Storing Potatoes?

[nao57]

I just planted my potatoes on June 1st and I'm in Zone 6b. Most planted theirs in April. I forgot to til in any compost. My potatoes had enormous sprouts. I'm worried it'll get too hot and not have enough rain to have much of a crop! Next year I won't be building a new garden from the ground up so hopefully everything will be planted in a more timely manner.

IF you had enormous sprouts like you say they will catch up fast. That means that in theory you could end up having your garden act like its been planted a few weeks earlier than you did. This will save you about a month of growth, if you are planting ones that ave sprouts or are chitted, compared to ones without sprouts.

So it might work out for you still. And I've heard of people doing them with low water also, but it is possible being somewhat arid and void of water entirely is something else too. (And I'm unfamiliar with how things are locally.)

But I think you might be OK. This is one thing I like about potatoes is that they can be versatile.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

They will do fine. And you can leave the leaves on on the sprouts etc. Now usually what happens for me is there a about 2 weeks where if you have the sprouts in the ground, but the sprouted growth with minor leaves is slightly above ground with a bud or two; at this point fo this period it will look like its going to to hell and drying up but will bounce back in about another period of time after.

Potatoes are really great.

But the part I worry about potatoes is how to store them more than growing them. It almost feels like leaving them in the ground where they are grown stores better than inside

Now I haven't done the purple types before, but I'd heard some people like them.

I would suspect, but I'm not sure if some types have 'curing' advantages? I hope someone else will talk about this. And some people keep raising the mound also while they grow out and swear it works, but I haven't really done this part. (Maybe someone else has?)

The purple and the white ones I had saved from someone else's potatoes from December. I also had red. Reds didn't stay firm for as long as the others. The purple are supposed to be higher in antioxidants than other potatoes. I made mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, french fries, fried potatoes, baked potatoes, and potato soup with them. They were absolutely gorgeous and tasted like a normal potato. Only downside is more of them were smaller whereas the red and white were larger.

 

[Mtnboomer]

And some people keep raising the mound also while they grow out and swear it works, but I haven't really done this part. (Maybe someone else has?)

I mound my potatoes once a week or so. If i don't, the potatoes will breech the surface and turn green. You don't want that.
Storing potatoes in the ground is an excellent way to beat the late summer heat if you don't have an ideal storage location. Because I plant early (mid march) i harvest early (early Aug.). This leaves 7weeks of warm, humid weather that can make storage out of the ground difficult and shorten their shelf-life. So leaving them in the ground saves all this struggle so long as there is not too much rain that can cause them to rot.

Cool, dark, dirt floor cellars are the best for storing potatoes. I try to keep their storage temps btw 40-50F

 

[nao57]

I mound my potatoes once a week or so. If i don't, the potatoes will breech the surface and turn green. You don't want that.
Storing potatoes in the ground is an excellent way to beat the late summer heat if you don't have an ideal storage location. Because I plant early (mid march) i harvest early (early Aug.). This leaves 7weeks of warm, humid weather that can make storage out of the ground difficult and shorten their shelf-life. So leaving them in the ground saves all this struggle so long as there is not too much rain that can cause them to rot.

Cool, dark, dirt floor cellars are the best for storing potatoes. I try to keep their storage temps btw 40-50F

I'm curious what's the max time you've been able to store them there like that? (And still be edible.) Thanks!

 

[Mtnboomer]

I'm curious what's the max time you've been able to store them there like that? (And still be edible.) Thanks!

If conditions are good with average rainfall, i will leave the potatoes in the ground as late as mid- late September, digging ones to eat as needed, but we usually start getting more rain in late August to early September and can't risk it and end up digging them all for winter storage.

My grandmother's house was built in 1860. She had an old root cellar under the back porch with a dirt floor. We would store everyone's potatoes there and take home a few pounds after every visit. The majority would be edible until the following late june. We would have to remove them in march to induce sprouting.

Today, I don't have a root cellar. I have a well house with a concrete floor set 4ft below ground. It stays cool enough if the weather stays cool but as the air warms up they soften quickly. Most of mine will keep until may.

 

[nao57]

View attachment 2181620View attachment 2181620
Potatoes are perking up nicely! Maybe things aren’t a total loss after all! A few of my white potatoes are starting to show sprouts too.

Very nice!

That looks beautiful. I didn't know the leaves looked sort of turquoise colored on that for that type of potato. This must be the purple one I'm guessing. I hadn't done those but the leave colors are quite surprising.

And rewgarding your white ones sprouting now, that doesn't surprise me! Often they will look dead and rejuvenate themselves. As long as they aren't rotted and still have stored resources in the main spud they do seem to still rejuvenate themselves even when dead. But in my own experience it seems that I still might have 10% of them that will not sprout for some reason and just sit there. (So I would count on some loss still. But in my observations the seed loss failure rate of potatoes is much lower than any other vegetable also. I forgot to mention this. This is another reason why they are such a great vegetable, and very heat hardy as long as the growing spuds are covered.)(But some of the failure rate may depend on if you are using potatoes from a store that's winter treated them to keep them from sprouting too early. But this will cause a small amount of them, (usually less than 15%) to not sprout at all.)

Also, I'm very interested in what that white/gray material is around the potato plant you have there? Is that an ash mixture, or just how the soil there normally looks? Did you mix something in there, or is it just turned over soil?

