Potato Growing Methods

Thanks for the good info Turan, next year I plan on having enough taters to store until at least November, lol, for some reason with me potatoes just don't last long in the house:D

cheyannarach wrote:Thanks for the good info Turan, next year I plan on having enough taters to store until at least November, lol, for some reason with me potatoes just don't last long in the house:D

+1!

GG

My plants have died back, and I've felt around and found a couple potatoes in my garbage cans! Yay! However, I read somewhere that I shouldn't harvest the whole crop while the soil is moist for fear of rot. Do any of you advise the same? It's been so wet here this summer and early fall, and my garbage cans just aren't getting a chance to dry out!

Do you have a dry garage where you can spread out your harvest on newspapers and let them cure a bit before storage? My mom uses the tops of her washer and dryer to put produce on to either ripen further or to cure. Nonna

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:Do you have a dry garage where you can spread out your harvest on newspapers and let them cure a bit before storage? My mom uses the tops of her washer and dryer to put produce on to either ripen further or to cure. Nonna

Unfortunately, I don't. And I'm not sure the realtor would be thrilled with my putting them on the washer and dryer (or even on my porch) to cure since they're trying to show my house right now. Hmm...

Another idea: how about using a plastic rectangular clothes basket (or baskets) lined with newspaper, and place a single layer on the paper, then cover with another several sheets of newspaper and another layer. The holes in the basket should give air circulation a chance. Put the basket(s) out in coolest, airiest room of the house after dinner. In morning, check to see if all is dry, or if you need to replace the newspapers. Shouldn't take but a couple of days for all the 'taters to dry. Now, where you put the baskets during the day when real estate folks are showing the house, that takes some thinking about...got any storage rooms they don't show? Nonna

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:Another idea: how about using a plastic rectangular clothes basket (or baskets) lined with newspaper, and place a single layer on the paper, then cover with another several sheets of newspaper and another layer. The holes in the basket should give air circulation a chance. Put the basket(s) out in coolest, airiest room of the house after dinner. In morning, check to see if all is dry, or if you need to replace the newspapers. Shouldn't take but a couple of days for all the 'taters to dry. Now, where you put the baskets during the day when real estate folks are showing the house, that takes some thinking about...got any storage rooms they don't show? Nonna

Hmm, that seems do-able. There aren't any room they don't show, but if I put that in the basement along with one of those damp-rid thingies, it might do the trick. And the basement has all my storage now that they're showing the place, so it's not like it's pristine anyway. Thanks for the suggestion!

You can even use the baskets to store the potatoes after they're cured: fresh newspaper on bottom, couple of layers of 'taters, each layer separated by a couple of sheets of paper, and the whole storage thing topped by enough newspapers and an old sheet or towels to keep out any light (which will turn them green over time). Easy to move, too, when you do change residence....if they've not all been eaten by then.

A burlap coffee bean sack, a nice one.

We got some taters! My sweet grandson was so excited to dig around and find them! I told him I thought it might be time to harvest. He ran out and started looking all over the plant to find "something". I told him to start digging down in the barrel, and this is what he found!!



The one in the middle that looks like Mickey Mouse really grew like that! He thought that was pretty funny. He ate the "ears" off after we cooked them. What a great flavor they had

I'm not sure I committed to a potato growing method on this thread earlier in the year, but what I had decided on was the container grown, placed in the shade and a late season variety that was supposed to be good for a high tuber set. I chose German Butterballs, although some websites had them listed as mid-season. And my containers ended up in more sun than I realized. But they grew rapidly and were hilled up to a depth of eighteen inches. I harvested finally last week and found about five pounds of potatoes (I'm weighing them as I prepare them, so I'll have an official total after we've eaten them all) from my one pound that I planted, but they were all on the very bottom of the bucket. So the vertical method for me was a fail.

camprn wrote:Does any one out there have good guidance for potato storage, or does anyone want to research the subject and share what you find out?

store in out the bag moist peat or composted coir in a box in a cool frost free environment . layer as 3 inch on the bottom a layre of spuds ., a sprinkling to lightly cover and repeat till you have them all covered.
I've often used a plastic garbage can and left the top open but over the can so it does not sweat .

Only store pristine spuds . empty it out after three months and check for decayed spuds.
Remove the spud and the peat adjacent to a bad spud then remake the tub back up.

I would like try to use 100 lirre bag of vermiculite next year instead of the peat as it is so light to play with and it can go to make more MM afterwards .

It gave good results over last winter when I stored a few thousand flower bulbs , corms & tubers .
If it works well with my spuds I'll also try it with all my other root crops for I rather have five or six lidded bins than open heavy duty carboard boxes .


I'll be reviewing my watering arrangements as well for all the MM bags grown this year in the glasshouse on auto watering produced amazing seven foot tops and very little potatoes that weighed in at just over 1 1/2 pounds.

The outside bags with MM in them outside fared much bettter , they produced far less tops . Anya gave six pound of spuds, Red rooster gave just over four pounds & King Edwards that were basically left to the rain showers and a few jugs of water gave four and a half pounds of top quality spuds.

Well, here's our results. My then 3 year old grandson, planted potatoes in one "square". He got 10 potatoes of various sizes. We planted one square also, and got about 5 decent potatoes. 3 good sized ones, and 2 tiny. We planted an entire barrel of potatoes, adding MM as the plant grew. We got about 5 decent sized potatoes, and the rest were TINY TINY. This is the second time we've tried the barrel method with the MM. The barrel took about 5 to 6 months to "finish". So strange to get as many out of one square as an entire barrel? Don't think we'll be doing that again. Has anyone done well with the barrel method?

I did the tower method and although I grew some beautiful fingerlings, I was very disappointed in the amount harvested. I did try a second late planting which did not fair too well. I will not be using this method next year.

I used Mel's SFG Method.
I just went out today and there was a couple of potato plants growing, so I went ahead and pulled them up, I got another pound of red and white potatoes. That makes a total for the year of 37 lbs 13 oz.

I added a new twist to Mel's method by planting in layers in the SFG. I planted white, and then red potatoes on top of that, and it worked.

Here is a link to the detail of how I grew 37 lbs 13 oz of white and red potatoes in a 3 X 6 layered SFG http://greenesgardenthings.forumotion.com/t124-layering-potatos-in-a-sfg#320