[shed head]

whats the ideal size for chits to be planted?
my 1st & 2nd earlies are about 1 inch....
Have i got big chits ? 

[DD.]

Nope.

Sounds about right.

[shed head]

Ta double D 

[gavinjconway]

Mine are smaller... yours are about right.. 2" at planting time is ideal but chitting is not exactly important - just a bit of time saved on the earlies... How many farmers do you see chitting thousands of maincrop spuds before planting... none - yep thats about right.

[shed head]

Ta for your reply gav G

Pretty new to all this me

[mumofstig]

With the earlies it means you have given them a few weeks of their growing before they even get in the soil , so they should be ready to harvest earlier than non chitted ones planted at the same time.

With the later ones it makes no difference, but you have to store them all, so they may as well be chitting 

[mumofstig]

How are you going to store them - if you don't chit them?

[shed head]

er....dunno

[allot2learn]

Probably wouldnt store them, just buy them
& plant them when the weathers right.
Gotta be better then having the place cluttered with egg boxes if there is no real point.
Or am i missing something?

Just buying them in time to plant them would do you no favours.
I saw some this week and the chits were over six inches long. I certainly wouldn't buy them as the seed spuds looked just about exhausted.

I prefer to buy them while the seeds are still fresh and firm.
I'll raise mine under the right conditions and that dose not mean under shop lighting with the heating on.

[JayG]

You've had some good answers on here Shed Head and there are many recent threads on this board on the subject of chitting potatoes - perhaps it will all make more sense to you if you continue your researches tomorrow.