[WendysLot]

My allotment book said that this month was when to buy your seed potatoes and start chitting them.  So on Sunday I bought mine and, having further researched into growing potatoes online, it seems I should have waited until the end of January.

I understand that I need to wait until the tubers are about 1 inch in length before planting and I must avoid frosts (we have had snow at the end on February in Oxfordshire).

This is my first year on my allotment and now I fear I have blown it!!!!

Help!

Wendy

[DD.]

A couple of weeks is not going to make a lot of difference.

I'm in the process of setting mine up for chitting, one of the reaons being that it's the easiest way for me to store them and not forget them. They are set up in the frost-free greenhouse.

I set them up this way every year and even despite not getting them in until May last year, they still had nice healthy, sturdy chits, only about an inch in length.

The worst thing you can do is keep them somewhere dark and warm, when they'll develop long white weak chits.

[WendysLot]

Oh thank you I feel so much better now.

Mine are in a spare room which is not heated and the curtains are open all the time so there is plenty of light.

I was worried that the chits might grow too long as I would like to wait until March to plant them.

[DD.]

Cold room - plenty of light - worked for my grandfather!

[WendysLot]

Brilliant, thanks.

[Salmo]

Cold room - plenty of light - worked for my grandfather!

Are you a chit of the old block? 

[JayG]

Cold room - plenty of light - worked for my grandfather!

Are you a chit of the old block? 

Steady on Salmo old chap (DD's eyesight might not be what it used to be!)   

[DD.]

I can see well enough thanks!

Salmo - it skipped a generation - but it looks that way!

[JohnB47]

I learned this lesson two years ago - don't leave it too late to buy your spuds, thinking that they'll be stored better than you can.

Leaving it too late meant that they were all over-chitted 'cos the place I shop at (local garden centre that sells them loose) keeps them warmer than ideal. Since then I buy early and keep them cold and in the light. They chit nice and slowly that way. Although you do have to look out for frosts, as others have said.