What is the best way to store potatoes for long term storage. I have a root celler with cement block walls and cement floor. I really like this forum especially hearing about all the different fruits, vegs. and nuts that most of you can grow. I live in Idaho at 6500 feet and even getting a garden is a challenge. This year my garden is doing great thanks to the various manures. Chicken ,horse, and goat. Soon we will be moving to zone 4 and that will give me more choices to plant.

-- Lynda (lyndadan@cyberhighway.net), July 08, 2000

Answers

I have a root cellar in my basement surrounded with block and cement floor. We had potatos for several months. You'll have to keep them up off the floor and make sure the room isn't too humid and damp. We sometimes run a dehumidifier in there. I found if they get good ventilation they do much better. Our room stays around 60 degrees in the summer and 50 in the winter.

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), July 08, 2000.

We store our potatoes in the corner of our basement that is competely under ground. It is walled off from the rest of the basement and insulated to keep it cool - (and no light). Incidently, it is very damp in that corner. We always used to keep our potatoes in a bin, where they were open to the air. Two years ago, we were in a hurry and set all the five gallon buckets of potatoes in the cellar - with the intention of going back to sort and then dump them in the bins.

Typically for us, - we never got back to dump the buckets - and made a discovery. They actually kept better in the buckets. They had a lot of sprouts on the top potatoes, but the middle and bottom ones kept like we have never seen them keep before.

So, last year - we left them in the buckets deliberately. We dug them the first week of Sept. 1999 - Today, - July 15, 2000, I brought up another bucket of potatoes - half way down in the bucket, they were nice enough to knock off the short sprouts and bake them for dinner. They have kept for over ten months. In the past, I get frustrated with trying to use the wrinkled, wizen potates by June 1, and buy some to carry me through. This year, they will run me until we dig our own early ones.

No matter how you keep your potates, you might want to try a couple five gallon buckets in a corner to see if they keep as well for you as ours did.

-- homestead2 (homestead@monroecty.net), July 08, 2000.

You might try canning some of your surplus. They're very convenient. Any good canning book will have directions. To use them: drain and fry whole or sliced; drain, saute onions and cook potatoes til crispy; or cook(not saute)onions in butter add drained potatoes and heat thoroughly. You can use them in soups etc.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), July 08, 2000.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll try the buckets and maybe even can some up.

-- Lynda (lyndadan@cyberhighway.net), July 08, 2000.

I have a root cellar and store my potatoes in cheap plastic laundry baskets,with the potatoes layered in straw. I think the open baskets permit good air circulation and they are easily toted to the house as needed. They are easy to clean before re-use too.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), July 10, 2000.

We buried a non-working freezer to store ours. Only the lid is above ground (kept locked to keep kids and critters out). When we dig the potatoes, we layer them in the freezer with a layer of straw in between each layer of potatoes. We also only fill the freezer half to 2/3 full to allow some "air space" for venting purposes. The first year we used this system, we noticed that there was a lot of condensation (we had a very warm winter that year). The excess moisture shortened the storage time for that year's harvest. Last summer we installed a "vent tube" on the top of the freezer using a toilet flange, a short length of pvc pipe and a pvc trap. Basically, it looks like an upside-down "u" sticking out of the top of the freezer. This lets excess moisture vent out without allowing rain, etc. to get in. This really improved the system and we still had decent potatoes at the end of June when we cleaned out the thing to get ready for this year's harvest. They were still firm and very usable. We have begun digging new potatoes, so this system allowed us to keep potatoes year-round successfully with little to no decline in quality.

-- Sandy (tripletreefarm@hotmail.com), July 10, 2000.