Storing seed potatoes

[JaneJ]

Hi All,
I’m new to this site and to having an allotment.
I am looking for advice about seed potatoes.
Having newly acquired an allotment we bought some seed potatoes and have started to chit them. The problem is that it is taking far longer to get a usable plot to grow them in so is it possible to keep them for next year and if so how do we store them.
Many thanks

[Scarlet]

Unfortunately you won't be able to keep them for next year.
Why not plant them up in some flower buckets?

[Jay-ell]

Hi JaneJ and welcome to the vine.

If they're chitting the spuds will probably not store till next year however if you have access to any outdoor space big enough to put a large shopping bag on then you could grow them in potato bags or large pots.

On the allotment you just need to clear a large enough patch to plant them then once they're growing they will help keep things under them down.

You could strim an area then cover it with a layer or two of thick cardboard or thick newspapers. On top of this put whatever compost you can get to plant the spuds in then cover this with straw or grass cuttings. You'll have to add more straw as the year goes on to keep the tubers covered but at the end of the year you'll have a harvest of spuds and a weed free patch.

The cardboard will stop the weeds growing back up if it's thick enough - the spud roots will be able to go down through it but roots are made for pushing through the ground, the weed shoots aren't as strong at it usually.

Alterantively you could cover the ground with cardboard, black plastic, empty compost bags or sheets of corrugated iron then put your potato bags/buckets on this. Potatoes in bags and buckets will need watering regularly (more often than in a bed) and the water has a habit of running down the side of the bag without getting the centre of the bed wet. To stop this take a large plastic pop bottle and cut the bottom off. Unscrew the cap and put it upside down in the centre of the bay so that you water into this and it then goes to the centre.

[JaneJ]

Thank you both for your replies. I thought that might be the case. Will go for several options and keep fingers crossed.

[Scarlet]

Good luck!!
Are you just going to spend this year clearing the ground? Have you got any space clear yet?
Start sowing seeds in modules...you will have plants ready to pop in when you've cleared a little space

[Gillykat]

Agree with Scarlet - sow some seeds now and whilst they're growing you can get on with clearing a few patches of ground to put them in. As to potatoes I don't bother doing what the books say about digging furrows and then earthing them up.....did that the first year and it was backbreaking The second year I just dug a hole with a trowel for each potato and dropped them in and covered them up! Still got a good crop without all the hassle of loads of digging.

I've only had my allotment four years but the one thing I've learnt is to NOT look at the whole plot and think ''Dear god, it'll take me forever to dig this lot!'' Do a little bit at a time, don't overdo it and kill yourself and before you know it you will have a few beds dug with young plants growing away in them

Oh, and stick around on this forum.....I picked so many brains for advice in my first year (and still do!) and learnt so much. It was tomatoes in 2015.....later this year I think it'll be chickens

[Logunner]

I’m growing my spuds in bags and in raised beds placed on cardboard. Beds and bags only have 2” of compost then covered in staw, hay and shredded paper. Plenty of fertilizer...

This is my first full year, but the spuds in bags in the greenhouse flowered at the weekend so something went right.

[Martin H]

What Scarlet and Gilly say. For the potatoes, last resort is to dig holes in the weeds, drop the seed potatoes in and let them fight it out with the weeds. You will get a crop, just not a huge one. And you can dig weeds out at the same time as the crop

When your other seedlings are ready to go out, you can put those in the bits you've cleared properly.