Lifting Potatoes

[Alan Glass]

Help please! When lifting potatoes for storage should they be washed? Another allotment buddy says 'No, it reduces there life span by receiving running water on to the body.

I would prefer to store them cleaned if possible, any contributions most welcomed.

[Aberdeenplotter]

The important thing is to make sure they are stored dry, doesn't matter whether they are clean or covered in soil.

[Pinfold Plotter]

I don't wash them, just rub the soil off.

[Tripmeup]

Never washed them when collecting for pit storage with my Grandfather...

[WendyC]

This year the soil was so wet when I lifted them no option to wash otherwise i couldn't see what was potato and what was mud!

[Alan Glass]

Hello Tripmeup, yes talking to my boss at work who's from Mayo pit storage was a common fix. Potatoes laid on hay then covered with 3-4 feet of clay (soil). They would last for nearly a year till the new spuds were in.

[Tripmeup]

Ah the memories...sore backs, dirty finger nails etc

[bearded bloke]

I wash & air dry mine then bag in doubled hessian sacks

[salome2001]

this is my first time harvesting so no idea if it works, but I've got my spuds in those big flat apple boxes from the greengrocer on a layer of shredded paper to keep dry and apart. Didn't wash them, but brushed the big clods of dirt off. Keeping them in the understairs (cool and dim), the boxes also stack

[hamesy]

I wiped mine to remove any soil and then left to air dry on some paper. I've stored them in a sack in a cupboard where its dry and cool.