Another tater question

Has ny one of you ever heard of growing sprouts on stored taters to plant out? I recall reading something about it several years ago but can't remember the details.

Lots of people do, it is called chittin. I have done it both ways and never found any appreciable difference in emergent time. Of course you want a few of the potaoes to start sprouting so you know they are ready and able but no long spindly sprouts..

I thought you or 'Shoe would have either heard of it or tried it. I beleive I read about it in an old gardening article that was dealing with gardening during hard times.

Yep, I've done it quite often but haven't really noticed the spuds declaring themselves any faster than non-chitted spuds. However, it lets you know the spuds/pieces/eyes you put in the ground are gonna be good ones and keeps you from wondering if they'll ever come up!

You should give it a try, Huffy! Just set your spuds rose end up on a tray in a coolish place and they'll eventually start sending out sprouts. When they are about an inch long they're ready to plant (depending on your zone/weather, etc).

Besides, it gets you involved in "gardening" much sooner that normal and helps to stave of Spring Fever planting until Spring actually arrives!

Shoe.

Shoe, I might just do that.

Excuse me for butting in, but what's "rose end" up mean?

Howdy, Sequee...

"Rose end" refers to the end of the tater that has the most eyes. If you look at your spuds you'll see that one end has more eyes than the other end. When they start to sprout most "sproutings" will all be at one end and will be somewhat reddish in color, like little rose buds.

Maybe I can go take a pic since I have some sprouting already!

Shoe.

Cool - next question... You said, "Just set your spuds rose end up on a tray in a coolish place and they'll eventually start sending out sprouts. When they are about an inch long they're ready to plant..."

This sounds like were setting an entire potato on an empty tray until it sprouts, then planting out. Did I get that right or have I missed the boat...again???

Heheh...you make me want to do another tutorial! But that's most likely cus I like doing that sort of thing, Sequee!

Yes, and no. You can use a whole potato, or you can cut one to size. If your potatoes are smallish (golf ball or so size) you can use the whole ones, then plant them as is. You could also use the bigger ones, without cutting them, but many of the bigger ones will have lots of eyes and those you could cut/segregate and make more individual plants from so I tend to cut them in pieces, usually with at least 3 eyes per piece.

I'm determined to get you to enjoy a great tater harvest this coming year!

Shoe.

Ok, I'll go along with that!!! So, I'm lining my potatoes, rose end up, in am empty tray and waiting for them to sprout. Once they do, I'm lopping off their little heads and planting them in dirt. When they pop through the dirt, I add more dirt to cover...and so on. How do I know when to stop?

Edited...double post. sorry.

Shoe.




This message was edited Jan 13, 2007 11:12 PM

"lopping of their little heads"? No...no lopping needed! Yikes, and Ouch!

Here is a pic...see how the taters have "rose ends"? (Kinda pretty, eh? "Blooming" their heads off, or is that "blooming their eyes out!"?)

No need to lop anything off. You can plant them as is.

The taters at the far left, and same for the one near the bottom of my hand, you can see there are a couple eyes sprouting lower down on the spuds (in addition to the "rose eyes"). If you like, you can slice that tater in half and plant the rose end (with the most sprouts) in one hole and plant the lower end in another hole (or furrow).

Hope that picture helps out.

Shoe

One picture worth thousand words! I totally got it now!

Cool! Glad the pic helped. (Then again, if you'd a'played dumb I was nearly thinking of coming of that way and planting your spuds for ya!) *grin

Now don't forget...in the row, taters, onions, taters, onions, taters....

Shoe.

Hardy, har! I won't fall for that twice, Mister!