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Potato Harvest With Our Expert's Advice
By TIFFANY SELVY
Chitting potatoes is a process that involves allowing potatoes to sprout indoors before planting, giving them a head start. For a larger harvest, consider buying seed potatoes.
To chit, place your potatoes with eyes facing up in topless egg cartons, and store them in a cool, dark area until they sprout. Begin in January as the process takes a few months.
The sprouts will be ready to plant once they reach an inch in length. Ensure you plant them six inches deep with sprouts facing up and leave about 16 inches between each sprout.
Water them well after planting and once they are about four inches tall, start mounding soil up around the greens, up to the top leaves to encourage root growth.
Repeat this process when the stems have grown another eight inches. While you can plant seed potatoes whole, most people cut them into separate pieces with one or two eyes.
To prevent rotting, wait until two weeks before planting to cut them if you are dividing chit potatoes, as the cut parts of the tubers need time to scab over.