Until last weekend I had my seed tubers (purchased on the last weekend in January) in the garage. However, the chits had been forming incredibly slowly, and I decided to bring them indoors to hurry them along. They now sit on the windowsill of an upstairs room, with the radiator turned off, so that the room is considerably warmer than the garage but nowhere near as warm as the room in which my chillis live.
Most of them look like this now:
With a bit of luck a few days in the comparative warmth will bring them on rapidly, because I would like to plant the first ones soon.
Elsewhere (in the "chilli room"), I have a different type of potato chitting:
These are the Sweet Potatoes. You may recall that I mentioned that they are shop-bought ones, intended for consumption not propagation, and there was thus some concern that they might have been treated with a growth-inhibitor. Well these ones have evidently not been treated, have they?
The shoots you see here are the equivalent of the chits on the normal potato, except that they will be used very differently. When they are about six inches long I will break them off the tuber and root them in water, prior to planting them in soil a bit later on.
Even if the Sweet Potatoes don't produce any useable tubers, the foliage is nice. Right now it is a sort of deep bronzy-green colour, and what's more they are also edible.
This is a great post - I'm going to be growing potatoes for the first time this year. Although I knew about sweet potatoes, with regular potatoes I was wondering if I should or should not chit them - some sources I read said to do it, others never mentioned it & simply said to place the potatoes in the ground. It gets rather confusing. The egg carton idea is fantastic, btw.
ReplyDeleteI don't have strong views about chitting either, but I do it simply because I buy my tubers weeks before they'll be planted and if they were to be stored, they'd end up growing white, spindly shoots which are not desirable. I'm looking forward to following along with your sweet potato tales. I've never grown them so it will be interesting to watch and learn.
ReplyDeleteDon't expect great things though, because this is my first attempt! I wish my garden got more sun, because everyone says that Sweet Potatoes need as much heat as they can get, especially here in the UK.
DeleteAs sweet potatoes are in the same family (Convolvulaceae) as the morning glory (Ipomoea) plant (grown as an annual climber in the UK) and bindweed, I shall be really interested in seeing the progress of your plants, you might get flowers even if not tubers.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there way any debate - I have always chitted as well. Last year, the last of my homegrown potatoes sprouted in the dark of the cold room where they were stored so very little work on my part. I also look forward to the sweet potato results!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the sweet potatoes - the only time that we tried growing them the tubers were small.
ReplyDeleteWe too got some potatoes in January and they are showing hardly any signs of chitting. I moved them into the greenhouse at the weekend. The shoots of the sweet potatoes are already huge! Sarah x
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the sweet potatoes. I don't know how warm you get in the summer. I do OK here, but I give them the best spot in the garden.
ReplyDeleteLooks good. I grew sweet potatoes last year and they did produce, and never flowered. Incidentally, the Sweet potato leaves are edible. I have a Filipino freind who was happy to take some. I did not try them but she says they use them like we would spinach. Younger leaves the better.
ReplyDeleteAs gardeners I think we overplay our part in the chitting process.The tubers will do it whether we like it or not! That said all of mine are in egg type boxes chitting away.Despite being in the house with some background heat they do seem to be a bit behind this year. I've found that not all varieties will produce short plumb shoots eg Orla will grow long green shoots however you try to hold them back.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see sweet potatoes I'm always reminded of my two favourite places,New Zealand (where they are Kumaras) and Madeira. Perhaps I need somewhere a bit more sub tropical to grow them rather than North Lancashire?
We have lots in common then! Have been to New Zealand several times and loved it. Kumara mash with everything... :)
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