Before deciding to plant the seed potato, everyone needs to know more about the seed. Let us start with the term potato seed. This term can be misleading sometimes. Well, it is because even though potatoes do have seed but they certainly do not grow true to the seeds. If you wish to get the potato variety that you want, then you will need to grow them yourselves. This means that you will need to replant some parts of the tomatoes and these are going to be called the seed potatoes.
To be able to grow the perfect tomatoes, we also need to know how to select the best seeds. As potatoes are propagated vegetative which means that when the potatoes got a disease from the year before, they will carry the disease over and cause you the same trouble as before. To avoid this problem, then you will need to be able to see just how important it is to use the potato seeds that are free of disease. You will be able to find these free of disease seeds fromt he certified potato seeds, rather than buying those from the supermarkets. If you plant the disease free seeds, maynot be 100% safe as they may be infested with different diseases such as the fusarium wilt or ring rot. Often these problems, when still at the early stages, are not easy to be spotted.
Next thing to learn is about chitting. This is a term for the pre sprouting the seed potatoes before they are planted. This process is also called greening. This is a process that is needed to be done by gardeners in order to get a head start. However, this is not a necessity as you can still get good crop without chitting the seed potatoes. On the other hand, you will need to chit your seed potatoes if you are in one of these circumstances:
1. You have not started to plant the seed potatoes but they are already sprouting
2. You already have an early variety but you still want to have an early crop.
You may not be able to see the sprout of the potatoes as they spout in the dark. However, you may get to see the long and pale shoots. These are the signs of sporuting. A simple way of chiting is to palce the seed potatoes upright in the egg carton. Place the bud end facing upward direction. Make sure that they are not piling up or sitting on top of the other.
