Too Many Potatoes

[Garvey]

I bought a net of Arran pilot seed potatoes,planted about two thirds and can't manage the harvest. There's too much for my wife me and the neighbours.How long can they be kept in the ground before they go bad?

[zazen999]

Ages, why don't you harvest them, let them dry in the sun and put them into a paper sack/cardboard box out of the light and just use them as and when?

[Hazel at the Hill]

As Zaz says, you can either dig 'em up and put them in cardboard boxes/bags in a cool dry place (e.g. garage), or leave them where they are, (if you don't need the space to grow anything else), and dig them up as you need them.

They will be good till about next Feb, I guess.

Well done on such a good crop!

[Snadger]

I have no keel slug problems so leave them in the ground and harvest as I need them. They will be ok until they start to sprout next April/May I reckom.

This way you always get thin skinned tatties with that freshly dug taste. Stored tatties, unles in a clamp outdoors, always seem to deteriorate in taste.

[Nicos]

We've had lottie on 2 different sites with 2 diffent soil types.
The spuds left in the clay soil used to rot- those left n the peat soil kept wonderfully until Spring.

If you've had any sign of blight in the area, you'll need to get them up so you can keep an eye on them

[womble]

Is it possible to have too many potatoes?

Spuds left in my soil are OK as long as they are not damaged, but they do get attacked by slugs, so I don't leave them in the soil after August, or wet weather.

As said above, if you dry them for a couple of hours on a nice sunny day, you can store them in a cardboard box, in a cool place all winter. I did that last year, they lasted all winter and then I used the last few as seed potatoes this year.

[Alison]

This way you always get thin skinned tatties with that freshly dug taste. Stored tatties, unles in a clamp outdoors, always seem to deteriorate in taste.

Although I always find that stored ones make better mash