pockyway
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 8:59 am
Location: asheville ,NC

using potato harvest for next seasons seed potato?

I was wondering why I can't set aside part of my potato harvest for next years seed potato starters. If this is possible, what is the best way to store them for best results. I have a cool dry basement that I believe never gets below 40 degrees. I don't perticularly want 30 potatoes toothpicked in glasses of water in my windows. Too many plants and not enough windows. Can I just box or bag them up and store?

TZ -OH6
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2097
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:27 pm
Location: Mid Ohio

I grow some hard to get potatoes so I have to save them. It is much easier than saving for eating because they can shrivel up quite a bit and still sprout. You can just wrap them up in a paper bag and put them in a cool dark place for the winter. Last year I was not on the ball so just let them sit on the floor at room temp all winter. Some were wrapped in paper bags and I even had some that I had planned on tossing so just left out.

The important thing is to get them out of the dark and into the light in early spring so that when the sprouts break dormancy they do not take off in the dark and become long and stringy.

Do not wash them for storage!!!!

pockyway
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 8:59 am
Location: asheville ,NC

I am not familar with growing potatoes hard. Can you explain? I'm trying to achieve constant sustainable crops. thanks for your reply

User avatar
soil
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1855
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:40 pm
Location: N. California

like TZ I grow a few varieties that you cant get anywhere locally as seed potatoes. so I have to save my own. I store them in a cooler that is buried almost to the lid in the ground. sort of on a small mound so water runs away from the cooler. its left outside all winter. they stay dry and cool, and stay nice and dormant until planting time.

User avatar
gixxerific
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 5889
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:42 pm
Location: Wentzville, MO (Just West oF St. Louis) Zone 5B

Yes just store them as stated above.

The water/toothpick/window sill thing if for sweet potatoes. But I have found that warmth (preferably a heating mat) and moist soil is much faster and more productive for sweet potatoes.

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

pockyway wrote:I am not familar with growing potatoes hard. Can you explain? I'm trying to achieve constant sustainable crops. thanks for your reply
TZ said " I grow some hard-to-get potatoes" that is rare varieties, not easily found in nurseries and seed catalogs.

CharlieBear
Green Thumb
Posts: 588
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:19 pm
Location: Pacific NW

In a nut shell, if you are growing heirloom potatoes you may well have to save your own seed. If you do, be sure that the plants you save the seed potatoes or those near them did not have late "potato" blight. If that ever happens they are only good for eating. If you are growing common varieties like yukon gold etc., it is probably a better bet to buy certifies seed potatos. Don't save potatoes for seed if you can't easily recognize blight. If you replant blighted potatoes you will contaminate you garden soil for many, many years to come. Most potato growers spray their crop to keep from getting potato, blight, but without really good crop rotation some fo them still get it and then they are done planting potatoes for at least 7 years or longer. If you till or double dig you garden site you are spreading tomato, potato "stuff" around farther than where they were planted. Old timers, that were "poor" used to save seed from their potatoes for 1 or 2 years tops and then start with certified seed again, according to my grandfather.

TZ -OH6
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 2097
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:27 pm
Location: Mid Ohio

Potatoes like to catch viruses from each other and from weeds, so, as with late blight, don't save tubers (for seed) from any plant that looks funny.

My first year growing potatoes I had a plant from a certified seed potato develop wrinkled mottled leaves (virus) early in growth. Actually, it was two plants/hills because I had cut the tubers in half. I also used the same knife on all the other seed tubers so I could have contaminated everything. Certified seed potatoes are not 100% disease free, they are just guaranteed to be at a low enough level not to significantly affect production.



Return to “Seed Starting Discussions”