CHITTING POTATOES

Say what?!? Chitting potatoes? What’s that? Exactly my thoughts two years ago.

It sounded so weird…and I even looked it up in the dictionary…CHIT…TO CHIT…CHITTING…nothing!!! {that made gardening sense}

Whatever. My gardening books say you should “chit“ potatoes before planting…

which simply means to stand them upright in a warm and dark place with the eyes (buds) pointing upwards.

Supposedly potatoes that have been chitted will grow much faster than unchitted ones after planting. OK…got that.

Yesterday I bought some Yukon Gold and Norland Red potato “seeds” {oh here’s another term…seed potatoes…ones which have eyes growing}

Last year I was able to buy smaller seed potatoes…this year some of them are huge…

so I put them in egg cartons with spacing between them ‘cause they’re so big.

I do need to mention that you can’t just buy regular potatoes at Safeway or wherever…stores treat potatoes with something to prevent eyes growing. You will need to buy “seed” potatoes from a nursery or feed store.

Here I’ve put my seed potatoes on the top of a freezer in the barn. It’s warmish but not too dark. It should be dark.

So I’ve put on a shade screen to keep them “darkish”…and they’ll be ready to plant in 2-4 weeks. NIghty night potatoes.

Flash back to last year…here is a photo from from May 2013 of my seed potatoes being planted in two 4 x 8 beds…and all summer I regretted the space they took up. Many gardeners say not to even ever plant potatoes…’cause they’re cheap enough at the store.