Why do we 'chit' potatoes?

Traditionally, gardeners' 'chit' potatoes by laying them out in trays in a cool, light, frost-free place till compact green shoots appear. But why do we do this? For in fact, research has shown that it doesn't make any difference to how early or heavy the crop is.

This practice goes back a long way, back indeed till the days when the only thing you could store seed potatoes in was hessian or paper sacks. And, as everyone knows, leeping potatoes in the dark leads to them producing long, pale fragile shoots. This WOULD be a bad thing, as these weak shoots can't survive planting and only weaken the reserves of the seed potato. So laying the potatoes out stops them from producing long shoots and keeps them healthy. Don't make the mistake of thinking you need to encourage shoots by extra warmth - all that is necessary is to keep the potatoes above 5degC.

For more about growing potatoes see our FRUIT & VEG A - Z section on potatoes.