chitting

[gingerninja38]

silly question but when chitting is it ok for the spuds to touch or should they be kept separate? i have a banana box from tesco with no separate spaces so how do i keep them apart if needs be? thanks

[gingerninja38]

[kt.]

If you do a search for chitting or potatoes on this site over the past 4 weeks you will find loads of posts on this topic. Pages of them. ;)

[sawfish]

they can be right beside each other, the box will be fine.

[machman5]

It's a bit late for you now but I save all my loo roll tubes and use them for germinating my seeds in but they made excellent supports for ripening my toms last autumn.  I suppose this would work for perching you potatoes on?  You could also try egg trays or cell seed trays.
Donna  :)

[gingerninja38]

i have egg boxes but not enough i am doing 4 diff types this year and we don't eat that many eggs and the local guy on the market charges for them!!! plus not enough room for loads of egg boxes.
ps loo rolls are for growing carrots!! i've been saving them for 6 months hundreds of them it feels like

[quizzical1]

Why not just lay them out in gravel trays or seed trays?

Or alternatively, get hold of some cardboard boxes and cut them down to around 2-3".

Mine are all in seedtray sized gravel trays. Nice rigid ones so they are easy to carry when I get to take them to the plot.

[tim]

These are Colleen - in the Barn since December - just coming in to a windowsill.

[philcooper]

AS Tim's picture shows, provided you start with (and keep) dry tubers, they can touch

Phil

PS start saving egg boxes now for next year  ;)

[caroline7758]

I think we should all give up fretting about our potatoes for lent, then plant themon Good Friday as tradition has it! ;D

[tim]

No need to faff around with fancy contraptions! That's all of them now.

[OliveOil]

Are chitting potatoes supposed to go wrinkly?

Sorry to jump in... but the ones i want to chit have started to wrinkle... the ones i dont want to chit are going like mad!

[cornykev]

I asked our canteen manager to save me them same baskets/crates Tim, just the job for spuds.    ;D ;D ;D

[davy1]

Not only are they good for chitting your spuds they also come in handy for standing cups in after potting on. I place polythene in the bottom so i can bottom water.

[tim]

Olive - 'supposed to'? Don't think so, but some do!!

[quizzical1]

Are chitting potatoes supposed to go wrinkly?

It's highly likely that they would "go all wrinkly", because if you think about it, in producing the shoots/chits, they are using up the food supply within the tuber. They're also possibly starting to dry out a little.

I wouldn't worry too much about it, as long as they're not going to be too long before they're in the ground, when they will start to re-absorb moisture from the soil.

[OliveOil]

Was thinking about putting them in this weekend and covering with lots of straw. We arent predicted a frost here for the next week at least... what do you guys think?

[norfolklass]

I had a look on metcheck at the 8-14 day forecast for Norfolk and there's going to be a cold spell at the beginning of March.
not sure how much of the country it's supposed to affect...

[quizzical1]

Isn't it only the leaves that are affected by frosts? If so, surely if planted this week and earthed up slightly, won't it take a couple more weeks before any foliage starts to show? Bearing in mind that the soil is still rather cold, ( At least it is here )so that will slow the growth down.

[Two Choices]

As a first time tater grower I've got some in egg boxes on the porch windowsill. They are Pentland Javelin but my shoots are very dark and brownish red in colour (they started while still in the garage), shouldn't  they be a nice fresh green colour?  ???

[tim]

Brownishredgreenpurple? Great!! Spindly white? Not so good.

And yes to Quizzy - so long as you can protect the greenery in a frost (& that's a long way off) you can get them in if you are worried - & the soil is workable. Don't forget a bit of NPK? But you'll gain little over waiting a bit.

And wrinkling happens whether or not they are 'chitting'.