Worth giving a try. I'm sure you know to rotate your planting areas, and don't plant antagonists before/ after or nearby. Such as pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, tomatoes, or raspberries.

How will you plan to store them so that they will keep until next year's planting time? That's is the main problem most who do this run into - storage without rotting and/or sprouting and dying unless sprayed with germination inhibitors.

A cheaper (and easier) alternative, if you aren't real picky about varieties and even that is improving, is to just buy grocery store potatoes and plant them. That way all the storage problems are the commercial growers, not yours.

Just something to consider.

Dave

I'm saving my favorite potatoes too. I put them in paper bags and sprinkle with sulfur. They're stored in a back bedroom with covered windows and no heat. So far, so good.

Last fall I pre-planted some of my seed potatoes a bit deeper than spring planting, sprinkled with scads of cayenne to hopefully deter the rodents, and covered with lots of mulch. If it ever stops snowing and warms up, I'll rake off most of the mulch. I'm just experimenting to see what works.

Dirtandyarn -- I did NOT know that squash family are antagonistic to potatoes -- could you elaborate on that?

Dave -- We do have a root cellar that stays between 40 and 50 degrees and no light, so our eating storage potatoes last until the next early potatoes are in, in June or so. It's the one non storage type (Yukon Red Gold) that will be a challenge -- I was thinking maybe borrow a corner of a friend's North Carolina coastal garden, plant in November, dig up in early April, plant in my zone 5 in
mid April. It's seeing that lots of people do plant grocery store potatoes that made me think that the whole "certified seed" thing is overkill. Problem with that for us, is we're ridiculously picky about varieties -- though I prefer to think of it as being potato connoisseurs. :)

sweetquietplace -- what is the purpose of the sulfur?

Thanks, all!

Garden sulfur is used to control fungus among other things. It's finely powdered and I dip the cut sides of large seed potatoes in it before planting. I figure it will keep my stored seed potatoes crud-free too.

Sounds like you have good options for the storage problems then. How "antagonistic" squash and such is to potatoes all depends on if you buy into the so-called "Companion Planting" school of thought or not. Some do, most don't. Personally I have never found it to be an issue.

But I do agree that sulfur dusting is very beneficial as it is both anti-fungal and anti-bacterial.

Dave

The problem I always have is keeping the potatoes from sprouting prematurely.

I think the sprouting issue is simply a light issue. The room I have them in has NO light. One year they were sprouting, so I went into the room and closed the door and saw that there was a heat intake grate in the ceiling that was letting in diffuse light from a windowless hallway upstairs. I put a box over that grate, and no more sprouting.

Yes grow your own seed. It does save a lot of money if you want the best varieties. Make sure to let the potatoes finish in the soil and get nice thick skins before digging. Then don't wash them, just brush off and store away from all light in a single layer. Start with only certified seed. If you have scab issues, like I do, that is when you want to pretreat the area with sulfur to lower the ph.
Mine always sprout terribly but still grow fine. They want a moister basement than I have.

Fedco has great taters to start with. I like Augusta Gold, Rose Finn Apple, Purple Viking and Magic Molly. A good russet type is recommended too because they store great.

I'm glad you chimed in on this littleminnie -- thanks for the tips.

So, with potatoes, it seems as though a small potato does NOT have the genetic info to produce another small potato, so it doesn't matter much what size you plant? (as in, whether you cut up a big one or plant a small one whole)

Thanks, everyone, for all the info! Feeling more confident about my plan.

I grow the potatoes and replant the golf ball sized ones. There is always plenty.

I know NOTHING about growing potatoes. Question: If I plant one of those little fingerling types from the stores in a big pot, keep adding dirt and used hay from my pet rabbits, will I get little potatoes?

Since you have late harvest in your zone (sometime around your first frost) storage is not as difficult as if someone in GA harvests in July. Root cellar and sulfur dusting also can help.

But with the common varieties you can always buy them from whole foods/organic section of the stores, much cheaper than mail order.
JMO

My potatoes usually ripen about August 10. Unless the weather is unduly hot or unduly wet, they can stay in the ground until cooler weather.

I don't think that sprouting is a result of light but rather time and temperatures.

I replant the smaller potatoes from the previous year's harvest in early spring. Like you, I store them in a root cellar.

We usually have good snow cover for most of the winter, and I have had potatoes that have stored outdoors in the soil (ones that I missed in harvesting) that sprouted in the spring and grew just fine. So in the fall you could try planting some of your crop of seed sized potatoes 6" deep or under a deep mulch for next year's crop, probably not the whole crop, but it might be worth an experiment, particularly for the potatoes that aren't good keepers.

