My first seed potatoes are rooting under the stairs.

My early potatoes are sprouting in paper pots underneath the staircase in my house. It's pretty cold down there, around 50 degrees (10 degrees Celsius) and the potatoes get some light from the grow light nearby.

Chitting potatoes is part of my yearly routine. I try to use as many potatoes as I can to get an early harvest from my healthy plants.

I decided to put the potatoes in paper pots filled with soil on March 10. The results look really great now, around three weeks later. The potatoes have sprouted and developed nice and long roots too.

I put the paper pots in a trough. This cold space is perfect for chitting potatoes, they won't dry out.

Every seed potato has a nice root system by now. This one is sprouting too! Chitting potatoes really works.

Read more about potatoes: Homemade potato chips

If you are thinking about chitting potatotes, try starting around 3-5 weeks before you plant them so that the potatoes get a good start. This will help you get an earlier harvest of potatoes too. This spring happened to be very cold so I don't yet know if I can get an early harvest this time. But I think it's going to be earlier than the other potatoes I'm planting at least.

It's not too late to start chitting potatoes now! Watch the video below to learn more:

This variety is called Rocket. It's one of the earliest varieties, and quite generic in taste. It's simply put just an early homegrown potato that tastes like potatoes. Rocket tastes great, just as it is. Like most other tubers you grow at home. I just can't wait until it's time to start harvesting!

I will probably grow this variety in large pots or buckets to get an early harvest. You can carry the pots around and put them in sheltered spots if spring is cold for you too. When I plant my potatoes, either in pots or in my beds, I just put the entire paper pot into the soil. The paper pot will decompose quickly and the potatoes will develop just as well.

I make my paper pots myself, watch this video to learn how:

Are you also going for roots on your potatoes or do you just let them sprout? I have read studies about chitting potatoes that show that you get a much earlier harvest by getting roots on your potatoes, several weeks earlier even. I haven't tried comparing potatoes with and without roots yet, but I'm planning to this year. Two seed potatoes are lying next to my paper pots, and I'm waiting for them to develop roots. They look basically the same as when I put them there. No sprouts yet!

Our youngest child has very long arms, so we moved the leek further in. My son thinks it's so exciting to watch the vegetables grow!

I got a question about how I store seed potatoes that I'm not rooting in soil. I put them in their nets in a paper carton somewhere cold. About as cold as the fridge. The potatoes have already developed little sprouts despite the cold and darkness. But it's too soon to think about planting them yet. I hope you try chitting potatoes too!
/Sara Bäckmo