“What you do today can improve all of your tomorrows.” – Ralph Marston
So January is a wrap and here we are in February and that little bit closer to spring and its now that I become obsessed with knocking out some jobs in the garden, any job that I can get done before the busy spring. Signs of life in the garden, like the emergence of daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses inspires me and has me reaching for my pruners and rake. I for one, have a long list of ‘To Do’s’ in February, some of which will appear in our shorter social media posts and many involve some rather mundane but beneficial pruning and clearing jobs. One rather less dull job is Chitting potatoes.
Although February is too early to plant potatoes in most regions, you can still chit seed potatoes. Chitting means encouraging seed potatoes to grow shoots before planting, and it can help the potato plants get a head start. To chit, I lay my seed potatoes in a single layer on a tray in a place with cool, indirect light. A windowsill or greenhouse is ideal. Place the tuber end with most eyes upright, and in a few weeks, ‘eyes’ or ‘chits’ will develop. Ideally, you want two to three vigorous, short shoots per seed potato before planting them out later in spring. I always become incredibly indecisive when choosing varieties as there are so many to choose from, so I limit myself to a couple of early, mid and late producers to ensure a steady supply throughout my growing season. I undoubtedly will mention this frequently, April is my favorite month, but my gorgeous gardening time does also coincide with tax time (here in the U.S) and a huge upshift in backdoorshoesus.com sales, so I must get on with as much as I can now.
Rebecca Gutierrez – Horticulturalist and Owner of Backdoorshoesus
