Dunbar Standard

• Chitting is simply waking the seed potato up after its winter dormancy ready to grow.
• It is definitely a good idea to chit, but to do this you need to get your seed nice and early – maybe January or February if you are in the South of England and March or April if you are in North of Scotland.  The aim is to have your potatoes come through the ground after the last frost in your area as the new plant is susceptible to frost.
•  Chitted seed will be ready to grow much quicker once Spring arrives and the soil warms up.  Chitted seed should come through the ground in about 2 weeks.
• If you buy your seed in April or May, however, then there is little or no advantage in chitting since the soil temperature will be ok for planting, though the unchitted seed will take c4 weeks to come through the ground.
• Remove the seed potatoes from the net as soon as you receive them (as the shoots will grow through the nets and can break if you try to remove them) and put them in an egg carton in a sunny window sill.  The shoots will start to sprout and when they are around an inch long they will be ready to plant.
• Early Main Crop and Main Crop take around 15 – 22 week respectively to mature.   Main crops can be planted till around mid May depending on where you are in the UK
• There is a common myth that you can cut the tuber up to give a better yield.  We do not advise this. Tubers have enough stored energy to get to the surface and produce a healthy crop.  By cutting they you are risking the tuber going mouldy as it has no skin to protect it and lower yields.
• Potatoes like to be watered but not water-logged and so ensure your pot or area has good drainage.
• Potatoes need a sunny site away from frost pockets – the newly emerging foliage is susceptible to frost damage in April and May.
• The traditional planting method is to dig a narrow trench 12cm (5in) deep. The seed tubers are spaced 37cm (15in) for maincrop varieties in rows 75cm (30in) apart.  Apply a general purpose fertiliser at this stage. When the emerging shoots come through, you need to “earth” or “mound” them up – this is counter intuitive.  Do this several times.  This encourages downward growth – the new tubers will jostle for space and any growing near the surface will turn green.
• Small crops of potatoes can also be grown in large, deep containers, and this is a good way of getting an early batch of new potatoes.  Fill the bottom 15cm (6in) of the container with potting compost and plant the seed potato just below this. As the new stems start growing, keep adding compost until the container is full.
• With maincrops for storage wait until the foliage turns yellow, then cut it and remove it.  Leave for 10 days before harvesting the tubers – this allows the skin to set, leaving them to dry for a few hours before storing.

See our FAQ page for more information on the differences in crop varieties and common problems