I find that sprouting is primarily a matter of temperature.

I put a bag of potatoes in the refrigerator, and they sprouted much less than the ones kept in dark but not so cool conditions. They did still sprout, tho. Fingerlings more than others.

Is it possible to get true seed potatoes. If someone has info on that please post or send me a note.

thanks

I saved seed from some of my taters this year but I don't want to start them from seed and have to find a way to start hundreds of potato plants in addition to tomatoes, peppers, etc. So I traded the seeds off on the trading forum.

You could also try experimenting by growing your potatoes, after harvest, taking a few of the ones you want for seed and plant them in the next years potato bed. We seem to miss potatoes and they come up again the next year so I am guessing in the ground was optimal storage condition for them.

Frost can spoil potatoes left in the ground UNLESS they are deeper than your frost line.

So, yes, you can dig a hole and store your tomatoes in the ground. But make sure that they will be kept dry and no rodent around to eat them.

When I dig my potatoes, I collect up the little ones about an inch in diameter and put them in a wire mesh wastebasket and bury it so they are about a foot deep. In spring I pull it up and use those for seed potatoes. The wire basket protects the little taters from voles, but I've learned that it's best to pack them in with used potting soil rather than garden soil to keep the skins looking nice.

Wow -- so now after years of reading about "only start with certified seed potatoes" and "dig all volunteers," out of the woodwork come all these experienced gardeners who use their own potatoes, let the volunteers grow, etc.

Guess I'll go back to doing what I did in the early years before I did all this reading. :)

planatus, I love your storage solution!

I think that storage in the ground method might work for some locations in some years.

Then there are years like this one.

Different varieties will last for different periods before sprouting, so you may have difficulty getting some varieties to last over the winter. Because seed potatoes cost so much, the best plan may be to buy all the varieties you want, grow them out, and then just keep trying to collect spuds for regrowing every year. Eventually, you'll probably see a loss of production, and some varieties won't survive the winter. Then it will be time to re-buy those varieties. You'll still be spending money, but at least it won't be every year for every variety.

Regarding light - light does not cause sprouting. If you've ever found forgotten potatoes in a cupboard with a nest of sprouts growing out of them, you'll know that. Light causes the sprouts to develop pigment, it doesn't cause the growth itself. After all, the plant is designed to grow from spuds that are underground from last year's plant.

Do potatoes need to be a certain size or maturity to plant. I've already pulled up all the potatoes (it's warm here) and have a bunch of itsy bitsy ones. How mature does one have to be to sprout? Potatoes, that is...

The best size for planting - either full spuds or pieces - is about golf ball size. That's what farmers go with. Larger or smaller give you less production.

I just dug up last year's potato patch, and found 5 tubers in the ground in perfect shape. One of them had already sprouted and sent out roots. They were about 6-8 inches deep, and survived a very cold New England winter in great condition.

I've never had an animal problem, so this year I might do an experiment and set a batch of tubers under the soil in the fall and then dig them up next year and see if they survive.

Would you lay down mulch over them?

So many options....so I'm wondering about where I live; S.E, AK.
Usually the potatoes sprout, right where they are ( in a bin, waiting to be cooked ), but way too early...like now. Some have very long sprouts, so is it too late to store them? I have potatoes growing now, so I'm also wondering if I can just leave some in the ground, if after digging up what I want to harvest, maybe covering the leavers with straw? They are not all that deep in the ground. We get freezes but not like the rest of AK. As a kid, I seem to remember my mom wrapping potatoes separately with news paper. and placing on the shelves down in the earthen cellar. .... I have no cellar but how about newspaper? As you can see, I"m undecided.

Hmm. Just found this section, all good to know. Sulfur - interesting, grocery vs certified, light or no light, etc. I purchased some seed potatoes this year from WalMart not good results. My solution with reasonable results is buy a bag of potatoes (5lbs more than I can use for cooking) then dump them out of bag into a serving tray I keep in kitchen at end of island. When some start to sprout I use them for cooking but peel thickly, allow peelings to dry for a day then plant-they grow!! Had a fire ant problem this year so I pulled mulch back and spread diatomaceous earth then recovered with mulch, seemed to work ants gone. This continuous planting works for me in Central Florida because of climate, I also replant some of the potatoes that are produced from the plants produced from peelings. Have noticed increase in grubs in my raised beds will be treating them with milky spore powder this year. I don't know where I heard or read that regular grocery stores potatoes may be treated to prevent sprouting so I wash all then dry before spreading on the tray.