Potato Harvest question
 

BlankWe dug some of our red potatoes as the vines were dead . How do we go about storing them? My husband heard something about leaving them in the sun for a day or so,but I thought the sun was bad for them,would turn them green.

Bonnie

"Bonnie" wrote:

We dug some of our red potatoes as the vines were dead . How do we go about storing them? My husband heard something about leaving them in the sun for a day or so,but I thought the sun was bad for them,would turn them green.

Store in a not too cool dry place for about a month, then into a cold
cellar, as close to 100% humidity and barely above freezing as possible.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

"Bonnie" wrote:

We dug some of our red potatoes as the vines were dead . How do we go about storing them? My husband heard something about leaving them in the sun for a day or so,but I thought the sun was bad for them,would turn them green.

Store in a not too cool dry place for about a month, then into a cold
cellar, as close to 100% humidity and barely above freezing as possible.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Won't they sprout with that much humidity? And I thought the real cold like
refrig temp made the starch change to sugar??
"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
"Bonnie" wrote:

We dug some of our red potatoes as the vines were dead . How do we go
about storing them? My husband heard something about leaving them in the sun
for a day or so,but I thought the sun was bad for them,would turn them
green.

Store in a not too cool dry place for about a month, then into a cold
cellar, as close to 100% humidity and barely above freezing as possible.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at
home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Won't they sprout with that much humidity? And I thought the real cold like
refrig temp made the starch change to sugar??
"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
"Bonnie" wrote:

We dug some of our red potatoes as the vines were dead . How do we go
about storing them? My husband heard something about leaving them in the sun
for a day or so,but I thought the sun was bad for them,would turn them
green.

Store in a not too cool dry place for about a month, then into a cold
cellar, as close to 100% humidity and barely above freezing as possible.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at
home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Bonnie said:
We dug some of our red potatoes as the vines were dead . How do we =
go about storing them? My husband heard something about leaving them in =
the sun for a day or so,but I thought the sun was bad for them,would =
turn them green.

I store mine right in the ground under a thick layer of chopped straw. The
risks are that voles will nibble on some of them. The benefits are that they
are stored in a cool, damp area so they don't sprout and shrivel up, which is
what potatoes stored in my house always do.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

You are confusing potatoes with sweet potatoes. Curing sweet potatoes
consist of laying then out where they will be in the heat (80 degrees - not
the sun - winter squash go into he sun) and high humidity (80 + percent) for
10 to days (longer if you cant match either of those conditions - add
another 5 or so days). That turns the starch to sugar.

Then store them as close to 55 degrees as possible (mine stay at 65 to 70
degrees F). If they get colder like in a frig, the sugar will turn back
into starch and will not go back to sugar again.

I just dug my first box of sweet potatoes yesterday, and will get the rest
before the first frost. Here is a question for the group. If we get a
surprise frost over night, how long after the sun comes up do I have to rip
all the greens of the top before the potatoes are ruined?

Dwayne

Dwayne wrote:
Here is a question for the group. If we get a
surprise frost over night, how long after the sun comes up do I have to rip
all the greens of the top before the potatoes are ruined?


If a hot sun after frost ruins sweet potatoes, does it also ruin Irish
potatoes? I had not heard of that before.

Lightnin Dave

Dave I don't think the sun has anything to do with it. I think it just
takes the chemical change in the sweet potato leaves to get down in the
potatoes and make them bitter. I honestly don't know.

When it happened to me I was in zone 7, I was out at sun up ripping off the
greens to save the potatoes. Now I am in zone 5 and dig them in spurts. I
have been out twice this year digging them and putting them in to cure, so
that if we get a surprise frost, I wont have to get up early and kill myself
to save the crop.

I have no idea about Irish potatoes and what effect frost will have on them.
I have never been around someone who has raised them. When ever I raised
them, I had them dug by the end of August.

Dwayne
"Lightnin Dave" wrote in message
...
Dwayne wrote:
Here is a question for the group. If we get a
surprise frost over night, how long after the sun comes up do I have to
rip
all the greens of the top before the potatoes are ruined?


If a hot sun after frost ruins sweet potatoes, does it also ruin Irish
potatoes? I had not heard of that before.

Lightnin Dave