I'm Rob Patterson with Utah State University Extension in Carbon County.
Today we're going to talk about harvesting your potatoes and getting
them ready for storage, so that you can have potatoes throughout the winter.
Ideal conditions are you would have your vines dead for two to three weeks before
you dig - I haven't had a frost yet but it's time to get these dug up and out of
the ground - and also you want your ground to be a little bit drier than this; too
much moisture and then we'll have to dry off the potatoes before we actually
store them. But I've got to get them dug up and we've had some rains the last
couple of weeks, so we'll get them up and we'll get them dried off a little bit
then put them into storage. You can leave the vines on the ground just plow them back
into the ground, or you can compost them, or if you're too concerned you can throw
them away. One thing you want to really be careful of is making sure you don't
follow potatoes behind, or fall behind the potatoes, with another solanaceous
crop such as tomatoes or peppers; that would tend to build up the soil borne
diseases and cause some other problems. So you want to follow the potatoes with
corn, or cucumbers, or squash, something like that that's that's different from...
different family from the potatoes and the tomatoes. Storability of the potatoes
is affected by several things, the most interesting of which is the type of soil
that you have. If you have a sandy soil the potatoes don't store as long; the
potato growers in Idaho know that there's sandy potatoes - what they call
sand potatoes - they need to put them closest to the door of their potato
sellers, so that when it's time to har - to market them they can get those
out first. They try to get those marketed by Thanksgiving, they don't store very
long, and I think I've read some research on to maybe as to why that is. But the
the sand potatoes, the density of the solids in the potatoes, is not as - as
dense and not as much in there as there is with the heavier clay soil potato.
So if you've got a sandy soil potato that's one of the things that would
affect how long you can store them, also the varieties are different too as far as
the storability, but the biggest thing is how do you treat them after you've
harvested them. You want to have these potatoes have a thick skin - now potatoes
are a living organism, and their respiring throughout the winter, and so they will
they will heal themselves from bruises and scrapes, but if you...if you do some
damage to the potatoes it's best to get those used up right away and then store
those that have not had any damage done to them. If you get some bruises and
scrapes on the potatoes they'll heal themselves; you want to to cure them
after you've dug them up. Now curing them is a little bit different from the
storage the temperature - the ideal temperature - for curing is 50 to 60
degrees with about 90% humidity. On the whole situation, if we can get that
exactly that's great, but we want to get as close to that as we can. We let
them set that way for...for 10 days or so - out of the sunlight - you want to make
sure that you always handle your potatoes - store them, cure them - where it's
dark; otherwise you get green potatoes. So you get them out of the sunlight and you
want to - don't wash them, after you...after you've dug them - you don't want to wash
your stored potatoes, just wash them before you use them, and get them to cure
for about a week, a week and a half. And then you can store them in your...in your
root cellar, or your house, or...or wherever it is you happen to have some
storage; we'll talk about the conditions that would be best for storing your
potatoes. The two main things you want to consider for your potato storage are
temperature and humidity. The higher the humidity - you want your storage
humidity to be around 90% humidity - and so a few years ago I built this root
cellar. Root cellars are an excellent place to store potatoes; they're good for
carrots and they're pretty good for onions, so if you've got a root cellar
that's a good place to store your potatoes. Temperature-wise, the ideal
temperatures to store your potatoes is 42 to 50 degrees. Now the temperature
that you store them at is kind of determined by your intended use for them.
If you're down closer to the 42 or even colder than 40 - you can go colder than 42 but
that's not the ideal - but if you're down close to that 42 degrees the starches in
your potatoes will convert to sugars. And then if you're going to do french fries
or potato chips then you're going to have...they'll turn black when you fry
them - they'll turn dark. They'll taste fine, but they just turn dark, so if you don't
want that dark color then you don't want your temperatures down closer to the 42,
you want them up closer to the 50 degrees. The problem with the 50 degree
temperature is that your potatoes will start to break dormancy and sprout
quicker. So the colder temperatures will keep them from sprouting as fast, you can
store them longer, the warmer temperatures will keep the french fries
and potato chips from turning black. If you're going to be boiling or baking
your potatoes colder temperatures are fine, if you want to use them for french
fries or potato chips then you want them up closer to 50 degrees. So that's the
reasoning for the temperature variance; you start getting below the 42 degrees
they store fine, but you definitely don't want them to freeze, but you get that
sugar conversion. And so I've got... other thing to consider also is that you
want them in a breathable container, so I've got this wooden box: it's got holes
and leaks in it and everything; it's a good container that I can store them in
my root cellar. If you're going to store them in the house you want to avoid the
warm places, if you go to store them for very long...and then you want
it dark. The other thing of course you want it dark so that you don't get
greening on your potatoes. The greening is - too much greening can actually be
kind of toxic - but but it does turn bitter; the flavor, the potatoes will turn
bitter if they...if they turn green and you cook them. So we want to avoid the
greening, and to do that then keep them out of light; you want a totally dark
place to store them. So in your house, if you've got a basement...in the corner, your
temperatures can be kind of cooler down in the basement so you can store them in
the basement they'll store longer. If you're going to be using them fairly quickly
you can put them under the kitchen sink, or someplace like that - in a pantry - just
keep in mind that the warmer temperatures they'll sprout quicker. So
these potatoes are still a little bit wet; I'm going to spread them out let
them dry. I'll put them in the root cellar even though it's - well, actually
the temperatures right now are still probably pretty close to in between that
50 to 60 degrees - as the temperatures outside get colder the root
cellar will also get cooler and break them down. Now
the potatoes have a natural sprout inhibitor for about thirty to sixty days;
after that they'll start to sprout if the conditions are right. So we want to
keep those conditions from being ideal for sprouting, so we'll put them in the
root cellar. They'll be dry, they'll be... it'll be humid, and the
temperatures will be down around that 42 to 50 degrees there down in the root
cellar, which will keep them from sprouting for several months. And I will
have potatoes in my root cellar up until... um...probably late April, early May, then
they'll start to sprout. And that's about time when I start planting potatoes, and
so I'll get me some seed potatoes and start going again, but that's that's how
you want to store them. Now before I put these potatoes in the root cellar, I want
you to think about one more thing and that's other - other produce that you're
putting in the same room. Do not put the potatoes in the same room with things
like apples and pears; as they ripen they let off ethylene gases which affects the
storability of the potatoes.
So I've got my little root cellar here and these are spread out, they'll dry out
a little bit more, and they'll be ready for storage - for long-term storage - during
the winter. And I'll bring in some more I'll harvest, I've got quite a few
potatoes but I've got some that I'm going to sell, so I can put some more
potatoes in another box and put that crosswise. I can also put a rack up here
to put put onions in and so I'm...I've got conditions here set for my potato
storage, and there's just another way to have fun in your garden.