Stored spuds sprouting in November

[Vanisle_BC]

Today - Nov 5 - checking my potatoes saved for next year's seed I found these reds in among some other types (They were in a paper bag, in a cool dark workshop.)

Why have they sprouted so early - should I plant them now? The weather's mild and the ground workable. Maybe I need to keep an eye on that paper bag in case other varieties start growing too. That can become an awful tangled mess. Maybe I should plant them all??

What's your experience & opinion?

[Gary350]

Potatoes need to be colder. There is a YouTube video about how commercial growers grow potatoes then put them in cold storage I think they said 35 degrees but might need to watch the video again to make sure. I have some potatoes sprouting too I was hoping the dark storage building outside would work but its not working we keep having 70 degree weather.

[digitS']

I have problems with potato storage. Partly, it's because successive plantings in the ground where potatoes were planted first are an important part of my gardening. Peas followed potatoes this year but bok choy and other Asian greens are good choices, also.

So, I plant early potato varieties and harvest begins in July. Then, they go down to a too-warm basement. This house is over 100 years old and the basement holds both the furnace and water heater. There is a room separate from those heat sources but I was down there yesterday and that room's temperature was 58°f.

Gary is right, it should be much colder for good storage --- approaching freezing. The U of Oregon says 35 to 40 (2° to 4° Celsius) and that with temperatures above 40°, one can only expect 2 to 3 months storage. U of Idaho gets real complex with humidity and treatment programs. By the way, the university's potato research is carried out over 500 miles from where I live, in a not-so-prime spud growing area .

Your storage conditions might not be much different from mine - too warm. I have never kept potatoes for replanting all the way to spring. Like yours, I have already seen some sprouts and carried those spuds upstairs to the kitchen. Volunteers have at times showed up in my garden after mild winters. Usually tho, there is no chance for missed tubers because the ground freezes, often to all cultivated depths.

Steve

[Gary350]

You could plant winter potatoes outside but it is probably too cold in Canada. About 25 years ago I planted winter potatoes in 5 gallon buckets. My soil mix was about 50/50 garden soil plus compost it was very soft soil. I put potato cuttings with eyes in each of the 5 buckets and kept them inside the house about 2 or 3 weeks until plants were growing up from the soil. We often have 40 to 50 degree weather during the day in winter I put the 5 buckets outside to get sun every morning when I left for work then brought them in the house when I got home from work. I planted the potatoes in Nov and March plants were starting to turn yellow. I checked under the soil there were lots of new potatoes, I harvested 27 lbs of potatoes from those 5 buckets. It was a lot of work to move 5 buckets in/out of the house every day for 4 months, some days weather was too bad to set them out. It was an interesting experiment I never did it again. Red potatoes grow very well in TN, I have a terrible time trying to grow white potatoes.

[applestar]

I have not been particularly successful storing seed potatoes over the winter either. But I learned a new method for next time —

A potato growing enthusiast in France said his favorite way to store seed potatoes is to get heavy, reinforced and waxed and divided cardboard boxes from the liquor/wine shop. They provide insulation and hold in just the right amount of humidity so the seed potatoes are less likely to dry out. And the interlocked cardboard bottle dividers keep the potatoes separated and organized, especially when saving multiple varieties.

He said his potatoes sprout over the winter too, even though he keeps them in his unheated shed where it doesn’t freeze but stays cold. He checks them every so often and trims the sprouts that grow up within the divided cells (he said this also keeps the growths from tangling up, and minimizes loss if some of the potatoes go bad and rots.). By spring, the trimmed sprouts will have multiple branches like a coral, but they are easier to handle and ready to bury for planting.

[Vanisle_BC]

After reading the responses I'm wondering if my spuds, have always begun sprouting by early winter. Stored in paper bags in an unheated workshop drawer, they're out of sight out of mind until I decide to plant: I'm often late and by then they're a tangled mess. I thought the sprouts just grew in early spring but maybe it was going on all winter.

I think I'll plant 2 of these little guys fairly deep and put 2 in the crisper drawer for spring planting, and comparison.

Gary, here in SW coastal BC we're in zone 7. Ground seldom freezes much below the surface inch or so. I know if tops get frost killed they will grow back.

By the way, my white potatoes this year produced no tubers in the hilled-up zone. All were at or below original planting level. I'm still wondering if there's ever any validity to the idea that hilling-up produces extra spuds.

[jal_ut]

If your ground does not freeze, the potatoes can stay in the ground or you can plant them now. However if your ground freezes the potatoes will freeze too. Here in high dry Utah it is rare for a potato to overwinter in the ground, but I have seen it happen a time or two.

[jal_ut]

" I'm still wondering if there's ever any validity to the idea that hilling-up produces extra spuds."

It is my impression that potatoes are hilled to better cover the developing tubers so they do not see sunshine. If the tubers see sunshine they turn green and get a strong undesirable flavor. You only hill them once. Just pull a little soil up around the plant.

