Topic: OK,saving potatoes...

[Jeannine]

Most of you know I am lovingly babysittig 1 lone potato in a pot hoping to get some seed for next year, a variety I can't get here.

So, it is Charlotte and I am told they don't keep well, so a lot is riding on  my one and only.

I thought when I harvest the pot, maybe I should let a couple cure and plant them again, their pots could live in the greenhouse once it starts to get cooler..sort of how we do Christmas spuds with earlies, but Charlotte's are second earlies What I want to know is..what is the best way to store them, either the first or second harvest. I must have done it before as I did grow them for a few years, but I think I just left them in the fridge drawer, I remember some didn't make it right through but enough did. This time I will not have many to paly with so need to be careful.

I have had a little firkle and they are there.

Usually I would use them once they had flowered but with my one and only pot I am leaving them as long as I can.The flowers ae there but just thinking of dropping.

We had moved some beautiful soil from my raised  beds in my garden as I was scrapping them, and used it ot fill my new cedar beds in the greenhouse, it was made from top soil peat etc etc, just like potting soil so is lovely and everything in there is doing very well. We found the one and only in the soil when it was moved,however since then there has been a few volunteers show up, they may or not be Charlottes . I knew the first one was as I was there when my SIL found the spud..but after that the soil was all mixed up and he can't remembner what came from where. Whatever they are they are growing very well in the greenhouse though LOL

So best way to keep my special plants babies till next year ???

All help gratefuly received.

[saddad]

I grow a lot of Charlotte.. and find they over winter fine in a paper sack... in a frost free place, I use the brick shed / outside toilet, or the garage ( no car so no fumes to pick up).. I literally threw away the last few last weekend.. having rubbed of the chits a couple of times since Easter.

[ancellsfarmer]

Likewise, for storage in recycled paper potato sacks, free from the chippy.Turned inside out to reduce fungal infection and to confuse the cook.
 Storage in a 240ltr wheely bin( different colour to the councils!!), kept on the northside of the house against the outside where the ch boiler is. No frost damage yet. The lid of the bin has small wooden blocks screwed to it to prevent it quite closing. Holds 4/5 part filled sacks, 1 for each variety .(Charlotte, Apache,Maris Piper,Desire,PFA )

[Jeannine]

Thank you so much, I have never thought about it till this year when I found out they don't store well, so maybe I am a bit anxious. So a brown paper bag inside a plastic tub wich is a little open in the garage..good..but..the garage is a no no. our double garage houses a 1950 collectors car and my SIL Porsche which he doesn't use in the winter and he keeps the heat on in there. My choices are the greenhouse, a shed but it is not brick built and something may get to them in there.The coldest place in my house is the bedroom which I never have heat on, and I have the window open a bit year round . Or my walkin closet which has an air vent.My pantry has an airvent too but it is off the kitchen so maybe warmer. Bathroom never has heat on either, shower stallbase is sitting on concrete..those are my choices,,or the fridge of course. I will take a few temps and figure it out through the summer..thank you for the help. The boot  of my car in the drive may be a good choice..

[small]

I keep mine under the north facing verandah, in those fruit boxes from supermarkets, covered over with dark blankets. The Charlottes kept beautifully last year, that's what I've used for seed potatoes this year and have already had some lovely crops from the ones I put in buckets in the greenhouse in late winter. It must be nerve-wracking nurturing your last one, though, best of luck!

[Jeannine]

Well thant clinches it..inpots for winter

[Jeannine]

Just adding an update, the vounteers that showed up in my greenhouse soil, sall over. I dug them up and transplanted them toa space of their own, amazingly they survived, there is 5 I think Now one is huge and has flowers and they are C= the identical to my one precious Charlutte, the others are not much behind them.Wether there are spuds underthere I don't know but we can hope. the little ctting I took from the original is also in there growing very well


PS where is everybody, I aimed to stay on the forum now things have got better for me but there seems to be very little topics  posted.

[saddad]

I'm still here!

[galina]

Yep and we do hope that others who disappeared and are sorely missed, will also come back. 

[ancellsfarmer]

Yep and we do hope that others who disappeared and are sorely missed, will also come back. 

Just checked the home page counter @13.48
Who's Online

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Come on out of the bushes all you lurkers, make yourselves known!
PS Dont worry about the 'Spiders', they wont hurt you.

[Jeannine]

What are spiders?  Ok I know what spiders are..but computer spiders

[BarriedaleNick]

Spiders are computer programs that trawl the web and primarily index content for search engines..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler

[small]

When I first joined the forum, when I retired, there was being a bit of an allotment boom, lots of people seemed to be starting up and presumably lost interest: I wonder if the current panic about food shortages will mean more people start growing their own again? I garden at home, what is allotment take-up like at the moment?

[BarriedaleNick]

By all accounts there has been a manic uptick in applications but that is only anecdotal..
However there are so many gardening groups on facebook and elsewhere that I fear people have gone elsewhere for gardening advice and gossip.

[Paulh]

My site of about 30 plots not only now is fully taken but the plots are all being cultivated which hasn't been the case for years.

[Jeannine]

Come on lurkers, I dare you, we don't bite..thus us a very good supportive forum with much exoerienece and 1,or 2, comics, particularly one.

Some good seed swaps, lots of friendships and me..come on look at the avitar, I ain't so bad. LOL

[gwynleg]

I’m a lurker! I read with interest and occasionally post. I check in very regularly to see what has been posted though!

[Jeannine]

Oh hello, don't go stay awhile...or come back

[gray1720]

Our plots are fully let* and have a waiting list for the first time in the fifteen-odd years I've been there, and there's a number of younger** people out there as well. Will it last? We shall see - especially as there's been quite a big housing development in the village that will attract The Right Sort of People (ie it's sodding expensive).

Adrian

* Well, bar the one that's twenty feet high with willow as it floods knee-deep every wet winter

** Younger than me - so under nearly 50

[lottie lou]

Really glad to see you back Jeannine.  I tend to lurk most of the time as I don't like posting unless I have anything relevant to say, which isn't often.  Lots of new youngish people on our site but still lots of plots uncultivated.  My plot which I have been on for fifteen years is permanently overgrown.  Tend to grow stuff between the weeds.  My new plot that I will eventually move to is covered in mares tail..... grrrr.  Been a godsend and lifesaver during this current crisis as I can pop down for an hour each morning before OH wakes and starts creating (has dementia and been rather difficult of late).