potatoes

[Mike Allen]

Another way of storing, is to clamp them. This is piling them up on the ground and then covering with straw and soil. To store spread out and not having tubers touching. WOW! you'd need a lot of space.

 

[Meadowlark]

This measurement is not accurate. Size of the seed potato is paramount.

Not accurate? I completely disagree. It does exactly what I want...an accurate measure of the production without having to measure each individual plant and seed section.

For example, my normal purchase is 20 pounds of seed potato and an average production will yield over 200 pounds of new potatoes. Just weigh the total production once...what could be easier or more accurate? Doing things the hard way is never necessarily the better way.

 

[Meadowlark]

Another way of storing, is to clamp them. This is piling them up on the ground and then covering with straw and soil. To store spread out and not having tubers touching. WOW! you'd need a lot of space.

Yes, it requires some space...but through years and years of experimenting with various approaches I've found this to be the very best approach.

The "clamping" approach you describe is about 20% less effective than "tubers not touching". I've measured it. One way to "clamp" is to drill holes in a plastic 5 gallon bucket and add each potato wrapped in hay to fill the bucket.... as shown:

Another approach is to bag them in special container....about 40% less effective:

When you trying to store a full years worth of harvest, it pays to work smarter not harder. A 100% approach is to can them. They keep easily a couple of years and are great in soups, fried, etc.

 

[Meadowlark]

thank you. appreciate it . so air circulation is key. my fear is mice. I have caught mice in the basement. was hoping I could store in lidded containers

Yes air circulation is key especially in my hot and humid climate. Mice are going to get into just about any container...better to use the best storage method and trap the mice rather than sacrifice potatoes to rot trying to keep mice away...in my experience. I use a cheap fan to add air circulation 24/7, a cool relatively dark space in a protected shed, and spread them out to breathe:

 

[Durgan]

I store in the round fruit baskets usually used for apples. I only need about one basket around 50 pounds. I cull about once a month to remove damaged ones. They are kept in the dark in the cold room. I also choose carefully the ones to keep. medium size and as Meadowlark indicates.

Bucket drilling holes. Use a soldering iron and burn the holes. a soldering iron is quick and pefect holes.

 

[Mike Allen]

So. Each to their own.

My experience growing spuds, (another new term for our US friends. Spuds= potatoes) started at the age of five, 1945. Dad had a small plot on an army site. He grew most root veg. Later he managed to regain his old allottment, privately owned. This was the size of a football pitch. Here he/we grew half the area with spuds. Then the area for other root crops. Beet, parsnips etc. Loads of cabbages. Come harvest, the kitchen was well provided for. Spuds in abundance were sacked up and store in shack style sheds, some clamped. Clamping was also used for other root crops. This was an old Victorian method of keeping veg. It worked. Sorry folks, but I so often brush aside many of todys methods, adopted by gardeners. To me, science apart. There is far to much fuffing about. Like with the cookery tv shows. little bowls/dishes of this and that. Honestly. What a load of poncing about.

 

[headfullofbees]

Tell me about canning potatoes please, Meadowlark, the type of potatoes, method, etc.

 

[Meadowlark]

Potatoes are low acid and hence require pressure canning not water bath processing. Low acid canned goods retain much of the flavor of fresh produce and new potatoes are no exception. Shelf life is easily well beyond the harvest time for the next growing season. Hence, canning fills in the gap so that we can have continuous garden potato availability without having to rely on store bought... in spite of the difficulty of storage in my hot, humid climate.

I like to use the small red potatoes for this…about 2 to no more than 3 inches in diameter. I clean ‘em, peal and cut if necessary and par boil prior to pressure canning. Just follow directions of your pressure canner for your altitude. Nothing special…just don’t use the par boil water in your canner, go with other clean water.

 

[Durgan]

Potatoes keep well in a cold room. Slurry/juice potatoes, have too much starch. I cold room storage onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, and potatoes with success. All other vegetable get slurry/juiced.

 

[skinyea]

Random question regarding potatoes? Is it better to leave in the ground for as long as possible? as in In I could pull an i
entire bed this week but would it be better to pull half this week and then the rest in a few week?

 

[Durgan]

For storage ,I leave them roughly two weeks after all vegetation has died as long as not wet.

 

[headfullofbees]

Random question regarding potatoes? Is it better to leave in the ground for as long as possible? as in In I could pull an i
entire bed this week but would it be better to pull half this week and then the rest in a few week?

Leaving them in the ground cures the skin, which, as Durgan points out, makes them suitable for storage.
In the UK we grow new potatoes in the spring for an early summer crop.
Traditionally (as well as for flavour) we grow determinate varieties which take approx 10-13 weeks from planting to harvest; the skin you can rub off with your fingerprints, and they come out of the ground, straight into the pot. They are delicious hot or cold, but obviously, with such a short growing time, you pay for this in yields, which are half, sometimes even less, than main crop potatoes.
My view is that they are so good they are worth it, especially since I still have the room to grow all the main crop potatoes I'll need.
We have been enjoying them almost every night for about 4 weeks and it would have been 7/8 but for our late spring.

 

[Meadowlark]

Random question regarding potatoes? Is it better to leave in the ground for as long as possible? as in In I could pull an i
entire bed this week but would it be better to pull half this week and then the rest in a few week?

I agree with Durgan...but it does depend on your climate. Here in East Texas we often have wet and humid conditions about the time the potatoes are maturing and hot weather is pending. In that circumstance, getting them out of the ground before rotting is paramount.

I usually begin robbing the new potatoes after the blooms fade. This allows utilization over a longer period of time and utilization at the peak of flavor. For example, we can add about 3 to 4 weeks to our potato utilization this way. It also has the side benefit of spreading out the harvesting work.

I always immediately follow the last of the potato harvest with a nitrogen fixing cover crop planted in that space. That cover crop will be replanted in the fall if necessary and allowed to soil build all the way through to next spring. Then, in spring, after turning it under and prepping the seed bed I like to follow up with a legume like beans or peas or whatever. Potatoes will not be grown in that space for another two years at least.

For example, next years potato crop will come from this space which currently has soybeans growing and fixing nitrogen. This fall, I will turn the soybeans under and plant in a mixture of Elbon rye and legumes there to carry through to next Feb. when that next years potato crop will be started.

As for this years potato ground, it is currently planted in alfalfa and will remain so through next spring when I will probably turn it under and plant corn in that location. Corn loves nitrogen and the alfalfa adds the most N2 I have found in the legumes.

With this approach, we consistently average at or well above 10 pounds of harvested new potatoes for every pound of seed potato. The potatoes will be disease free and mostly insect free following this regimen.

What you do to prepare for the next crop is often much more significant than what you do to actually grow it. At or above 10 to 1 ratios do not happen by accident.

 

[headfullofbees]

After harvesting the new potatoes, I fertilise with nettle/comfrey tea & plant leeks.

 

[headfullofbees]

By the way, when we get our first new potatoes in the shops, they are ridiculously expensive: a shop near us sold them at £6/kg (US$8 Can$10).
After a couple of weeks the price plummets, but even so...