How do you store your potatoes?

[Alison]

Mine are currently only being lifted as needed as if I try and store them now they'll sprout in the warm weather but I do want them handy come winter time and I can't get to the lottie during the week when the clocks change. Do leave my carrots, parsnips and swedes insitu though but they're easier to find in frozen ground.

[Veggiemama]

KevinM67
I have far too many to do that. good on you for wrapping them all individually.


\i have spent the last few days harvesting all the spuds. I had to, the slugs and bugs are aplenty here and i wont have the time to keep checking them.

I have harvestedover 17stone of spuds over the last few days. I am so so pleased. We have been eating my homegrown spuds since the end of june and have given some away. we worked out that i have grown about 24 stone of spuds this year. Some are really really big too. :-)

Now, it has been raining mostly here and i know that they have to be dry to store.
they are inside the house at the minute spread out drying. I am wiping them all this morning with a teatowel gently just to make sure they are dry and re - laying them on newspaper. This should be enough to dry them off shouldnt it. I am covering them in newspaper too til the end of the day or the morning to make sure they are dry.

Is this enough to do before i put them in my hessian bags.

Sorry for seeming dim. I have worked hard to produce these and i want to make sure they last when i store them.

thanks in advance

[Veggiemama]

I have just read on wikihow that i have to keep the potatoes spread out on newspaper and covered in newspaper for 2 weeks to cure them before i store them. Do you all do this for this length of time too?

I'll do it, but havent read anywhere here that any of you do it for that length of time.
Thanks

[Thelma Sanders]

what

I certainly don't do that.

[Alison]

I have just read on wikihow that i have to keep the potatoes spread out on newspaper and covered in newspaper for 2 weeks to cure them before i store them. Do you all do this for this length of time too?

I'll do it, but havent read anywhere here that any of you do it for that length of time.
Thanks

That's rubbish, just knock off the muck (not so easy if you're on clay) and spread out on newspaper etc. When dry on that side turn over and dry the other. This takes less than a day after which you can bag up. Check on them to see if any mould happens (and don't bag any with blemishes, eat them straight away) and hoof them out so it doesn't spread. 2 weeks, where do they get this from?!? They'd have gone green by then.

[teakdesk]

If you've cleaned them and they are in good drying conditions then that seems a long time. Left with heavy soil attached and left to dry in a damp shed then maybe so!!!

However, keep ALL light from them and you can dry for as long as you like... just don't let them get light on them... or did I say that???

[Veggiemama]

I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you that gave me advise on this thread.

My potatoes stored well and we still have some left.

A few of the Home Guard are beginning to sprout, but they are still edible and i just picked the little white sprouts off them.

The bikini stored great and i think improved with storage. Will definately be growing Bikini this year again.

So, again a huge thank you for all the great advice.
Hugs
veggiemama

[Nicos]

I still have about 8kg of Charlotte left!
Only one so far has shown any sign of chitting, so that was promptly cooked and eaten...and the rest have stayed firm and white.
(Mine are stored in the dark cellar in wooden trays)

I'll be sad to eat the last one, but hey.....it's time to be thinking about the 2015 spuds now isn't it!

Glad to hear yours have done so well too Veggiemama.

[Snow]

Before the advent of seed potatoes being stored in cold storage, how did our ancestors store their potato seeds for next year? Did they just leave them in the ground and hope they didnt rot/get eaten? Or did they keep them in a cold dark, dry place and hope for the best? Would they survive that till next season?

[Penellype]

I don't know for certain but I suspect they would be lifted and stored rather than left in the ground to grow. It isn't all that hard to store potatoes in the cold in the winter in a shed or similar building, and by the time they started to sprout it would be about time to think of planting them. I have potatoes stored in the bags they were grown in, which are absolutely fine and not yet sprouting - if they were stored in similar conditions, say in sand I'm sure they would be fine. Traditionally potatoes (and other root vegetables) were stored in "clamps" which were large heaps covered in a thick layer of straw and a layer of soil but whether the seed potatoes were stored this way or not I have no idea.

[Kristen]

Before the advent of seed potatoes being stored in cold storage, how did our ancestors store their potato seeds for next year?

They used a clamp which was rubbish compared to a modern cool store


Potato Clamp Storing Potatoes - Preserving

[starloc]

Just keep them coolish and dark, till needed and they wont sprout thats what everyone does in Bulgaria,most people keep some back from the year before to grow, some use clamps but most just put them on shelves in the barn

I have a tray of each of mine from this year in the barn, in the dark, there was no sprouting when i last looked 3 weeks ago, they have been there since July about 25C to 30C in the barn in the summer, until it got cold in November when its been below 10C down to -15C outside
I will put them in the light in a couple of weeks and then plant them round easter time

[Snadger]

I kept my eating spuds in a clamp I made at the allotment one year. They were Desiree and kept really well until about April when they started to sprout.
The inner straw section was always damp so they didn't shrivel.
I have my Maxine seed potatoes in a drawer in the shed. Had a look the other day and they are still red of skin and haven't started to sprout yet.