Pre-Chitted Seed Potato 'Wilja'

Pre-chitted potatoes give you a head start on the growing season, producing early, healthy shoots for a strong crop. They thrive in most soils, particularly well-drained, loamy ground, and reward careful preparation with generous harvests.

Preparing the Soil
Prepare your plot in late autumn or early winter by digging in plenty of well-rotted compost or manure to create a deep, fertile soil. Avoid areas where potatoes have been grown in the past three to four years to reduce pests and disease. Choose a sunny, sheltered spot for best results.

Planting Out
Dig a V-shaped trench or individual holes and place the pre-chitted tubers inside, rows running north to south to maximise sun exposure. Plant first and second earlies 10cm deep and 30cm apart, with 45cm between rows. Maincrop potatoes need 10cm depth, 40cm spacing, and 60cm between rows.

Care and Maintenance
As shoots emerge, ‘earth up’ soil around them to form ridges about 20cm high, protecting from frost, preventing greening, and encouraging more tubers. Water regularly, especially during flowering, and feed with a specialist potato fertiliser if desired. Some growers use black polythene with slits for shoots instead of earthing up.

Did You Know?
Using pre-chitted potatoes can reduce the time to harvest and improve uniformity, giving you an earlier, more reliable crop of tasty tubers.

Seed Potatoes

Generally large seed potatoes produce more vegetative growth and a larger number of smaller potatoes, whereas smaller sizes produce less growth and smaller numbers of potatoes but larger in size. Consistent watering and feeding along with correct spacing of the potato tubers (14-16 inch apart) will give the biggest potato crop. Potatoes need high level of Potassium (K) which is essential for tuber size. Avoid High nitrogen (N) feeds as this will only produce shoot growth. Our Marshalls concentrated potato feed is perfect. 14:14:21 (N:P:K).

The harvest you achieve will ultimately depend on your specific growing conditions. However, it’s important to note that regardless of size, 1kg of seed potatoes will yield a comparable overall harvest, whether the seed potatoes are small or large.

Pre-Chitted

Chitting seed potatoes is a long honoured tradition and can lead to earlier and larger yields. The process encourages the emergence of shoots before the seed is planted in the ground. We are managing the pre-chitting process for you so you don't have to buy your seed potatoes as early as you normally would and you can receive these at the optimum time for planting.

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