potatoes

hello i dont know whether you can help e or not but my grandad watched gardeners world the other night and they were planting potatoes. before they were planted a few of the sprits were knocked off them but my grandad either missed the reason why or they did say why you should knock some of the sprits off

does anyone know why you should knock a few of the sprits off potatoes before planting them.

thanks

I think but not too sure, he said it made them healthier plants? Not too sure?

I know last year the potatoes I planted in May instead of April were the best I ever had but I did dig a trench put ripped up newspapers in it and put clay on top of the paper and then planted the potatoes on that with peat around them.

Supposedly you get fewer but bigger potatoes if you rub off some of the shoots. More stems=more tubers, more tubers in the same space means less food per tuber so they are smaller. Might be an overcrowding effect too. Seems only to be used for maincrop varieties but I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work for all varieties athough who wants giant new potatoes?

Yes I think it is down to personal choice. Its to create one stronger growing stem instead of several smaller ones. It might mean,as has been said , that you get less but larger spuds this way. Whichever you choose to do i hope you get a good crop.