Topic: keeping potato for seed - where?

[peanuts]

i'm well aware of the risks of keeping potatoes for seed the following year. i've kept Pink Fir Apple occasionally here in SW France as it has been impossible to buy it locally and trips back to the UK haven't been at the right time.  However I can now buy them here.  This year I grew one row of bought ones, and one row of kept ones. We've just lifted them all, necessary here, as with the warmth, if it rains  they start shooting underground .  My kept seed produced far more, and were a much more user-friendly shape as well.  Interestingly the bought ones came into early flower, must have been  in June, while my ones didn't flower at all!

So I'm thinking of keeping a dozen or so to plant again.  My question is where is the best place to keep them, and how?  Cool? Dark? Dry?  In an open or closed box, or in a net bag?  With temps of 33º plus at the moment, it is hard to find a place in the house, and the basement tends to be damp.

Thanks for any advice.

[Tee Gee]

Cool? Dark? Dry? 

I keep my saved tubers in the bottom of the wardrobe in the spare room.

In an open or closed box, or in a net bag?

I prefer a paper bag

[Jayb]

Obviously no where near as warm here, but usually once selected for keeping I label and place tubers either in the under the stairs cupboard or the spare room (which is northish facing). I use paper bags, egg boxes and egg trays, depending on space and visitors!

If I haven't already, come the new year I move all seed potatoes to the spare room, there's just enough light coming in for healthy short sprouts once the potatoes are ready to chit.

[BarriedaleNick]

I kept and planted PFA last year - Kept them in the garage in a paper sack but I don't lift them till it has cooled down a bit.

[peanuts]

Thank you everyone, very helpful replies.  Paper bag it is, and in a wardrobe then.  We have an excellent spare  north-facing room, which at the moment has a stack of trays of potatoes for the winter. I will put them loosely in a bag and leave them to sleep for a bit, but I will check them over regularly!

[Tee Gee]

I will check them over regularly!

Good! 

I forgot to mention that!

[Robert_Brenchley]

The main thing is, don't plant anything which looks the slightest bit dodgy. You can't guard against viruses, which build up over several years, but you can at least screen them for blight.

[peanuts]

Thanks for all the advice.  Thankfully, blight  isn't so far a problem here.  I've never had it on potatoes, and by dint of very careful management (always cutting off any suspect leaves at the least sign)  and spraying with blue stuff, don't get it on tomatoes either, although others in the area always do.  Our veg patch is relatively isolated too, no next door neighbours.

[saddad]

Chippies are a great source of used potato sacks (paper), usually free if you skip dive into their bins. If any are damp/moulds evident turn them inside out and let a hot dry day sort out the problem before you store.