i wouled like to thank everyone who replied to all my other queries yours sincerley jim

I would throw them out. They appear to have rotted.

You're not the only one to suffer this. I set mine up in the garage a little way from the light and even covered them with newspaper and cardboard during the bad weather but many have gone rotten. I shouldn't have been so keen to get them early. Buy some new stock rather than take a chance on the dodgy ones.

Sounds as though they have been left outside all winter before you bought them. The GC should refund your money if you still have your check-out slip.

Agree with Dianebulley take till receipt and an example back to the GC and ask for a refund. Then get new seed potatoes and chit again. Snag with buying the from a GC is they don't know where the potatoes have been stored prior to delivery to them. I don't usually suggest someone goes to Dobies but Bulba and I nipped into the one in Perth today when we were down for an SRGC meeting and noted they had an extremely good selection including organic seed potatoes.

thank you for your replies i chucked my receipt so i will dump them and count my loses i bought them to early thank you again jim

Every time I get 'volunteers' (last year's crop inadvertently left in the soil or compost in my garden from the previous year's potato crops) I wonder about the question of it being too early to plant or even whether I need to chit at all. This year they are going into the ground tomorrow, chitted or unchitted. Once the ground is warm enough they will sprout and I will have saved all that chitting space and energy in the plant ... Bob Flowerdew, in his book, plants potatoes, deep, in autumn. When they are ready they come up, and because they have been planted deeply, they don't need mounding up - look at what the commercial potato suppliers do! Bob is then rewarded with an early crop of new potatoes.

Avkq, interesting idea but the commercial growers here in Scotland most certainly ridge up the rows.