[Plotmaster]

I have received notification that my Sarpo's are on their way so I will have to find somewhere for them soon 

[Salmo]

My usual rule is to start chitting 6 weeks before I expect to plant.

If they are too cool the dormancy will not be broken and the life cycle will not start.

If you can see tiny chits that is fine, they are on their way.

If not then keep them in the warm for a week. As soon as you see chits put them in a cool and light place.

[BARNACLE BILL]

I have an estate car. I keep them in the back plenty of light and always cool at this time of the year. Bought them 2 weeks ago and still no sign of chitting. So they should be ready for mid March !

BB

[Plotmaster]

Getting a little to cold out in the greenhouse and overnight temperatures are low so my Sarpos are coming in for the night for the next week

[Beekissed]

I had to look up "chitting", had never heard of it before.  Interesting practice...generations of farmers in my family and I'd never heard of such a thing.  If it's just sprouting the seed potatoes, that's usually done while they sit in the root cellar all winter anyway, so never saw a need to do anything special at that point to make them sprout. 

I planted my potatoes in the fall this year for the first time and have checked on them a couple time since, just out of curiosity, and found each one had a single, thick sprout/shoot starting up from it and then many fine roots starting from the potato.  I'm thinking the potatoes are doing this "chitting" all on their own, if the goal is to eliminate all but the largest sprout.  Didn't see any other sprouts on the taters except the large, single one.

Maybe they do this all on their own without any help from us if they are left in a cool, dark place?   

[Plotmaster]

Or it's just something for us to do whilst waiting for the season to really start 

[mumofstig]

When they sprout in the dark the chits tend to grow longer and can break when planting. Advice is to chit in the light so chits are small and sturdy.

Chitting only gives the potatoes a couple of weeks head start and is useful to get very early new potatoes. It doesn't really give any advantage for main crop ones. However few of us in the UK have the right conditions to store seed potatoes - so we chit them.