Storing 2nd early Charlotte potatoes

[eileenjb56@hotmail.com]

Should I dig up all my potatoes as above and store them? If so can I have some advice on storing them?

[bobleponge]

Hi Eileen

I have dug up all my charlottes, and have stored them in my wood shed, a cool dark place. They are in large dark plastic containers and are covered in a dark cloth. I dont have huge amounts of them, but when I stored them, I only store the good ones, I keep the small ones for seed for next year, and eat anything that isnt perfect, but dont seem to have any problems.

[Alison Adams]

If you want to keep some tubers for seeding, do you need to store/treat them any particular way eg cool & dry ? dark ? in the fridge ?
How do they not just rot ?
Do you rub off the 'eyes' if they start to chit to early ?
I quite like the idea of saving and using my own instead of always buying new so any guidance on that would be appreciated.

[bobleponge]

My seed spuds for next year are just the smaller ones (not too small) from the ones I harvest. They are simply kept cool,dry and in the dark, for now they are covered up in the wood shed, but later on, once it starts to get really cold, they will be given to my gardening guru who has a store that doesnt freeze.
I dont do anything to them at all other than that.
I believe that conventional wisdom is not to save your own tubers, although I've never really known why.

[eileenjb56@hotmail.com]

Hi Bob
I have just dug them up and followed your instructions. Kept the small ones to oneside and layed the other out to dry in the greenhouse covered.
There must be a knack to digging them up without spiking some of them? and there always the biggest!!!

[Alison]

The reason that we're advised not to use your own tubers is that they won't be guaranteed to be disease free. This doesn't matter too much if you're growing in pots as you don't tend to keep the compost in the same way as you would if you grow in the open soil. I'm going to reuse some of my Charlottes for Christmas spuds but that'll be in pots in the greenhouse so I'm not worried about it but I wouldn't risk planting them back in the soil.

Re the original question. I'm digging my Charlottes up as I need them. Was under the impression that they'd not keep for long in the way that a main crop will but others may know more on this subject.

[bobleponge]

Eileen, there are special potato digging up tools that farmers and probably smallholders use that stop the spuds getting spiked, however most gardeners stab a few when bringing them up.

Alison, the disease free thing has often puzzled me. The tubers that we keep come from stock that we are happy to eat, thus they must be reasonably safe surely? I dont put my spuds into the same patch of ground, and other stuff grows disease free the year after, so I am happy to keep doing as I do now. Of course, my soil shall now be laid bare with pestilence I'm sure and I shall come back and eat plenty of humble pie.
Re keeping them, I dont think they keep quite as long as a main crop, but I dont grow huge amounts of them, but have never lost one tuber due to rotting in storage. The longest I have kept them for is about 4 months I think.