a riff on seed potatoes

Do you have any idea how many ways there are to prepare and plant potatoes in the home garden? And how vociferously people disagree on that process? Yikes. The biggest argument is whether to sprout or "green" your seed potatoes (aka "chitting" in the UK). Once you've decided to chit your potatoes, the question is how and for how long? Spread out on a sunny window sill? In a covered box? Out in the open but not in the sun? Cool temperatures? Warm temperatures? How warm? And how long 4 weeks? 6 weeks? just until 1" green sprouts?

Wait, you're not finished yet! Once they've sprouted, you have to decide whether to cut or not to cut. Small seed potatoes should be planted whole, but larger potatoes can be cut into pieces. Each piece should have at least one eye--or if you've sprouted them, one sprout, I guess.

Still not finished... If you cut them you have to decide whether to plant them immediately or allow a few days for the cuts to callus over!

Grow biointensive recommends sprouting 4 weeks before the last frost (technically I am still in that window--although barely), but doesn't give much instruction about how to do that. After I talked to Margo, I thought I understood. I went out and bought a bag of seed potatoes. I should have probably spread them out on a piece of newspaper and let them sprout. They had already started to sprout in the bag--but a couple of days in the warm would likely have added more sprouts.

Unfortunately, before doing more reading, I cut them into pieces--pieces that are likely too small. The pieces are supposed to be no smaller than a large ice cube. That's not a catastrophe, but the small pieces won't have as much nutrients to get started.

Also, now that I've cut them, I think they need to go in the ground fairly soon! That's actually ok according to my cold weather planting guide from the Co-op, which indicates that potatoes in Tennessee should go in the ground in March. (The Co-op apparently has no opinion on chitting!)

So here's where my options lie: Maybe two plantings. I'll plant the potatoes I've already cut at the end of this week, sprouted or not.

Then I'll buy another bag tomorrow, spread them out on newspaper and let them sprout for a couple of weeks and then plant them on the last day of frost--which is the timetable recommended in How to Grow More Vegetables.

It's an adventure!