Can you please settle an argument? My husband says there’s no need to chit seed potatoes before planting them. My understanding is that it makes the plants grow faster and better, with heavier harvests. Who’s right? Susan M, Co Cork
Firstly, can I just say that I love the fact that you’re arguing over the rights and wrongs of chitting potatoes rather than over whose turn it is to load the dishwasher or to hang out the washing. As to who is right and who is wrong, almost inevitably the answer is that it depends.
Chitting, where the seed potatoes are spread out on a table or trays in a bright, cool, frost-free space indoors between late January and early March in order to spur the “eyes” of the tubers into early growth, is generally believed to be beneficial when it comes to early-cropping varieties of potatoes which typically take 12-16 weeks to come to harvest.
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Most experts, including the esteemed RHS, recommend it as a way of increasing yields and speeding up growth by several weeks. It’s also believed to help when it comes to dodging the threat of early blight as well as damage from slugs. But the scientific evidence for this is surprisingly thin on the ground and sometimes even contradictory, suggesting that it can depend to a certain extent on the particular variety as well as on growing conditions. Chitted seed potatoes also tend to produce fewer but larger potatoes in comparison to non-chitted seed potatoes.
The benefits of chitting the seed potatoes of maincrop varieties, which are much longer in the ground and generally far slower to crop (typically 16-22 weeks) is even more debatable. Most experts don’t consider it worthwhile but a few still argue that it helps to reduce the risk of blight and slug damage.
My suggestion is that you and your husband settle the argument by doing a mix of the above and then carefully calculating the resulting yield of potatoes to see for yourself whether the extra faff is worth the effort. Please let me know how you get on.
