chitting potatoes

Just a quick question on chitting spuds, I was chitting my spuds, and noticed that the shoots from the spuds were a purple/ green colour they still ok to plant? My other spuds have nice green/ white shoots

Also how long should it take for them to brake the surface once planted ?

 

Are they different varieties?

Usually 2/3 weeks, they can get the tips killed off by frost so some protection is usually needed till the frosts have passed. I use old windows, anything before windows7 will do , some folk use fleece.

 

No there all Maris piper potatoes, just got a little concerned because they have a purpleness to them, I actually re dug them up and moved them to one of my beds which I prepared few weeks ago! They don't look like there rotting in fact they look the opposite just a different colour .

 

Would hessian be ok to use to protect any planted veg, from the frost? Because I work on building sites and the brick layers use hessian to keep the frost off the fresh brick work so it allows the mortar to go off. Just wondered if the same would apply for veg?

 

Yes. I get different coloured shoots depending on variety. The spuds will go green too - don't worry about that (although it would not be good to eat them once green, of course )

I earth mine up, and then use grass clippings if we get late frosts and I can't earth them up any more. And I put fleece over the top, but completely submerging them in grass clippings will work better than fleece if we get a sharp, late, frost IME.

I find it much easier not to rush to plant them (particular Second Earlies and Main Crop) rather than having to fight to keep the frost off them.

Earlies will be far too tall to easily protect from a late frost, so you can only do what you can for them.

Don't use grass clippings if the grass has been treated with a selective weed killer (including "Weed & Feed" type fertilizers)

 

I'm sure they are fine. Maybe reacting to temperature ... You can't go wrong chitting spuds (other than leaving them there forgetting about them until the Autumn - as I have done!! They look rather shrivelled by then!!) so just let them do their thing.

Should be. Its a bit heavy. particularly when wet, which may squash the crops. If wet it will freeze and that ice may damage plants touching the inside of the hessian. Fleece is as light as a light thing. If you can get some grass clippings on first and then hessian on top that should be fine.

Plenty of people use newspaper to keep the frost off plants (on in the evening, off in the morning). Obviously if there is a good frost there won't be any rain, as frost needs clear skies ... but you can get rain in the evening, then clearing, then frost ...

 

Super, thought I had some mutated spuds or something... Lol

 

Thanks Kirsten much appreciated!

 

Maris Piper are a maincrop, I try NOT to chit maincrop potatoes, trials have shown that unchitted maincrop out perform chitted ones (haven't a clue why!).

Purpleness is quite common in chitted potatoes and nothing to be concerned about.

If your worried about frost, try planting them a little deeper! Failing that, you can always use straw to insulate them from frost, the benefit being straw can be dug into the ground as additional organic matter.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

 

Thanks Vince, I will certainly keep everyone fully informed.

 

No need to get them to "hurry up" either, whereas that's key to First Earlies of course.

Interesting point that unchitted crop more heavily. Chitting potatoes shrivel up (using energy), I wonder if that same amount of energy, used up in the ground to make them grow, achieves more bang-for-buck perhaps?

 

You say main crop I presume you mean ready availible produce you can buy from shops, what spuds would you eeccomend growing?

 

Three types: First Early, Second Early and Main Crop. The only difference is the length of time they take to mature. Main Crop, generally, store better than 1st / 2nd earlies for the Winter, and produce the highest yield.

First Early are ready for harvest ... early ... at a time when new Potatoes are expensive in the shops.

Main Crop run the greatest risk of suffering from Blight, because that comes later in the season (there is an early blight, but it does not tend to be anything like as infectious as Blight ...). Blight tends to be a nightmare in wet summers (like last year)

I don't bother with Main Crop as a) we don't eat a lot of potatoes, b) its cheap to buy potatoes in winter and farmers have great cool storage which I don't - and thus my home-grown spud that I store are usually sprouting by Christmas. (Last Winter main crop spuds were expensive to buy, because of the blight last year, so you would have saved money if you had grown your own main crop ... but not if they got Blight, which would have been quite likely last year :( )

I do store Pink Fir Apple (which is a main crop variety but classified as a Salad potato) because a) we grow it because we like them and b) it seems to store well (stays firm, doesn't sprout)

Another reason to grow a Main Crop is if there is a particular variety that you like, which you cannot buy in the Supermarket.

I'd recommend that you go to a garden centre that sells them loose. Buy say 5 seed potatoes of each variety that you take a fancy to (and have space to grow). Label them carefully when you plant them!!, and then see which varieties your family likes the taste of. Its a very subjective thing and IMO the taste is greatly influenced by your soil, and how you grow them. It will change a bit year-to-year, but best, next year, that you concentrate on the ones that you all liked the taste of this year.

I grow Arran Pilot for first early (we like the taste, they are amongst the earliest of the earlies - although Rocket is even earlier). Charlotte for the second earlies, as that is the spud that we most like the flavour of, and Pink Fir Apple because we really like that too. (Plus it stores, but I would grow it anyway)

I grow some First Early in bags in the greenhouse (to get earliest possible New Potatoes). I grow one bag of Rocket (for speed ), a couple of Arran Pilot (nest fastest) and then a couple of Charlotte (our preferred flavour). By the time we have eaten them the first batch of outdoor ones are ready for harvesting.

I think a lot of people are not that keen on International Kidney potatoes (although some are ...). This is the variety of potato grown on Jersey and sold as "Jersey Royals". Try a few by all means, but don't plant loads expecting them to taste like Jersey Royals - they gain a lot of their flavour from the soil where they are grown on Jersey and in particular the seaweed used to fertilize them.

 

Super thanks Kirsten !