Topic: Storing first and second earlies - how long do they keep?

[gwynleg]

I have only just finished getting up all my first and second early potatoes - think I may have overdone it this year! The thinking was to do more of these because the maincrop would get attacked by blight (it did), but have a lot.

My question is - how long should I expect them to keep in a potato sack in a cool dark not frosted shed?
Thanks

[tim]

Can't answer, but why lift them? Had they 'gone over'?

[gwynleg]

I took them up for two reasons - very very big slugs in the area and also because my neighbour has v bad wireworm (so he cant grow potatoes at all) and quite a lot of  the potatoes I dug up had it so I didnt want to encourage them by leaving them in. Dont know if that was right or not?

(The haulms had died back almost completely and I cut them off cos there was a lot of blight around).

[cambourne7]

i dug all my spuds up for the same reason, loads of eggs on some spuds and quite a few with worm dammage. Got about 10kg in brown bags.

[saddad]

Certainly into January...  ???

[tim]

So FOUR good reasons, Gwyn?

Big slugs? Surely, it's the wee ones that do all the damage?

[VegieBird]

Hi

I dug mine up about a week and a half ago.

I took a peak at the months weather and noticed that we are still in for lots of wet weather and I could see lots of slug eggs around my potatoes.

Also, I didn't fancy digging up potatoes for tea on a wet day, kids in the car and trudging back covered in mud and a foot higher with mud under my boots!

I laid down a picnic rug in my shed and dried all of my potatoes and checked them twice to make sure the ones I was storing were slug, wire worm and damage free.

I kept a few hen egg sized potatoes for next years seeds and am working my way through the remainder that are damaged on my picnic rug (for mashed pots or roast pots) - shed also has had windows blacked out so no sun can ruin the potatoes.

Also worth mentioning, if you leave potatoes in the soil during frosts, they are meant to turn them sweeter.

So that is why I have dug up and stored my potatoes now. 

I have been told that you should check them around January time and turf out any bad ones and just keep a closer eye on them from January onwards.

I hope that helped!

Good luck!

[gwynleg]

Thanks for all these replies - January is a lot better than I thought. I have sorted out half of them so far (sorting the holey ones from the whole ones) but the rest will have to wait till after my hols .......!