[Vanisle_BC]

It is my impression that potatoes are hilled to better cover the developing tubers so they do not see sunshine. If the tubers see sunshine they turn green and get a strong undesirable flavor. You only hill them once. Just pull a little soil up around the plant.

I'm thinking the same: in which case why plant them any deeper than needed to avoid freezing - around here 6 or7 inches would be plenty even through winter. I guess the growing tubers tend to push to the surface but maybe if planting depth is right, hilling isn't necessary at all?

Mine were buried maybe 9" and hilled up about 6" more. Having seen how deep the tubers were at harvest, I think the extra 6" and maybe even the 9" bury were a waste of time. Maybe I could have planted very shallow and just kept them covered? Come to think of it I've heard of potatoes grown on the surface, under mulch. I think I tried it years ago without much success.

[applestar]

My understanding has been — I think Gary350 mentioned this recently as well — that most commercially grown potatoes have “determinate” life cycle and produce and mature tubers all around the same time. They also STOP producing tubers and die down.

But there are “indeterminate” varieties that will continuously produce more tubers until frost kills them. These are the ones that will grow additional tubers as the stems are buried.

[Gary350]

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Gary, here in SW coastal BC we're in zone 7. Ground seldom freezes much below the surface inch or so. I know if tops get frost killed they will grow back.

By the way, my white potatoes this year produced no tubers in the hilled-up zone. All were at or below original planting level. I'm still wondering if there's ever any validity to the idea that hilling-up produces extra spuds.

If your soil seldom freezes you can grow winter potatoes. I have planted winter potatoes in the past we get lots of rain so I have to hill the soil up 4" to keep potatoes out of the mud. Lay cuttings with sprouts on the soil surface then cover with about 1" of soil at first so plants will grow up quick and get sunlight. Start sprinkling soil on the potatoes week after week until enough covers the potatoes so they never freeze. When it gets cold enough tops will die off but plants down deep still grow. Nothing appears to be happening all winter when it warms up in spring a crop of potatoes is waiting to be dug up. New potatoes usually grow just above the cuttings you plant.

[Vanisle_BC]

Gary;
interesting about growing winter spuds; I'm considering giving it a try but may be a bit late. Tx.

My understanding has been — I think Gary350 mentioned this recently as well — that most commercially grown potatoes have “determinate” life cycle and produce and mature tubers all around the same time. They also STOP producing tubers and die down.

But there are “indeterminate” varieties that will continuously produce more tubers until frost kills them. These are the ones that will grow additional tubers as the stems are buried.

I've seen it mentioned before. Does anyone know names for indeterminate types, sources, growing info etc, etc?

[jal_ut]

From my childhood Dad grew potatoes. It was the crop that fed us. Came planting time the ground was worked, then the potatoes were cut to one or two eyes per piece and the cuttings planted about a foot apart in rows spaced 30 inches. When the potatoes were about a foot tall the plants were hilled up. Like I said, this was to protect the developing tubers from seeing the sun so they would not turn green. Potatoes were stored in a cellar. You can also keep potatoes in a pit. Just dig a pit about two feet deep and put in your potatoes, then cover with straw. The potatoes need to be deeper than the ground is going to freeze. Here that is about 10 inches. Depends on when the deep snows come.

[jal_ut]

"But there are “indeterminate” varieties that will continuously produce more tubers until frost kills them. "

I have not seen these.

[applestar]

This is from Royal Horticultural Society website which hopefully is a reliable source:

Potatoes / RHS Gardening
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=716

Potatoes may be classed as 'determinate', with a compact and bushy habit, or 'indeterminate' with a wide-ranging, sprawling habit. The former are better for small gardens and include most modern cultivars. The latter, such as ‘Cara’ for example, give good yields and suppresses weeds, so are good for allotments.

...but my understanding is that indeterminate varieties are typically late maturing, large tuber varieties. This might explain why you are not seeing them or even if you do grow some of them, they don’t grow like it in your short growing season.

I’ve tried growing late maturing varieties and found them to be difficult to grow in my climate because potato foliage and stems are susceptible to same heavy fungal load in the late summer when tomatoes start going down. With tomatoes, it’s sometimes a question of how fast can they continue to outgrow/grow ahead of the disease and mature fruits.

It probably doesn’t help that we experience significant drought in mid-summer, then the stressed plants are targeted by the hot-weather pests that only seem to appear/arrive with the tropical storms blowing through from the south.

Then, too, any tubers that do grow are vulnerable to wireworms and pesky digging rodents if left too long in the ground.

...so overall, I do tend to grow early maturing varieties that will hurry up and mature tubers quickly before the diseases set in, so I can get them out of the ground before they are damaged.

[jal_ut]

Red Pontiac is the variety to plant. In the spring cut the potatoes to have one or two eyes per piece and plant them about a foot apart in rows spaced 30 inches. They don't need to be planted deep. Just deep enough that the piece will stay put. When they are up and about a foot tall then you hill them up a bit so the developing tubers do not see sunlight. Keep the weeds out and water as needed. You will have spuds.