Chitting new potatoes.

[greenishfing]

Last year I bought my Swift potato sets early January (as soon as my local garden centre got them in). I chitted them in a cool light place and planted them in the greenhouse border on February 19th. I picked the first ones 8 weeks and 5 days later. I had them all dug up by the beginning of June when I planted my Summer plants, peppers, cucumbers etc out into the borders.

I was wondering though is there a way of getting my seed potatoes to chit faster but still give strong haulms? Maybe put them somewhere warmer to chit? Any other ideas?

[bramble]

Greenishfing.
I wouldnt think you could get them to chit much earlier.
If you put the seed potatoes somewhere warm the chits may grow but will probably be weak.
Could you not plant them in containers and cover them up.
I grow mine in half barrels.
I wrap polystyrene sheets around the barrel and also on top.
It works for me.

[veggiechicken]

Could you start them growing in small pots/modules then plant them into the GH pots?

[SarrissUK]

I don't ever chit my potatoes, at least not on purpose. But if your point is that you want to harvest them earlier in the year, you'll need somewhere warm for them to start growing - so VC is on to something there I think

[veggiechicken]

I'm not sure whether I read it somewhere or I made it up.

[Can the Man]

I generally chit mine in some lettuce boxes in the garage, they get some soft light from the dirty window covered with cobwebs, when I go to plant them the chits would be between 25-40mm in length, you then have to be very careful when planting to not break off the chit.

[burnie]

I never thought of growing earlies in the greenhouse, I might just give that a go this winter.

[greenishfing]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I 'll just do the same as last year. I think I 'm probably already pushing the boundaries pretty much as far as they will go. One thing I did last year was not earthing the potatoes at all until they put shoots up so that the bit of warmth from the occasional sunshine didn't have to penetrate the soil too deep and then earthing them gradually, only covering the top growth when the forecast was really cold. I also kept watering cans in the greenhouse to hopefully warm the water a couple of degrees before I watered them.

[Babru]

I'd like to try some early greenhouse potatoes, but although I could start them somewhere warm, they'd have to head out to the chilly greenhouse pretty soon, which would be rather a shock. Last spring my greenhouse was really cold right into May, so I wonder how much early growing they'd do.

[SarrissUK]

You could do a hotbed of course, with fresh manure if you can get it. Fresh manure heats up quite a lot as it starts to decompose, but you need probably about a cubic meter of it for it to be warming. Could you maybe build one with pallets and keep it well covered?

[Babru]

Mmm, not sure I like early potatoes enough for that. If the result was something fabulous like mangoes, avocados, pineapples..... I can dream

[SarrissUK]

The Victorians did that for exactly that... pineapples