cold shocking potatoes into chitting in August?

[planetologist]

Does anyone know of a way to get freshly harvested potatoes to chit? I figure there should still be time to grow a second crop before the frost.

[roitelet]

You could try leaving them in a pot of soil with the rose end proud of the surface and keep them moist and in the light. It might work. I only suggest this as one ot two of my spuds in the ground that have got uncovered are green and growing!

I might just try them under cover for Christmas!!!!!

[Flummery]

You don't need to chit them. Just plant them but make sure you can bring them inside or cover them in the frosty days.

[womble]

That can't be right, because you get all the volunteer potatoes regrowing the following year, not trying to sprout now.

[solway cropper]

Surely they need a dormant period before they start sprouting?

I agree with womble, the volunteers always appear the following year. It would make life easier if they came up straight away then we could get rid of the little beggars before the next crop went in.

[Flummery]

Farmers don't chit spuds. Theirs grow. They are fine in a pot unchitted because you give them special attention - and take them into the greenhouse when it's cold!

If you buy potatoes from a suppplier for planting for Christmas they tell you not to chit them.

[womble]

We're not talking about chitting, we're talking about getting spuds that have grown this summer into growing new plants now. If you leave them in the ground they don't sprout until next spring, so why if you just plant them again now, will they grow?

[Two_Sheds]

My volunteers are sprouting now. They've been doing it all summer, but I keep nipping off the foliage.
They are still at it though.

[Shadylane]

Yes but surely they're the ones you left in the ground last year not the ones that grew this year? I agree with Womble, I'm pretty sure they need a period of dormancy. That's why the seed companies can sell them cause they've had them in cold storgae since early spring. You could keep your own potatoes - the ones you harvested the previous season - in the salad drawer of your fridge until August and plant those, but this years harvest? I doubt it.

[Flummery]

Well, the great Doctor Hessayon say you can plant some of your earlies if you keep them back to plant late Aug/early September. This implies to me that they are this seasons but have been out of the ground for a while. No chitting - no kidding. I have some in a basket in the cupboard under the stairs to do this weekend. If it's good enough for him...

[planetologist]

I'll give it a try, though in theory I'm tempted to side with those who say they will only grow by next spring.

[womble]

Well, the great Doctor Hessayon say you can plant some of your earlies if you keep them back to plant late Aug/early September. This implies to me that they are this seasons but have been out of the ground for a while. No chitting - no kidding. I have some in a basket in the cupboard under the stairs to do this weekend. If it's good enough for him...

I've always assumed that meant keeping back first early seed from your early year planting and then planting them now.
Not, keeping crops from your first earlies and planting them now.

Tattieman will be back in a week or so

[Two_Sheds]

OK Flum, we'll just sit on our hands. Sometimes boys need to be told by boys

[womble]

I don't need to be told, I was asking a question and you haven't come up with an answer.
I found this.
Seed potatoes harvested immature or mature were stored under various temperature treatments and the time to the start of sprout growth recorded.
Immature tubers sprouted before mature tubers. A period of storage at 4°C compared with ambient temperature resulted in earlier sprouting. The response to low temperature storage decreased the later the tubers were placed in sprouting conditions and was greater with mature than immature tubers and with sprouting at 15 C compared with 20°C.
There was little difference in the time to the start of sprout growth with immature tubers sprouted at 15°C or 20°C but with mature tubers there was an advantage in favour of the higher temperature.
The results indicate that immature seed is preferable to mature seed for very early planting. If mature seed is used the results suggest that it should be stored at 4°C for up to 1 month after harvesting and then sprouted at 20°C.
SpringerLink -

and others, seem to say that potatoes need a dormancy time of at least 30 days and then warming up to sprout. So I can hypothesise, that of those volunteers left in the ground, those closer to the surface, will now have probably had their dormancy period and will be warming up with the late summer sun. While those lower down, while having had their dormancy period, don't get warm enough to sprout?
As I said before, I don't think I've had volunteer's grow the same year, so maybe just digging them up and bringing them inside, after the dormancy period, allows them to shoot.

If you bring potatoes inside after harvest, then put them in the fridge for a month, then chit in a warm light place, that should give you your best chance.

[Two_Sheds]

I don't think I've had volunteer's grow the same year

I've just today harvested 3 nice spuds out of the bottom of one of my Daleks. That Dalek was put in place in March, and has been filled with this year's waste only.