Introduction: Potato Chitting
No, that's not a typo - this is the third in my grow your own series - Potato chitting is one of those things that some grow-your-own types like and others don't. Remember the last lot of potatoes you bought, stuck in a cupboard and forgot about? Well chitting is the same kind of thing. The potato starts growing in the nice cool windowsill you've got, then you can transplant outside.
You'll need:
1) Potatoes - not just any though!
2) egg box
3) windowsill
4) 'special knowledge' (you'll get that in a minute...)
Step 1: Buying the Potatoes
This is bizarrely an important step - why? That's because normal store bought potatoes will usually be OK, but may possibly contain disease you don't want to put into your soil. Use 'seed' potatoes from the local nursery or seed store and you can guarantee they will be virus free. That's not to say that the soil you're putting them in is disease free, but at least they'll have a fighting chance.
You can pick them up fairly cheaply from a good shop - mine here cost £2 from the local nursery
More importantly is that you can often pick up varieties of potato not usually available or even endangered or rare plants - though often these are sold as actual plants rather than the rare and valuable tubers.
Step 2: Learning the Knowledge...
Did you know a potato has a right and a wrong way up? No? Well that is why this part of the instructable exists and why I bothered in the first place!
Look at my blurry photo below (Damn my nokia n95 which I've been using for all my grow your own series pics)
See the knobby bits - commonly called 'eyes' - these are where the potato sprouts from. As far as you are concerned this is 'up'. Welcome to the potato grower brotherhood...
Step 3: Chitting
Now stick them in a nice big egg tray - this is useful to keep them separate and dry - they'll probably work just as well in a seed tray, but this way you don't have to stack them carefully to make sure they are the right way up.
Put the tray somewhere nice and light - a windowsill is great as long as it is cool. My room is quite warm (As is under my sink where the eaters are) and they still work great there too.
Step 4: Chits!
Below is a potato which has begun to chit - over the next few weeks this'll become more prominent. 4-6 weeks is the average time it takes to chit a potato properly and is best done between the end of jan to late march. After that, in the ground it goes being careful to not break off the forthcoming chits.
If you found this instructable interesting and have diligently worked through every step, well done you. The alternative way of growing potatoes is below:
1) buy potatoes
2) dig hole in ground
3) put potato in ground
4) cover potato in soil
5) wait till plant has flowered
6) dig up avoiding poking your fork into the potato.]
As you can see, chitting isn't required - and I tried it last year with very little difference in quality, though chitting does seem to provide more quantity - perhaps because it is not caught in the early frosts.
20 Comments
8 years ago on Introduction
can you chit a potatoe more than once? Thanks
8 years ago on Introduction
I bought some seed potatoes, and cut them into pieces, each with an eye on. Put them into egg boxes, but I think the potatoes will rot before they actually chit. Perhaps I should have let them chit first then cut them up ready for planting?
11 years ago on Step 4
How deep? Are we supposed to make a dirt mound?
12 years ago on Step 4
i seem to have bought some pre chitted tatoes, 6 in a bag that are soon to be burried, was going to eat them.
12 years ago on Step 4
so help this dummy out. Seriously, once they're "chitted", to the "chits" go UP when you put them in the ground? Or are those "roots" per say, and they go down?
Sorry if it seems like a dumb question!
Reply 12 years ago on Step 4
Chits go up :)
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
thank you!
14 years ago on Introduction
Wait... Why do I want to chit a potato? If I cut apart a potato and I plant the chits seperately, will they all grow into full potatos?
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
yes you can! In war time England under the grow your own campaign people would chit, then peel the skin off and plant each bud so they could use the potato for eating!
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
Awesome! Wait... do the peels grow back into full potatoes? Or do they like collect the seeds then plant the se--.... Hmm.. I am confused by the life cycle of a potato.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
a potato becomes the crop and then on the roots new potatoes are growing... you can find that 'mother' potato when you harvest the new potatos but in most cases you don't want to find find it ;) the potato is mostly consumed in the early stage of growing in the early year; most of that energy is used to grow upwards through the earth in the search of light, because when it reches the light the crop can produce sugar for further growing....
14 years ago on Introduction
Question - heard once that you can cut up the potato once it has chitted and plant each chit with a piece of potato attached separately. True?
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
You can cut the potato in to as many pieces as you want, but only the pieces with eyes on them can be grown. Save the rest for compost!
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
you can in fact go one step further and use potato peelings to grow potatoes. A practice common in the dig for victory era during the second world war in britain! Just make sure the chunk or peeling has an 'eye' to start growth.
15 years ago on Introduction
I remember when I learned this word, I pulled an old potato from beneath the cabinet and said, "Look mom, I chit a potato." She made me get the dictionary or I was going to be in big trouble. Great instructable. I'm trying to plan my garden for next year and my husband requested potatoes! Thanks!
15 years ago on Introduction
where i am from we call those the chits eyes
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
Indeed - the 'eye' is from whence the chit comes - the sprout is the chit. The act of purposely letting them sprout is called chitting.
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
I've uploaded a better final pic of a chitted potato.
15 years ago on Introduction
Ooops! Amended! 4-6 weeks - or it can be a week.
15 years ago on Introduction
about how long does it take for a potato to chit (lol) a whole other one?