Thanks for sharing and showing us. It looks like you have some growing/budding talent for this also.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

We are on day 6 of straight rain here in va. I have not been sble to work the garden in a week other than to pick a few bowls of peas in the pouring down rain for dinner. If it ever stops, I have 5gal buckets full of peas waiting to be picked and the potatoes are starting to wilt and will be ready to dig as needed.
If this proves to be a wet summer, I will have to dig them all in July which will make storage more difficult.

Your plants are beautiful and shaping up to be a bountiful harvest.

Wow, hard to believe you'll have potatoes so soon! But of course I planted mine extremely late. We've had no rain. I have an irrigation system, but the forecast has said rain for almost a week straight so I haven't turned it on thinking it'll rain, and then it doesn't. Today I finally turned it on. The potato garden I have to use a water hose and I've only watered it once.

I hope you get a break in the weather!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I came back to this thread to see what time I ended up planting my potatoes last year.

Here's an update: I planted them around the 3rd week of may and had a bountiful harvest! My only regret was that I didn't plant more. This year I am going to plant 75% of my potatoes in the second or week of May again, and 25% in the second week of April. I stored the year 2020 potatoes wrapped in paper in a box in the cool garage, but it wasn't cool for the first month they were in there. They are only just now starting to sprout a little bit, but should still stay firm for another month. I imagine if I had planted in April, I'd already have soft potatoes. They grew in part shade and I never watered them, we had extended periods of heat and drought so I think the shade is what helped them. I got 1-2 large potatoes from each plant, 2-3 small ones, and about two meals worth of "baby" potatoes from the whole lot.

 

[Sally PB]

I just found this thread. I'm in zone 5b, last frost date is usually mid-May. I plant potatoes after that, usually around Memorial Day. This last summer, I planted three types: Kennebec (my stand by), Caribou (new to me), and Elba (also new to me, and supposed to have excellent blight resistance). All white/russet variety.

The biggest producer was Elba, followed by Kennebec, then Caribou. I had the biggest potato harvest EVER, and have gobs of all three still in my basement that look like I just dug them, minus the dirt. The basement is probably 50-55 degrees, and I have them in a large cardboard box.

I leave them in the ground until there is a threat of heavy frost/freeze warning. The plants have usually died back so much I have to mark where they were so I know where to dig. I had a very few that had rotten spots, but it looked like something had gnawed on them. A bigger problem was the heavy rain in late summer; the Elbas especially look like they had a huge growth spurt on the tubers, at the opposite end from the stolen, when they are attached to the plant. They're fine, but have some weird wrinkles and indentations. I can water if needed, but I can't keep them from getting soaked.

One other thing I did that I will do again: I planted a lot of onions in with the potatoes. I didn't see any potato beetles at all, and I also had the best onion harvest ever. I still have some of those in a cardboard box in the basement too.

Glad to hear good things about the potato onions. I just got some starts this last October, so we'll see how they do. I have Egyptian Walking Onions (second year last summer) that exploded with topsets! The onions I dug were small, but wow, talk about strong flavor!

Let's hear it for growing your own food!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I just found this thread. I'm in zone 5b, last frost date is usually mid-May. I plant potatoes after that, usually around Memorial Day. This last summer, I planted three types: Kennebec (my stand by), Caribou (new to me), and Elba (also new to me, and supposed to have excellent blight resistance). All white/russet variety.

The biggest producer was Elba, followed by Kennebec, then Caribou. I had the biggest potato harvest EVER, and have gobs of all three still in my basement that look like I just dug them, minus the dirt. The basement is probably 50-55 degrees, and I have them in a large cardboard box.

I leave them in the ground until there is a threat of heavy frost/freeze warning. The plants have usually died back so much I have to mark where they were so I know where to dig. I had a very few that had rotten spots, but it looked like something had gnawed on them. A bigger problem was the heavy rain in late summer; the Elbas especially look like they had a huge growth spurt on the tubers, at the opposite end from the stolen, when they are attached to the plant. They're fine, but have some weird wrinkles and indentations. I can water if needed, but I can't keep them from getting soaked.

One other thing I did that I will do again: I planted a lot of onions in with the potatoes. I didn't see any potato beetles at all, and I also had the best onion harvest ever. I still have some of those in a cardboard box in the basement too.

Glad to hear good things about the potato onions. I just got some starts this last October, so we'll see how they do. I have Egyptian Walking Onions (second year last summer) that exploded with topsets! The onions I dug were small, but wow, talk about strong flavor!

Let's hear it for growing your own food!

Interesting about the onions and potatoes. I’ve read conflicting info about planting them together. I definitely like planting (and eating) onions though! Last year was my first time growing potatoes and I thankfully had no pest issues.

I have walking onions too! I love love love them because I can usually start pulling up walking onions in February. This is year 3 with growing them, but I don’t know the variety. My walking onions are still working on taking off because I’m guilting of eating the big ones I also buy green onions once or twice a year and re plant the white parts. If left alone they can grow a decent sized bulb, about the size of a golf ball. Usually I just keep reharvesting the tops. I actually don’t think I’ve bought any since spring of last year.

It is so rewarding growing your own food. My goal is to grow 80% of my own food but I was at less than half last year.