bomber095, Turns out where I put the potato bin received overspray from the sprinkler system for the lawn above the retaining wall. DH didn't know that. While I was away (not too far from your area actually), they started to wilt, so he watered them, I suspect more than once. They were mostly mush when I came home. We get very little rainfall here. According to this Weather Underground station which is in a nearby neighborhood, (http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCOFALCO4&day=1&year=2008&month=1&graphspan=year) we received 11.19" of precip in all of 2008. I don't think it rained for 2 months. It rained twice in August I think (but 2 pretty good rains). Funny, when I looked at Greenfield MA (closest I could find to Grandma's house in southern VT that showed last summer) I think July had about 8" of rain for the month. I don't doubt it, it rained almost every day I was in VT. All that, and my only point was, I really may need to water during the summer here. We've had a pretty wet spring so I've not watered much of anything so far, but I'm sure we'll dry out soon. I will be checking deep down in the potatoes before I start watering them this year though. :-) Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

Our wooden bin is outside. We are not to sure yet as what we are going to do this fall, one thought is to harvest enough worms and start a smaller bin indoors so we don't have to buy worms in the spring and then insulate the wooden bin with bags of leaves hay or straw, feed them well and see if they make it though. We get below zero a lot as you know so I don't know if they will live or not. Vicky~

The Fisher & Paykel CoolDrawer can be set at "Pantry" temp for a consistent 54 degrees. It would be a pricy solution, but it's an option... The original model Kitchenaid Superba / Jenn-Air refrigerator drawers (now long discontinued) also allowed you to set the bottom drawers to "pantry" at any temp from 40 to 60. You could also probably build something yourself based on wine cooler hardware...the temperature ranges are right, its just that wine cellars are meant to retain high humidity, which you wouldn't want here. The butler pantry in our condo, circa 1910, has a tilt-out for potatoes built in that we are keeping in our remodel...the biggest problem in practice is that we (a family of only 2) don't use THAT many potatoes and onions, and the bin is quite deep. When I was a kid, though, we just kept them all in the basement.

Is it a problem to store onions and potatoes together? Below are links from a German marine transport insurance business with guidelines as to shipping various cargo, including onions and potatoes. Probably more than one ever wanted to know about shipping / storing either onions or potatoes . From the web pages, which are in the english language: [See generally RF gases - passive behavior] "Potatoes are moderately sensitive to ethylene [16]. The effect of ethylene is to cause the premature onset of the sprouting process. Thus, products which release large quantities of ethylene (e.g. apples) cause potatoes to sprout prematurely (allelopathy). For this reason, potatoes should not be stowed together with products which produce large amounts of ethylene, e.g. citrus or pomaceous fruit, since the entire cargo may be lost." http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/gemuese/kartoffe/kartoffe.htm "Dry onions exhibit low sensitivity to ethylene, while green onions are moderately sensitive to it [16] (allelopathy). Onions should not as a rule be loaded together with apples or pears." http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/gemuese/zwiebeln/zwiebeln.htm Onions and potatoes emit virtually no ethylene - see RF gases active behavior. It would appear that there is no issue with storing them together. Storing both onions and potatoes at low temps but high humidity appears to be preferred. [see storage climate conditions for each]