Potato storage in fall, What works?

[Jeepcats]

Hi,

I haven't had the garden space for potatoes for a while. I'm creating a growing space BUT this house has a very small basement. I'm at a loss of how to maintain any potatoes that I would like to grow. I don't want to grow them and just watch them sprout before I use them.What works best for you regarding potato storage in the fall. Especially if you don't have a rootceller? How do you keep them from sprouting and being useless in the spring for planting?

Thanks,

Heather

[feldon30]

I've heard of storing the potatoes and other root crops in a barrel or other container filled with sand or wood chips. Onions usually get braided and dried in the sun and then hung up in the basement.

[Tom Wagner]

Heather, in response to your comments and questions:

I haven't had the garden space for potatoes for a while.

I have no idea how big your garden is in Harrisburg, PA. but I think nearly everyone should find a place for a few potatoes. Even 100 potato plants could produce from 100 lbs. to perhaps over 300 lbs.!! If you can't eat that many pounds before they sprout in the basement, leave some in the ground and cover with straw just before hard freezes. Here is Western Washington I leave tons of potatoes in the ground all winter til April. I dug 500 lbs just today on several hundred varieties!

I'm creating a growing space BUT this house has a very small basement. I'm at a loss of how to maintain any potatoes that I would like to grow. I don't want to grow them and just watch them sprout before I use them.

My suggestion is to grow enough to eat til Christmas. If your storage is not cool enough the sprouting will rob valuable nutrients from the tubers.

What works best for you regarding potato storage in the fall. Especially if you don't have a rootceller?

Since potatoes like to be kept cool, like under 40 F. and rather high humidity with some ventilation, you may have a problem getting the conditions you want past Christmas. You could plant later, thus harvesting just as cool weather hits in Harrisburg. The sprouting time would be much later since potatoes have a natural rest period of a few months. The outdoors straw might work for you if you soil is well drained. I like potato flavor in soil storage better than cellars anyway. I am lucky that I borrow space in a two million dollar potato cold storage facility which is kept cold until May.

How do you keep them from sprouting and being useless in the spring for planting?

If you are the average homeowner without proper storage I wouldn't advise doing this anyway. Why save your own potatoes for planting when you probably should buy clean certified seed potatoes just to be safe.
I have some potatoes in cold storage that are from August 2005. I treated them with sprout inhibitors as they went through the wash line at the packing plant. They went thru the cold storage time til May 2006 at which time they were kept at ambient temperatures til Aug 15, 2006 when the cooler was turned on again. At this date they are flacid but covered with many sprouts and very healthy. The variety? Azul Toro. I do this from time to time with certain varieties that I maintain for years in order to kill any viruses. The half life of viruses is such that if you keep potatoes for nearly two years the viruses will die off naturally. That is how is get virus-free potato clones without the expensive lab meristem cleanup.

Tom

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by Jeepcats

Hi,

What works best for you regarding potato storage in the fall. Especially if you don't have a rootceller?

i don't save potatoes for next spring tho this year i will have 1 variety at planting time (maybe) - mine are for eating in fall and winter.

i use an extra fridge without that i'd be very limited as to volume to store. i put each variety in a plastic grocery bag with a damp napkin. once a month or every 6 weeks i check for problems and re-dampen the napkin. i don't seal the bag but i do sorta close it. potatoes have to breathe and if kept in a sealed bag i'm sure they'd rot.

i grew superior and used them up 1st. i finished the last yukon gold 2 days ago. i have 1/2 my all blue potatoes left as they were the longest storage variety of the 3. i harvested 10-12 pounds of each variety - a whopping harvest from 13 plants of each variety huh! 10/13th or 12/13th of a pound PER PLANT. last year i had better yields of 2-3 pounds per plant.

oh and my advice is (!) if you have a small garden don't bother! potatoes just don't justify the space used for the yields unless you plant a lot of plants. 1-3 pounds per plant is nothing to rave about compared to so many other things. i grow these darn things cuz it's fun to grow them and dig them but in a 1200 sq ft garden i limit them to just 160 sq ft and last year that was a 40' row 4' wide. this year i'm doing 2 25' rows 4' wide. my garden is large enough to waste the space because i do think it's fun to grow them but years ago i just was unable to justify the space in this garden. it's a shame each plant doesn't yield 10 or 12 pounds.

tom

tom

[soil_lover]

I place each potato in a brown paper lunch bag and store them in my extra refrigerator at 40 degrees. They hold up well through spring.

[palerider]

As Tom says, the only good way I find to store potatoes and carrots is in the ground where they grow. It always stays a lot colder than the top, and they're protected from all the nasties. I know you want to dig them up to see how wonderfully they've grown, but it's a real treat to dig them up later when you need them. And they grow to their full size.

[feldon30]

Too much rain in Houston to do that. The potatoes would rot in the ground.

I'm still in line (no idea what my 'Now Serving' number is) to get potato berry seeds from Tom.

[arnesr]

I saved some Yukon golds in my basement (50+deg or so) over the winter last year. They sprouted and got really shriveled and I think I picked out a couple that rotted, but I planted them anyway. Guess what, they grew fine and I had a decent crop this year. Definately not the best method, but it worked for me. I'll try that again this year.

[Granny]

Jeepcats, I don't usually grow potatoes because they can be had in 50 pound bags ever so cheaply here in New England in the fall. I have often not had a cellar available either and in that case usually store them in something like an entry way - unheated but not freezing. About 45 or so is right.

Your best bet I think, would be to order up a copy of Putting Food By from Amazon - you should be able to acquire one used for next to nothing. That was written by an old-time New England woman who details every method under the sun to store produce for winter. You are sure to find something that will work for you.