# Some questions about potatoes



## Tacitus (Dec 30, 2012)

I was reading in another thread about how potatoes in the store now are not fresh.

When are potatoes typically harvested?

How long do they last after harvest if properly stored?

If I bought a bag of fresh potatoes, how should I store it? Cool and dark, as typical with most things?


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Tacitus said:


> When are potatoes typically harvested?
> 
> How long do they last after harvest if properly stored?
> 
> Cool and dark,


In the fall, then stored or used as needed until spring.

I'll bet they last close to a year.

I worked on a spud farm in NW Montana (Flathead Valley by Pablo), the "spud cellars" are HUUUUGE above-ground, well-insulated buildings (no lights, cool and dark). I used to select 4-5 nice "bakers" and place one on the exhaust manifold of the Deere, then take the others in the cab with me. Every three hours I would stop and eat fresh baked potato. Those were the days.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

We typically "harvest" after a killing frost or when the plants die back, those should keep the best. But we start "stealing" baby potatoes as soon as they are ready and start pulling plants to eat fresh early in the fall. Some varieties will keep better than others but under good conditions it should be possible to eat (unpreserved) potatoes almost all year round


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## PrepN4Good (Dec 23, 2011)

I love growing taters....just gently stick a pitchfork in & pull out a few for dinner...leave the rest there until next time. 

We quarter some, then pull up a few carrots...cut up & throw in a crock pot with some oil & spices or onions. Thems some good eatin! :droolie:


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

We always kept ours in the well house. Cool and dark and DRY. We also had a large box with some dry sand that we used to cover them in layers. They kept well past the next years harvest this way. Never kept them any longer than that and we used some as seed stock for the following year.

We also keep other root stock like this such as carrots and parsnips. They were just as good as the day they were harvested.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

cnsper said:


> We also keep other root stock like this such as carrots and parsnips. They were just as good as the day they were harvested.


Our root cellar was in the ground pretty deep. I remember we used to keep carrots in big washtubs full of sand!


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

The sand method really can work great. Last year we filled up a rubbermaid tub with sand and beets and kept it in a only slightly cool room in the house (not in the root cellar or basement). They lasted a full year The sand acts as a temperature and a moisture buffer, a lot of why some stuff goes soft is wilting due to loosing moisture but of course if they are damp mold and mildew are a problem as well, the sand helps with both.


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## PrepN4Good (Dec 23, 2011)

cowboyhermit said:


> The sand method really can work great. Last year we filled up a rubbermaid tub with sand and beets and kept it in a only slightly cool room in the house (not in the root cellar or basement). They lasted a full year *The sand acts as a temperature and a moisture buffer*, a lot of why some stuff goes soft is wilting due to loosing moisture but of course if they are damp mold and mildew are a problem as well, the sand helps with both.


Wonder if the sand would also keep them from freezing...? If the bin/box were to be kept in an unheated shed, for instance. :scratch


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

PrepN4Good said:


> Wonder if the sand would also keep them from freezing...? If the bin/box were to be kept in an unheated shed, for instance. :scratch


Not here in -40, if it was only below freezing for a short period it would help a lot. Depends on how much sand you have too, sand has a decent thermal mass and is decent "insulation".


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## GaryS (Nov 15, 2011)

My folks lived in Libby, in NW Montana, and dad always opened a bale of hay on top of his root crops in the fall. He harvested as needed by shoveling the snow off and moving the hay aside, and then digging what he needed. Even when it was below zero, the ground never froze under the layers of hay and snow, but that method didn't work in North Dakota, where it got colder and strong winds blow the snow around. There my grandfather had a large, unheated dirt cellar under his house where he stored enough potatoes for a year for three families. In return for our spuds, I got to hoe weeds in his huge garden.

I've stored carrots in pails of sand in a shed when I lived in the Seattle area, but they were usually riddled with wire worms in a very short time and I never found a way to keep them out.


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## PrepN4Good (Dec 23, 2011)

cowboyhermit said:


> Not here in -40, if it was only below freezing for a short period it would help a lot. Depends on how much sand you have too, sand has a decent thermal mass and is decent "insulation".


So it might work for us here in Zone 7B...think I'll give it a try.


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