Question of sprouting potatoes causes much chit-chat

URBAN FARMER:There's heated debate about the merits of chitting but the professionals let the results speak for themselves

MEEDA DOES it. Brian does it. In fact, most gardeners do it. But still we urban farmers secretly ask ourselves whether it’s worth all the fuss and palaver. I am, by the way, talking about the springtime ritual of chitting, or sprouting seed potatoes. Is it really necessary, or just a bit of horticultural hokum?

The answer, as Bill Clinton once said (although he wasn’t talking about potatoes at the time but the amatory nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky), is that it all depends.

“We always chit potatoes a couple of weeks before planting,” says OPW gardener Meeda Downey. “It boosts them and gives them a head start.” Fellow OPW gardener Brian Quinn agrees. “We put the seed potatoes in a bright, frost-free glasshouse, rose side up, and let the ‘eyes’ sprout for several weeks. Then, when it comes to planting them in the walled garden, we rub out all but two to three of the strongest shoots. It gives us about two or three weeks extra in terms of their development, so they crop early. That means that we can avoid the worst of the blight which tends to arrive in early August.”

Both gardeners agree, however, that chitting isn’t strictly necessary. “You’ll still get a decent potato crop without it, but it’ll be slightly later and the individual potatoes will be smaller,” says Meeda. “We had a fantastic crop of potatoes last autumn (the OPW gardeners grew Roosters, Sante, Nadine and Charlotte varieties in the OPW’s walled kitchen garden last year). We were harvesting right up until a few weeks before Christmas, so chitting definitely worked for us.”

Any advice they’d like to offer to virgin-chitters?

“Chitting always sounds very technical but it’s not. All you’re trying to do is to encourage the seed potato to sprout into growth, for which it needs lots of light and somewhere that’s frost-free,” says Brian. “Gardeners often put their seed potatoes in egg-cartons, which helps to protect the delicate shoots from being damaged when you’re handling them. We’ll be putting ours in the glasshouse, spread out in a single layer on a tray so that the eyes or buds have room to develop. You want short, stubby shoots that are purplish and no longer than about 2.5cm. Anything more and they’ll probably get damaged when it comes to planting them. ‘Rose side up’ just means that you put the side with the ‘eyes’ or ‘chits’ to the top, to encourage lots of young shoots. And don’t forget to label the different varieties at this point, as they can easily get mixed up before planting.”

What about cutting the seed potato up into individual sections, each with its own sprout, to save on costs? “No, we don’t do that,” says Meeda firmly. “For one thing, we have enough seed potatoes not to have to (they’ve ordered 245kg this spring). But it also increases the risk of diseases attacking the seed potato in the ground.”

The OPW gardeners ordered their certified-seed potatoes from Moles some weeks ago, having decided on five different varieties this year, including the waxy salad potato, Charlotte, the floury British Queen and the Irish-bred Rooster. They’re also planting the maincrop Desiree and the blight-resistant Orla. As both Charlotte and British Queen are early varieties, there’s less chance of them succumbing to the dreaded blight, say Meeda and Brian.

But what about the famously blight-resistant variety, Sarpo Mira? It seems that the OPW gardeners haven’t heard great things about the flavour of this much-vaunted variety, which has become a favourite of organic-minded gardeners in recent years. “Orla’s almost as good for blight resistance. And then we picked varieties like British Queen, because we kept hearing great things from older gardeners about how really delicious it is. And the Rooster is a great all-rounder with fairly decent resistance to most pests and diseases, except potato cyst, so it seemed like a sensible choice,” explains Meeda.

According to seed-potato suppliers Judith Shanley and Manfred Wandel of Fruithill Farm, the OPW gardeners are absolutely right in thinking that there’s no such thing as the perfect potato. “Some varieties are resistant to blight but are vulnerable to other diseases. Others, like the variety Sante, show great resistance to most pests and diseases but produce medium-sized but not large potatoes, which is a problem for some gardeners,” says Judith. “Sarpo Mira (the variety which Brian and Meeda have doubts about) needs to be left in the ground for as long as possible, which improves the flavour immensely and produces an impressively big potato. The only problem that gardeners then face is an increased risk of slug damage to the crop.”

