Chits are the sprouting shoots that grow out of the eyes of a potato.
Gardeners encourage these chits to grow before the potatoes are planted, so they have a heads start when they are put in the ground.
Maris Bard seed potatoes have been chitting for a week.
- The scar-side (point where the tuber was attached to parent plant) is down,
potato chit 7day
- The majority of eyes (buds) will be around the rose, and so pointing upwards.
potato chits potato chitting
- The tray is on a north-facing, light, frost free window sill.
- The chits (shoots) need to grow slowly.
- The light keeps the shoots short, fat and green.
- 4 degrees Celsius is ideal, but the temperature should not go above 10 degrees, neither should it reach freezing.
Comments »
February 5, 2007 10:05 am
I am a teacher and I have entered the school in the Grow Your Own Potato
competition. This information about chitting is very useful and I have printed
it off so that I can use it with my competition potato seeds!
Thanks for the help. Heres hoping they are the winning potat seeds. With Top
Veg support I’m sure they will be!
Comment by Sara – March 2, 2007 4:32 pm
Hi Sara
Good to hear that your class has entered the Grow Your Own Potato competition.
I hope the young people do not get confused by the term ’seed potatoes’. These
are not true seeds, but small tubers. They will produce more tubers when they
are planted in the ground. It is these new tubers which we harvest as potatoes
to eat.
Whilst the potatoes are growing in the soil, they produce shoots with lots of
green leaves. They may even produce flowers on these green shoots. These
flowers will produce true seeds.
We do not usually grow potatoes from true seeds as it takes too long. It is
much quicker using the seed potatoes rather than potato seeds!
Good luck with the competition
TopVeg
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
