chitting seed potatoes

Yippee! Some of my seed potatoes have just arrived - my first earlies (Accent) and my salad potatoes (Charlotte). I was getting particularly anxious about the first earlies as I need to have them chitted by  mid-February so that I can plant a couple of short rows in my polytunnel. Those I'm planting outdoors can wait until March. I like floury rather than waxy potatoes ( yes I know you must take more care with cooking them but, I prefer the texture). Accent, is on the floury side for an early potato and is excellent for roasting, chipping and boiling. If you have planted enough, they do last well into the main season - and have excellent flavour. Charlottes have a wonderful flavour and more waxy so make a good salad potato or are just superb boiled with spring lamb and mint sauce - yummy!
For the uninitiated - 'chitting' is getting the seeds to sprout before planting. It can be done with lots of different seeds - more later - but, although it is not essential, it is advisable to ensure good sturdy plants. If you decide to chit, the conditions are important - you need cool light conditions - frost free. You will have noticed that all potatoes start to sprout at this time of year, even those you buy from the shops for eating which can be quite annoying as the potatoes also start to go soft. However, for growing we want particular types of sprouts - not those long white stringy things in your veg cupboard, but short sturdy sprouts, preferably with more than a hint of green or purplish green. If you like larger potatoes you can knock off some of the sprouts which will give you a smaller crop of bigger potatoes. A couple of years ago, my potatoes, already above ground, were hit with a late frost. Naturally the shoots died back ( they are frost tender). But, the plants didn't die. I still got an excellent crop of large potatoes from new shoots. I use egg boxes for chitting - set the potatoes with the 'eyes' up ( these can be hard to see, but look for the tiny 'buds' of new growth). Obviously this is not done by most commercial growers, much too time consuming/labour intensive. On the allotment or in the garden, we only have a small amount of space which we want to be as productive as possible.
More later - still all my main crops to come.
I noticed, this morning that the first of my sweet peas - sown on 1st January, in pots in my propagator - has appeared above the soil. :0)