Manfred also makes the very important point that the same potato variety will taste very different depending on the soil it’s grown in – “what works in one garden may not in another so it’s important to experiment”.

One of their favourites is Arran Victory, a variety that Judith describes as “gorgeous and creamy with a buttery flavour”.

Fruithill Farm stocks seed-potatoes of this and many other varieties, including the aforementioned British Queen, Golden Wonder, Record, Sante, Axona, Remarka, Robinta, Setanta, Colleen, Orla and Maris Peer (fruithillfarm.com or 027-50710). And just like the OPW gardeners, Judith does advise chitting seed potatoes. “It definitely buys you time with the early varieties,” she says.

Mr Middleton Garden Shop (www.mrmiddleton.com, tel: 01-8603674) also stocks a wide range of seed potatoes including the purple-and-yellow fleshed Shetland Black, the showbench favourite Catriona and the very high-yielding Pentland Crown. Thomas Quearney (the shop’s managing director) also recommends Rocket, a particularly early variety with lots of small potatoes that’s ideally suited to container growing. And, yes, he also advises chitting for early varieties, though not for the later maincrop.

For interesting information on this and hundreds of other (but not all) potato varieties, there’s a website – potato.org.uk – sponsored by the British Potato Council. Its database gives photographs and details of each individual variety’s particular resistance to pests and diseases measured on a scale of one-to-nine, alongside descriptions of tuber shape, texture, skin and flesh colour.

Irish urban farmers will be particularly interested in the fact that the website has details of many Irish-bred potatoes, such as the Rooster and others, including Cara, Orla, Colleen, Shannon and Burren. But there is one glaring omission on the website (at least as far as today’s column is concerned). It appears to have absolutely nothing whatsoever to say on the slightly-vexed question of whether to chit or not to chit. Which is a bit strange. But maybe when it comes to the great chitting debate, the British Potato Council thinks it’s wiser to just chit this one out.

** GIY (Grow it Yourself) Ireland is celebrating spring with a national schedule of events to mark the first “GIY Week” from February 20th to 27th. Established last September, there are over 55 GIY groups around Ireland with over 3,500 GIYers involved. GIY Week includes talks by GIY patrons Diarmuid Gavin, Clodagh McKenna and GIY founder Michael Kelly at GIY Drogheda; launches in Edenderry, Ballinasloe, Mountmellick and AIB Bank Centre in Ballsbridge; and a “meitheal mor” at a new “edible community garden” in Waterford. For a full list of events see giyireland.com

** The OPW’s Victorian walled kitchen garden is in the grounds of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, beside the Phoenix Park Café and Ashtown Castle. It is open daily from 10am to 4.30pm

** Next week Urban Farmer will cover sowing parsnips

** Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer

What to sow, plant and do now

Sow (with heat): hybrid broccoli, mini cauliflower, celeriac, celery, leeks, onions, asparagus

Sow under cover (mild gardens only): broad beans, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, summer and autumn cabbage, carrots, leeks, lettuce, Japanese bunching, main crop and spring onions, radish, orache, peas (mild areas only), CCA crops

Sow outdoors (in mild areas/good growing conditions): broad beans, onions, kohl rabi, parsnip, peas, radish, spinach

Plant: garlic (well-drained soils only), onion sets, rhubarb (as sets), spring cabbage, shallots, Jerusalem artichokes

Do: dig and manure soils where they aren't frozen/waterlogged, begin preparing seedbeds, disinfect glasshouses, polytunnels, seed trays, etc, order seed and seed potatoes, start chitting seed potatoes (remember to protect from frost damage), plan crop rotations, net brassicas to protect from pigeon damage