Topic: Another Thread Asking 'How Do You Store Potatoes?'

[Digitalis]

Well.....how do you store freshly dug spuds?

I have dig up 2/3s of my Maris Pipers, and intend on storing the whole lot and using them as I please.

What is the best method?

I have some hessian sacks. Would it be ok to fill these with the spuds and hang them in the shed? If so, how long will they last?

Ta!

[Digitalis]

By the way, here they are:

[KittyKatt]

Your spuds look amazing! I havent grown Maris piper so don't know how long they would store, but my King Edwards and PFA keep until April / May in hessian sacks in the garage. One word of caution. It's very important only to store perfect potatoes. I go through all of mine individually, putting on one side any that are damaged eg by slugs (even the tiniest hole!) or have any signs of rot or anything else not quite right. These get eaten first. They don't usually go into sacks as I want to be able to keep a close eye on them. When the perfect potatoes are in the sacks, its still a good idea to inspect them from time to time just to make sure that no rot has appeared in any of them, as it can quickly spread. I don't know how light your shed is, but I usually drape another empty sack over the sacks with potatoes, to make sure as much light is excluded as possible.
HTH
Kitty Katt

[Digitalis]

Thanks, Kitty.

Should I be washing the spuds before storing them?

[PurpleHeather]

Dont wash them first, let them dry out naturally and then store them. Gently wiping off lumps of soil as they dry

They should be in a container where they can breathe but the light is excluded.

Hession sacks are great but some let light in and the spuds can go green. So you may need to use two inside one another.

Paper bags with three layers of paper are good and the local Spar may have some second hand ones.

Some people use dry sand or perfectly dried out compost but I have no experience of how to do this to comment. I imagine it would help stop cross contamination though.

Try and check that  there are no blemished spuds. Use several sacks  rather than ram them all into one if you can. Then if a bad spud has sneaked in it wont effect the entire harvest.

If you are novice to storing, check the store as often as you can for rotting. It will help you learn what has gone off and why.

Dry, dark and cool are the best conditions.

Nothing beats experience in learning.

[tim]

Lovely - but why lift now?  Best store (apart from slugs!) is in the ground?

If you do bag them, watch out for Mice!

[delboy]

Mine go into 4 drawer filing cabinets lined with paper.

And that means that as long as I remember to label the drawers, I don't forget what's what... like last year.. and the year before.

Also makes hoiking out any rotten ones easier..

[cornykev]

With my experience with Maris Pipers last year, I think I'd dig them up early, as I lost 90% of mine to the slugs.   :( :( :(   

[mat]

Mine go into 4 drawer filing cabinets lined with paper.

What a good idea - clever use of an old cabinet...

[grannyjanny]

Freecycle filing cabinet ;) ;) ;).