When to start chitting potatoes
How To Prepare Potatoes For Planting - Chitting Tutorial
well hello everyone and welcome to a
very quick on my short here on the Emma
Gardner channel it is potato starting
season and you want to start your
potatoes early in the year you want to
put them in the ground still while
there's a risk of frost do you want to
make sure you plant them about two weeks
before your for your last frost date and
you want to do that because it takes
some time to establish some roots and
get a really healthy plant and you're
going to get a jump start on your season
you don't have to do that 100% but I
find that I have the best results when I
do because the fact that the potatoes
acre will just find them to the ground
and they take a little while to get
started and these are going to be your
sets we actually grew these from we
actually started these sets and you can
watch that episode and I'll post I'll
put a little card up there and also put
a link in the description box for you to
click on if you're looking at how to
start your own potato sets so these are
from our potatoes that we grew last year
and we have our own sets so we didn't
have to buy any which is great so now
when it comes time to preparing them you
can just take a potato and plant it
right in the ground however it's a big
waste of money because you have a you
have a I hear and I hear and I hear and
I hear and I their and they're all
growing and they're all going to grow a
different a different plant so you want
to make sure that you use your hear you
want to make sure you use your potato
wisely so you get the most plants for
the most the most bang for your buck so
what we're going to do is we're just
going to take a sharp knife and you want
about two to three days to allow them to
dry so come on in close I'm going to
show you what I'm talking about here
we're going to cut them up and I'll show
you how to cut them up so you get the
most bang for your buck so you have a
potato here and you can see an eye here
and an eye here basically the eyes are
just the young plants you'll notice that
there are little bumps on your on your
sprouts and those little bumps those
little little knots those are actually
young roots that just haven't formed yet
so you want to basically divide them up
using your knife and you want to divide
them up just so you get between one
and to two eyes per slice here I could
cut it right down the center there and I
had would have one plant there in one
plant there but sometimes you'll find
that when you have to the more dominant
will grow and let's say this one grows
and this one doesn't if I were to slice
this I have a guaranteed one plant here
but let's say this one ends up dying or
rotting off because it's just not strong
enough then I've just I've just wasted
I've wasted the chance of having a
really successful start there so you
have that one done and then this one
right here this is one so you're going
to have that now you will notice that
there are little in in the the actual
eyes themselves there are little indents
those little indents will also become
eyes later on if they have enough energy
this one right here is already growing
so we're going to leave that one itself
now you have a case here in which you
got a lot of you got a lot of stuff
going on and you have an eye here that's
just starting and three main ones I'm
going to focus on these three main ones
here and what we're going to do is we're
going to cut like this get that out so
you have this one and then I'm going to
cut here on this angle right here and
then you actually have those right there
and these are really healthy ones these
are these are guaranteed goers these are
just going to go right in the ground and
we're just going to set those aside so
you have again another case in which you
have eyes here eyes here eyes their eyes
there and eyes there there's a lot of
eyes on this one and I'm just going to
cut this one kind of like this and again
you know it's really based on personal
preference you can plant this and have
three plants whoops you can plant this
and have three plants if you want but
I'm going to actually just take it and
I'm just going to be a surgeon here I'm
going to cut that like that and now you
have this little wedge here that has a
really nice forming plant on it and then
this right here you have this eye and
this eye that are growing so you can you
can mix and match whatever you want all
these can be divided if you want they
can be left whole but this is this
process of and I really have to
pronounce that word properly but it's
called cheating
ch ITT ing and that is actually the
process of cutting the potatoes and
curing them so that you have a better
success so yeah it's really simple it's
really not that complicated but there
you go I know I had a lot of questions
on that so I just decided I'd make a
video on that and like I said once
they're cut just let them set out let
them set out a well-ventilated area and
you'll notice that they'll kind of just
get a little leathery and dry and that
that leathery and dry is actually going
to protect the potato because if you put
it in the ground just like this it'll
rot and when it rots it can actually
write out the the main plant and prevent
it from from growing so you just don't
want to do that either so just give them
a chance to dry out and and scab over
and if you happen to forget them for
five days six days it's not going to
hurt it either and then I wanted to end
on this one because this was a special
exception if you have just a whole
potato like this where you only have one
main growing point here's another one
another great example if you have a
whole potato that only has one main
growing I just plant this it's actually
going to give you a better result and if
any of these other little indentations
happen to grow it's only going to be
more assurance but you're going to have
a really good success with this and also
you're going to have a lot of energy
because the the starch in the potato is
actually what gives the energy for these
for these to sprout so the more potato
you have the more energy it's going to
have to have a really healthy plant for
you so there you go hopefully enjoyed on
how to chit your potatoes and it's
really simple what post any comments or
questions you have in the comments box
below and I'll be able to answer them
for you as well
all right so there we go we are all
finished and I hope you all enjoyed
hopefully you learned something new and
as always this is Luke from the Emma
garter channel hoping you all are
growing big or going home and I'll talk
to you all later
see ya bye
