Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi there
Please could someone tell me if I am correct in thinking that when I plant out my chitted potatoes. If the potatoes are big and I have little shoots coming from two sides that I can cut the potato in half.
I am sure that I did read this somewhere but am not sure what the procedure is.
If I do cut the potato in half do I have put anything on the wound, (not a plaster) to stop it from rotting.
Has anyone done this and can anyone give me advice one the subject please.

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thanks

the pumpkin cuddler

It does not matter what our specific fate is as long as we face it with ultimate abandon.

No one answer to this!
Yes - you can cut if you want more plants.
Tubers may be a tad smaller.
Don't cut till you are at the plot and planting in a month or so.
If it's warm enough to grow, the spuds will fight off most infections.

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SSx
not every situation requires a big onion

Thanks SS - I was going to say that yes it can be done and was used a lot by very frugal gardeners but does increase the risk of infection in the tubers.

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

Yes, cut the tubers for a larger crop - as long as each one has a decent bud/shoot, and the soil is warm enough you should be fine.

Apparently in WW2. potatoes were grown from peelings - again as long as they have a decent bud on it can be done.

Don't let them get too wet before the shoots appear above ground though, otherwise rotting can be a problem. Once the green leaves are out the plant no longer needs the 'parent' tuber, so they very quickly make up for not having a whole tuber to start. In theory your yield shouldn't even be significantly reduced - and of course you will have lots of extra plants anyway!

I got my first crop of taters from peelings left in the compost heap. Lovely taters they were too.

Mr EB has banned the shrivelled, sprouted left over new pots from the compost bin on the basis that we will have potatoes growing in the compost bin. Drat, rumbled again!

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Bright Blessings
Earthbabe
If at first you don't succeed, open a bottle of wine.

I seem to remember Bob Flowerdew grows his spuds from little pieces, I think he cuts them into sections & waits until the sprouts are growing O.K.on each before planting out.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

I hadn't thought about this for years, but I actually remember my gran cutting the seed potatoes as she planted them. I don't know whether each piece of spud had a sprout or not, I wasn't really interested at the time... I must have been about eight!

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*Feather*