Chitting Potatoes: The First Step to Growing Great Potatoes

Written by: Luke Marion

Published on March 27, 2026

Updated on March 30, 2026

Cutting your seed potatoes is an essential step to achieving a better end product. But when it comes to chitting potatoes, many people get stressed and worried they will mess something up.

A man chitting potatoes before planting.

I understand that you pay top dollar for quality seed potatoes, and you want to get the most bang for your buck! Believe it or not, just one seed potato can yield 3 to 5 pounds of mature potatoes if you know how to plant potatoes the best way and how to properly chit potatoes.

No need to worry anymore! This blog post will teach you everything you need to know to get potatoes off to the right start.

Rooting For You

Gardening is just the best, and I’m rooting for you to grow an amazing garden this year. I hope you’ll use this post and all the other free MIgardener resources to grow bigger!

On the MIgardener YouTube channel, you’ll find new videos and tutorials weekly with top-quality content. And right here on the MIgardener blog, there are so many great articles with professional growing advice like how to grow sweet potatoes in containers, DIY pest prevention, how to identify and treat blight, and how to use organic pesticides in a home garden.

Seed Potatoes

Seed potatoes come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors depending on the variety. Large seed potatoes are a good indicator of overall vigor and health, but just because you have a small seed potato doesn’t mean it will yield tiny potatoes.

Potatoes are tubers, which are essentially the plant's energy store for the upcoming season. More energy can lead to larger plants, but some varieties will just naturally produce smaller potatoes.

What Is Chitting Potatoes & Why Is It Beneficial

Chitting potatoes is the process of preparing your seed potatoes for planting by cutting and dividing each seed potato to produce more potential plants. For a long time, I thought chitting was required for growing healthy potatoes, but it isn't.

It isn’t required, but it is very beneficial! Chitting will increase your potato yields and help you avoid detrimental growing conditions.

Every single eye that develops on a seed potato is a potential plant. If you plant a seed potato whole, depending on how many eyes it forms, you may end up with too many plants growing in a small area, which can dramatically reduce yields.

The best way to succeed with potatoes is to avoid crowding them. Plus, chitting lets you maximize the number of plants you can grow from your seed potatoes.

When Should You Do Potato Chitting

Potato chitting should be done before planting potatoes. If you have a seed potato with a lot of eyes, like the one in the image above, that is when you should cut it. It will just perform better!

If you’re limited on time or just don’t want to bother with chitting, you can absolutely plant whole seed potatoes. Just know that you will tend to get more foliage with smaller and fewer potatoes at harvest if you plant that way.

Supplies Needed

There are a couple of things you'll need to chit your potatoes:

Tray - Some people like to use egg cartons; I prefer to use a deep 1020 tray.
Pine Shavings - Fill the tray with dry pine shavings or an inert material. You want them dry because we’re trying to wick up moisture off the fresh-cut potatoes.
Kitchen Knife - Grab a sharp kitchen knife to cut the seed potatoes with.
Cutting Board - Any kitchen cutting board or flexible cutting mat will work.
Paper Bag - You will only need a paper bag if your seed potatoes have not formed eyes yet.
Powdered Sulfur - This is optional, but dusting your seed potatoes with some powdered sulfur will help cut down on mold and rot.

How to Chit Potatoes

Force Eyes - If your seed potatoes already have eyes, you may skip to step 2. If they don’t have well-formed eyes, put your seed potatoes in a paper bag and let them sit in a cool (below 60° F), humid, dark place for 1 to 1.5 weeks.
Identify Usable Eyes - Take your seed potatoes out of the paper bag and look for usable eyes. The usable eyes on the potato are the ones that have begun to sprout. Pro-Tip: Every potato will have what is called major and minor eye sites. Major eye sites are groupings of two or more eyes together. Minor eye sites are single eyes.
Cut Potato - On a cutting mat, use your sharp knife to slice the potato into wedges with two to three usable eye sites each. Don’t trim off too much of the tuber because it is the essential food source the plant will need to grow. Each wedge should have a good chunk of the potato. Pro-Tip: Any sections with only undeveloped eyes can be put back in a paper bag to repeat step 1.
Place in Tray - Place the cut potato wedges in the tray of pine shavings with the eyes facing up, not buried down in the pine shavings. Space the potato wedges about an inch to an inch and a half apart to allow adequate air flow.
Dust with Sulfur - You can optionally dust your potatoes lightly with powdered sulfur.
Dry - Place the tray in a dark, dry, warm environment and leave it for one to two weeks. This allows the cut edges to dry and scab up before planting them in the garden.

And that’s it! You’re ready for planting potatoes. Chitting potatoes wasn’t too complicated after all.

FAQ

What month do you chit potatoes?

Start the chitting process 2 to 3 weeks before you plan to plant. Potato planting can take place as early as one to three weeks before the last frost and as late as July.