Sprouting Spuds

I would rather my potatoes sprouted than were treated with any chemicals to stop them sprouting. I like to be confident that I know what I am eating, with no hidden 'extras'

I’m with you on this M0nica - potatoes are (depending where you live) the worst veg for chemical residues. If you can afford to buy just one foodstuff from the organic veg section, this is probably the one to choose.

We planted some random potatoes found by the side of a field when the gc had the greatest fun digging them up in the autumn.
This year we have bought some from Aldi for planting hoping they might grow a bit bigger as some of the first crop were minute. The bigger ones didn’t taste that well, a bit dry. Big expectation for Aldi.

I've never thought anything of cutting off the sprouts, I assumed it was what you do. Thepeelings often sprout in the compost heap, too. We plant them out and get about a dozen plants which gives us some free potatoes in the autumn.

But why should these bootleg spuds have diseases? Can someone explain?

Actually I thought they sprouted BECAUSE they were in the dark. My Dad used to put an upturned barrel over rhubarb to 'force' it to sprout early.

We do pay extra for the proper seed potatoes when planting, but whenever I wonder if I'm doing the right thing, I think of my forebears who all survived and I can't imagine they had much choice .
We are lucky in many ways and far better off but life must have been a lot simpler back then. (sigh!)

JackyB, the rhubarb is forced once it starts to poke through the earth by creating a microclimate that is warm and moist. The resulting stalks are thinner and weaker with a more delicate taste. They are less acidic and tart than the main crop and, because they have been hurried up, are earlier too. Yum yum.

With potatoes we chit them in a warmish, light dry place in order to give them a headstart when they are planted out. We do this in the light as we want fattish green with pink shoots that are strong, not the wiggly thin white things you get when you leave your potatoes in the dark.

This means the "early" potatoes have the opportunity to grow bigger quicker. For the "late" potatoes it means we can harvest them before the worst of the potato blight hits.

If you have "volunteer" potatoes appear in your garden you will get tubers from them but it will be a smaller crop. I think they tend to be more unusual shapes too. This might be because they can grow from very tiny tubers or even peelings so haven't been nurtured very well when they started off.
If you grew potatoes the previous year and had any disease (most likely blight) then I'd remove them at sight.