Hey,
When i harvest my spuds I have no idea where to store them. I live in a flat and don't have a shed or garage.
Does anyone else have this problem - and where do you store them. Also - should I leave them in the sun to dry for a bit before storing them - and should I try and brush most of the mud off - or not bother.
I'm worried I will not get to benefit from the only things that grew well this year.
Thanks
:)
I store mine under the spare bed in plastic bread trays.
Make sure that they are dry, clean and undamaged. Use any that aren't okay, and regularly check the stored ones.
PS - What sun?
We have both a shed and a garage but both full of gardening and other items that there is just simply no room ::)
I dig my tats, taking as much soil off as possible without damaging the skins, toss them on the grass to semi-dry, finish a row then turn them over before I start the next one, all put in hessian sacks then in the cupboard under the stairs. Hopefully it is a sunny day when you do this, but remember they can't take too long in the sun as you don't want to be eating green bits.
This year I am putting them on two mushroom baskets that are stacked to help air flow underneath, as last year I put them straight on the tiles and they were sending up sprouting eyes in the spring (but we have had a weird weather year so far so I wasn't so surprised).
Good luck Bubbles26.
Ninny
We dry ours off thoroughly, sort out any that have marks or holes in to use first them store the good ones in sacks in the cupboard under the stairs. You should keep them as cool as possible and out of daylight. We also check ours about once a month for any that may show signs of any dampness so that it does not get to the others.
Thanks for the advice - wish I had a cupboard under the stairs.
Thinking maybe the loft would work...
The loft sounds OK to me Bubbles26 as long as you can get up there pretty frequently to check them and there isn't too much extra weight in one place. Good loft insulation will help keep them cool. ;)
If I get mine out before the blight and the slugs have got to them I'm wondering when we might be having one of those dry sunny days to lay them out in. ???
We do our best (Mrs R and me) to remove as much soil as possible but it's not easy when the ground is so damp wet sodden.
I've just whipped the tops off 8 rows and that's a lot of spuds (if we're lucky) to dry and store. Ours usually go in the garage in hessian sacks then we take one or two sacks indoors to store under-the-stairs ;) for easy access as the garage is at the far end of the garden.
And when they start to get a little soft or sprouting don't bin them par boil them as for roast potatoes or make mash and freeze them,that's if that variety will make mash ;)
Quote from: Buster54 on July 14, 2012, 09:13:10
And when they start to get a little soft or sprouting don't bin them par boil them as for roast potatoes or make mash and freeze them,that's if that variety will make mash ;)
Definitely - and potato cakes are another :
It's heartening to hear of people storing them well in the warmth of a home.
You
can leave them in the ground, if the leaves have died back. I did that more by accident than design last winter, and it worked well for me, as they store much better in the ground than a flat/house.
I'm not sure if this is advisable though, because of disease and slugs, and it might depend on the variety, whether they can take it. But theoretically, they go dormant and the wild potatoes would have stayed in the ground over winter, and grown leaves in spring. However, not sure if that would encourage the spread of blight :-\
When I tried leaving the potatoes in the ground until I wanted them, they ended up full of holes (wire worm??) . Last years potatoes that I missed do keep popping up but they don't have to be in good condition to regrow, the potatoes they produce taste just as good though.
PRoblem with deliberate storage in the ground 9as opposed to a clamp) is that a warm winter (like last year) will have the slugs at them and a cold winter makes it a sod to harvest them .... For me it's sacks for the big crops (PFA and Sarpo Mira, hopefully this year Yetholm Gypsy will be a sack harvest too, and some home-made small-scale greengrocers boxes for the small harvests, experiments and heritage....
yes it true - once the haulms have gone, it's harder to find them and you don't keep checking them, as you can with potatoes in sacks, to see if they're ok.
I have used sacks as well, but trays sound good because checking is easier.