Vegetables18 Apr 2007 07:56 pm
My back “garden” (yard) is pretty small.
I want to grow vegetables.
With my pond, pear tree, roses, fruit and herbs, there’s not really room for pototatoes. But fresh (I mean really fresh, hours old) potatoes are delicious. So when I saw a potato patio starter kit I decided to give it a go, and it’s just arrived.
The kit contains three large planter buckets
and 15 seed potatoes, five each of Maris Piper, Red Duke of York and Charlotte, which are now chitting on my windowsill.
Funny, I always just thought to potato was so hardy you could just shove one under ground and just sit back and wait for the harvest,
Yes. Problem is, I’ve run out of ground to shove them under.
Chitting is supposed to maximise the yield. If I’ve only got three tubs, it seems worth a go!
Apparently (according to gardener’s world), it’s only worth chitting your first earlies. In their experiment, second earlies showed no advantage from chitting and maincrop actually had a slightly smaller yield from the chitted as opposed to the non-chitted spuds. Not convinced having slightly more spuds makes up for not being able to say ‘Christ my house is covered with chitting potatoes’ though.
Ah, the scientific perspective! Thank you, tar baby. None of my spuds are maincrop - phew - a first early, yes, second early, yes, and one speciality salad spud. I had a scare, there, at the prospect of a smaller yield due to unwise chitting.
So hopefully no ill effects… I can feel an update post coming on (I wish I could remember which tub is which).
[...] the subject of chitting came up before it proved surprisingly controversial. Since I’ve only planted 9 seed potatoes, sticking them [...]