the potato farmers in Idaho keep there potato cellars at 38 degrees F to store the potatoes.

we use root cellars. the ground temp 6 feet in the grown is 58 degrees. in the winter we use ventilation to lower the temp.

apples keep very well at this temp also.

goggle "root Cellars" for more information.

WM

I find a hole in the ground covered with leaves or hay and a piece of wood works quite well if there is no root cellar. In MI it will be much too cold in any kind of unheated above-ground building.

Hi pnbrown!

What do you mean by 'a hole in the ground'? Do you mean bury the tubers in the ground? Or should the tubers be placed in some type of water-tight container? If my questions sound stupid, it's because this is my first year to grow food so I'm just learning all these tricks, lol! Clarification would be much appreciated. (I'm in middle Tennessee, zone 6b or 7...the charts differ).

Ours were stored in a frost-free cellar.

But first, potatoes for next year's seed were separated from the eating potatoes, lest these highly desirable small potatoes would end up sugar-browned for the Christmas roast-duck dinner.

Yes, the smallest potatoes were set aside for next year's seed. They were planted whole (never sliced!).

ty for the comments but i talking about 20-30 potatoes to try keep for next year seed so i want somthing small i just left them in trays when i had greenhouse and keeeped the temp just above freezing in the night time temps so i could put them in a little wood box and bury them (how deep)in the garden make sure there water proof ??? or put them in a container and put leaves or straw over them what about the salad compartment in the fridge would that do as a temp storage place ??

ty agion

Sharon, what I do is dig a hole about as deep as the frost will go in a fairly severe winter; around here two or two-and-a-half feet is plenty. Making sure the bottom is sandy so that water won't pool, I put in the tubers, and then simply fill up the rest of the way with the dead leaves and cover with a piece of plywood and a weight. The tubers keep excellently, better than in a root cellar generally. Of course, you don't put the tubers in the hole until the ground and air are quite cool - I have done it in late november/early december.

In Michigan that would mean digging a hole atleast 4 feet deep. LOL.

i live where it is some what remote. most people here have an extra frig. we get apples by the box and wrap each one in newspaper and keep then in the frig. they keep for over six month and stay crisp depending on the kind of apple. i like Fugi's.

i don't see why potatoes can't be done the same way.

we wrap each one to isolate any that turn bad. you know the story about a bad apple in the barrel.

last year we did not have the root cellar yet and just kept them in an unheated basement.

yes i think the food crisper would work fine except your family might not like it. (grin)

WM

I had three kinds of seed potato shipped in and it wasnt cheap due to shipping and the weight. In fact I've been doing that for years. This year I am going to save the smaller ones to replant next spring. Is it okay to do that? Will it be the same as buying new seed potato?

I save the largest potatoes for next year's crop since the smallest were more likely produced by weaker, less fit plants more likely to have been infected with viruses and other potato diseases. In general in gardening, you what to select for and re-plant whatever you want more of in the upcoming growing seasons. You want large tubers, keep saving the big ones, you want small tubers, keep saving the smallest ones. Normally I will mark one or two of the most vigorous, productive plants and save some of largest tubers from them for re-planting.

First year for potatoes for me. I just started harvesting some *new potaoes*. I understand about saving the larger potatoes for next year,(like saving seeds from your most productive and tasty tomatoes), but the potatoes I've pulled have some large peas size or bit bigger, could these be saved , or would they just be too small to produce anything next year? I've really been *digging* harvesting the potatoes this year. Pardon the pun. LOL Thanks.

First, since no one said it: if you store potatoes and apples together the potatoes will rot. Apples need to be alone in their cellar. They give off too much ethylene. Second, what is wrong with leaving some potatoes in the ground, perhaps with some dead leaves on top? Is it voles that you fear? Or lack of rotation? They surely overwinter and sprout again next year in Michigan.

To each his/her own, but beware of false logic.....

Small potatoes are not necessarily "more likely produced by weaker, less fit plants more likely to have been infected with viruses and other potato diseases," as proposed by mike_marietta above.

Small potatoes are the ones formed last and have not had time to grow large by the time the potatoes are dug and harvested. It's just like with so many other vegetables/fruits; the ones formed close to harvest, won't be as large/ripe/mature as the ones formed earlier.

The old timers I grew up around knew their potatoes and how to grow them. They had grown potatoes for generations. They chose the smaller (1 to 1.5-inch dia) potatoes for seed, and I guess the reason was that the smaller ones have more eyes and, therefore, produced higher yields. And perhaps they believed that the small potatoes were less likely to be diseased due to their young age.

Sometimes with store/market-bought potatoes, the largest potatoes have diseased parts, whereas the smaller potatoes from the same harvest/bin don't have diseased parts.

On the issue of storing potatoes in the ground, I'd be concerned about mice and other vermin eating and fouling the potatoes with excrement.

On the issue of wrapping seed potatoes, it sounds like a very good idea.

ppod is right. On every plant I've harvested this year, there were a couple of huge spuds, some intermediate and then the wee tiny ones..........the one who came on last. It had nothing to do with the energy of the plant. They all came off the same plant.

Great info. Thanks. Can I store just the potato eyes? Or, plant the partial potatoes (I cut into with my shovel) this fall? The whole ones ...well they tasted good. I had a Purple Peruvian Potatoes plant. What fun to grow!

I plant the whole spud
I don't know about the storage ides

Here is a link that might be useful: You bet your garden