Chitting potatoes is an odd habit and has been proven (by Gardener’s World a few years ago) not to be necessary for most varieties. Earlies benefit from it, but they found no significant increase in yield for later crops. Chitting, for the uninitiated, is the practice of placing seed potatoes in a light, frost free environment to encourage shoots to form on the tubers. This is supposed to give them a head start, encourage early growth and higher yields .... or not. Anyway, I do it, partly because there’s nothing better to do with potatoes until at least the middle of March, and because the good varieties sell out quickly, I buy them early, so they’d only be hanging around in a bag somewhere.
I’m rifling through my seed packets a lot now and have been outside a bit, mainly to stare forlornly at my wreck of a garden, but that’s a start. I might sort out some seed trays and face the mess in the potting shed in a day or two. It’s a bit like when you’ve invited guests to come and stay; you know you’ll have to clear the decks and make up the beds, but somehow it always gets left until just before they arrive.
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