they just grow through it again a
few days later.

Every now and then you make me wish I lived near a deserted sea-weed
strewn beach...

--
Sue

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message .com
from " contains
these words:

I have been chitting some spuds in the kitchen during March.
Most of them have a cluster of 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch stubby green roots
now sprouting from one end.

Some questions:

* Should I prune the green down to a single green root?
* What size should the roots grow to before planting up outside?

The bigger the shoots are the more likely they are to get damaged
during planting. (You sometimes see them in bad Sheds and GC's etc with
long waving white tentacles like a triffid..those are doomed).

I planted mine yesterday, the eyes had developed into nubs measuring
about 1cm and just showing colour. Once planted, you don't need to
worry about immediate frosts because the soil on top of them will
protect the tubers for the next several weeks. . When the shoots/leaves
start breaking through the soil surface, then you do have to start
watching for late frosts and be ready to protect them with more soil, or
a mulch, or garden fleece.

After planting I gave the bed a heavy dose of home made compost
(about 3" thick) followed by a layer of seaweed (4" thick). If frost
threatens the new leaves later on, its very quick and easy to flip some
mulch over to cover the leaves, and they just grow through it again a
few days later.

Janet (Isle of Arran).

Could grass clippings be used to mulch,then rake off & compost or leave as
mulch around the spuds then dig in after crop has ended.
Cheers Keith

Keith
I have successfully grown potatoes following a no dig method, whereby I
just use my trowel to dig a hole and pop a potato in there. Then as
shoots appear I build the soil level up by adding mulch for which I
typically use grass clippings mixed with shredded paper. I used to
have the office cleaner saving me bags of the stuff. I would put a
layer of paper, then a layer of clippings. As Janet says, it gets warm
if you put too greater depth of clippings on in one go.
So grass clippings get the thumbs up from me.
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire