Storing Potatoes?

[humblehillsfarm]

You should be ok. I have planted potatoes as late as the 3rd week in may. The biggest factors that i have had with such late planting dates is heat and lack if moisture. Plant in mid-late may, sprouts break the surface in early june, start growing vigorously in mid-late june and BAM! a hot dry spell hits. The late planting does not allow as well of an established root system and heat and drought stress may result in weakening plants susceptible to disease or under developed potatoes (small).

They are also prime targets for pests so be vigilant.

Potatoes are pretty tough so this is of course dependent upon just how long the dry spell lasts and watering (not too much) if need be can nurse them through.

Harvest dates will be pushed back until probably early September.

Definitely put them in asap though and you'll be fine.

Thanks! I have been worried about drought, but not heat as much. That portion of the yard is shaded after about 3PM so I was hoping that would help! I've never grown potatoes before. I was contemplating expanding my irrigation system to that portion of the garden but not sure I'm ready for that investment yet either.

Good luck on your homestead btw! It sounds like you are off to a great start. I started the same process 3yrs ago with the house/property we bought.

The house was in rough shape so i have put a lot of time and money into fixing it up myself. We are in the mountains so the soils are heavy clay and rock. Nevertheless, with a lot of hardwork dedicated to soil improvement, each year my little 110' x 50' garden has been producing awesome crops! Based upon grocery store prices, it has saved us over $1000 each season. Now I am looking to expand.

Our fruit orchards and nut groves should start producing more by next year and our "edible landscape" is starting to provide seasonal berry harvests.

We get 75% of our meat from wild game. Deer, wild turkey, rabbit, and squirrels are abundant and are a staple at our dinner table. The chickens obviously provide meat and eggs and we expect to have goats by this January.

Larger farm stock is planned for the future but it will be a few years yet.

My goal is to be self sufficient on food and buy only basics (flour, sugar, coffee, spices, etc). We are looking into solar power for energy.

Right now I am giving our food surplus away to family and friends, but may try to sell it at the local farmers market for additional income.

In any case, it has been an incredible journey and one that you are embarking on with I'm sure the same passion and enthusiasm that I have. It can feel overwhelming at times as the work load continues to grow, but it is so rewarding when the fruits of your labor enjoyed.

Thank you! Your journey sounds so similar to mine. And our house is in need of a ton of repairs. We are still running on original knob and tube electrical wiring! We had to gut the bathroom before we could even use it and had to go number #2 in a bucket on our porch for the first two days. I'll never take a toilet for granted again! Nothing like a midnight trip to the "bucket" when you can hear coyotes yipping fifty feet away!

My goals are similar. I'd like to grow all of my own produce except for a few niche items, herbs, and of course pantry staples like grains, coffee, and sugar. I'd like to venture into meat chickens and dairy goats someday too.

I have a few connections willing to take part in a small co-op so I am hoping to generate a small income enough to cover the costs of manure, irrigation, and buying seeds, but this is the first year with a garden this size so we shall see!

Good luck with your goals! They are totally achievable!

 

[nao57]

I am in 6b..... do you think May is too late to plant? My intention was to plant at the end of March but we are building our entire homestead up from scratch starting in September '19. House repairs, greenhouse, barn repairs, building the garden, installing beehives. I just haven't had the chance yet to plant them! I've got maybe 50 lbs of seed potatoes waiting to go in the ground.

May is the best time to plant! You aren't too late!

Here in Utah EVERYONE plants in May because we always have a late frost right up until the last day of April! This is basically permanently like this, every year. Even now we still have snow on the tops of the mountains (but not in the valleys, and valley floors). Last year we had snow on the mountain tops until almost July; but that's a weird exception, its usually gone by then.

People in the Midwest sometimes plant later also when they are in flood watches.

You should be OK planting pretty much right up until end of May. Especially with potatoes because they are a root vegetable which weathers the sun better when the heat gets pretty intense.

You can probably plant other things besides potatoes even with this same cycle. But if you have seedlings coming up in the ground when you get that awful July heat sometimes you have to be creative with keeping them alive. But for potatoes you won't have to worry about that.

Over here we can plant most things, however, anything that takes up to 120 days or 110 days we have a hard time with here and it can be cutting it close. People do get corn to work here just fine. But for some reason I had a lot of trouble with sweet potatoes. I grew and planted sweet potato slips and the combination of needing tons of growing degree days, and low soil fertility (clay soil), etc we didn't do well. I would probably hypothesize you could probably avoid some of the vegetables that use huge numbers of days like sweet potatoes when you are planting later, and just plant the other stuff that you know will finish in time. But even then you can go with what the locals in your area can give you more specific data on. (Sweet potatoes are ~120 days).

 

[nao57]

I store my potatoes in our well house. Its dark and winter temps stay between 40-45F. I plant potatoes in mid march (zone 6a). I leave the potatoes in the ground even after the leaves die all summer unless we are getting a lot of rain harvesting as needed from the garden. In late Aug early Sept we dig and store dirty potatoes (usually btw 100-150lbs) in a wooden crate.

In jan, i take 20-30lbs worth inside the house and keep them in low light. The warmer temps and light induce sprouting. These become my seed potatoes.

The remaining are eaten by late may. So not a full year but 10 months or so.

BTW - never store potatoes with onions. Your taters won't keep.

Thank you!

So leaving them in the ground you get better storage times it sounds like?
And do you have a reccomended ratio of how many you eat per how many you store for seed?

10 months isn't too bad. And can you eat them right up until that 10 months, or do they start to look sort of mangy before then?

 

[Mtnboomer]

May is the best time to plant! You aren't too late!

Here in Utah EVERYONE plants in May because we always have a late frost right up until the last day of April! This is basically permanently like this, every year. Even now we still have snow on the tops of the mountains (but not in the valleys, and valley floors). Last year we had snow on the mountain tops until almost July; but that's a weird exception, its usually gone by then.

People in the Midwest sometimes plant later also when they are in flood watches.

You should be OK planting pretty much right up until end of May. Especially with potatoes because they are a root vegetable which weathers the sun better when the heat gets pretty intense.

You can probably plant other things besides potatoes even with this same cycle. But if you have seedlings coming up in the ground when you get that awful July heat sometimes you have to be creative with keeping them alive. But for potatoes you won't have to worry about that.

Over here we can plant most things, however, anything that takes up to 120 days or 110 days we have a hard time with here and it can be cutting it close. People do get corn to work here just fine. But for some reason I had a lot of trouble with sweet potatoes. I grew and planted sweet potato slips and the combination of needing tons of growing degree days, and low soil fertility (clay soil), etc we didn't do well. I would probably hypothesize you could probably avoid some of the vegetables that use huge numbers of days like sweet potatoes when you are planting later, and just plant the other stuff that you know will finish in time. But even then you can go with what the locals in your area can give you more specific data on. (Sweet potatoes are ~120 days).

Im in the mtns of VA (heavy clay and rock). Our last frost threat is in mid may. I plant potatoes in march because potatoes tolerate frost/snow well. The leaves will die back but they rebound quickly. By the time july and especially aug gets here, they are finished growing and ready for harvest to avoid the heat.

Last year, we didn't get a measurable rainfall in 3 months and temps routinely hit mid 90s and higher. My father planted his potatoes late and water bans prevented irrigation. They burnt to a crisp and died by 1st wk of August. The potatoes themselves were fine but were 1/2 the size of mine.
Sweet potatoes are extremely frost sensitive so can not be planted until after last frost.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Thank you!

So leaving them in the ground you get better storage times it sounds like?
And do you have a reccomended ratio of how many you eat per how many you store for seed?

10 months isn't too bad. And can you eat them right up until that 10 months, or do they start to look sort of mangy before then?

So long as you do not get a lot of late summer rain, they will keep in the ground. Keep them buried of course.

As spring temps warm, so does the temps in my well house which essentially and old time root cellar. It stays cool down there but if temps inside go over about 60, they start to wrinkle, soften and sprout. You can still cut out some bad spots and salvage some, but my late May its all over.

As for seed potatoes, 20-30 lbs yeilds me 100-150 lbs of potatoes each year. That's enough to feed us plus provide the seed potatoes for the following season. This year we had about 10 lbs of potatoes that we didn't eat. I gave them to my neighbor to start his garden with last wknd.

 

[nao57]

Im in the mtns of VA (heavy clay and rock). Our last frost threat is in mid may. I plant potatoes in march because potatoes tolerate frost/snow well. The leaves will die back but they rebound quickly. By the time july and especially aug gets here, they are finished growing and ready for harvest to avoid the heat.

Last year, we didn't get a measurable rainfall in 3 months and temps routinely hit mid 90s and higher. My father planted his potatoes late and water bans prevented irrigation. They burnt to a crisp and died by 1st wk of August. The potatoes themselves were fine but were 1/2 the size of mine.
Sweet potatoes are extremely frost sensitive so can not be planted until after last frost.

Thanks!

This is interesting. Are you sure your father's potatoes didn't do well because of late planing, instead of nutrient deficiency?

The reason why I ask this is that if someone plants late, its also possible they didn't fertilize well. And recently I'd found out potatoes use a lot of nutrients. If you plant them in the same place you did last year, without refertilizing you end up with a problem like you described your father having. (I also went through this one year, until I realized what had happened. And they were also smaller than normal.) Plus, clay soil is a bit harder to keep fertile I think...at least out here it is.

Its really neat to compare notes with you guys. I learn a lot. Like if someone planted really early like you described and had them finish, they could probably do 2 crops in a year! Amazing.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Thanks!

This is interesting. Are you sure your father's potatoes didn't do well because of late planing, instead of nutrient deficiency?

The reason why I ask this is that if someone plants late, its also possible they didn't fertilize well. And recently I'd found out potatoes use a lot of nutrients. If you plant them in the same place you did last year, without refertilizing you end up with a problem like you described your father having. (I also went through this one year, until I realized what had happened. And they were also smaller than normal.) Plus, clay soil is a bit harder to keep fertile I think...at least out here it is.

Its really neat to compare notes with you guys. I learn a lot. Like if someone planted really early like you described and had them finish, they could probably do 2 crops in a year! Amazing.

I dont think nutrients is the problem. He tills in fertilizer each spring and then dresses the garden with 10-10-10 again in late june. We always rotate crops each season.
Potatoes like more acidic soil (ph of 5.5-6). Sometimes, if a little too much lime is applied in the potato bed, it can stunt the growth.
But i have had similar results on late plantings if we get hot and dry periods. I usually water a little to hold them over and then seem to make it through ok.

Its only an observation that I have made and so avoid when possible. There may be another explanation, but i haven't come up with it yet.

Agree very much! Love to hear how others do with their gardens, planting strategies, companions, care, etc. Great learning opportunities!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

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.

 

[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]

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.

I was wondering if they'd catch up. I don't have pictures, but the purple potatoes had sprouts that were a foot long. I couldn't even plant and mound them that high, part of the tips are sticking out by 1-2" but it looked as though they were about to sprout leaves. I was reallllly hoping that meant I had a leg up, but I've never grown potatoes in my life.