Plant them.

Potatoes can handle temps below freezing in the ground, but they probably won't grow if the soil stays cold. Once they sprout, the above ground sprouts can be killed by frost. They will grow back, but will be set back and may have a lower yield. So, when is your last frost date? They take about 2 weeks to emerge, so it would be best for them to sprout after the last frost date.

Cut potatoes can probably be held about a week or so. So long as they don't shrivel they are OK. On the other hand, if you have a lot of cold rain after planting, you risk infection. You could dust them with sulfur to protect against that.

Agree. Plant them now.

Dave

Good timing on this question for me - My seed potatoes just arrived in the mail today. If this was last years weather I could put them out now, but we still have snow coming down, and the ground is still frozen.

Whats the best way for me to be storing these unitl I can plant them ?

I planted seed potatoes about three weeks ago. They have yet to emerge. I am guessing this is because our weather has been up and down with some nights still under freezing. I think you would be fine to plant them, in fact it is probably perfect timing.

I follow advice from the growing guide that's part of the catalog put out by Potatogarden.com. They suggest presprouting your potatoes before planting. You can keep them inside at room temperature for several weeks if you need to. You want to wait until the soil temperature reaches 50 before planting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Download the potato garden growing guide here

Well I went ahead and planted them Saturday. I did dust them with some sulfur first, so hopefully that will protect them from infection. Yesterday it was sunny and got up to 70, but the next week or so is predicted anywhere from 37 at night to 67 during the day, and who knows how the rest of April will go. So we'll see, fingers crossed!

What people often forget about potatoes is the roots. Potatoes need moisture to root, which they aren't going to get until they're planted. It may take a while for the sprouts to emerge from the ground, but it they're growing roots down below, that's the important thing.

Weeellll we got plenty of moisture around here lately. So that should definitely NOT be a problem lol

So we did!

I'm was hoping to grow fingerlings potatoes this year - but can't find loose fingerling potatoe seeds anywhere. I have a very small plot and need one or two seed potatoes of each variety I grow.

Does anybody have a good resource for loose seed potatoes? (and - let me know if I should post this in a new thread.)

And, Purple1701 - did you plant the potatoes and if so how are they doing?

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: a modest plot

Supermarkets sell small bags of assorted fingerlings. If they sprout, that'd be your answer.

Thank you for the reply ltilton! I did pull a couple fingerlings that I liked the taste of out of my last little bag and and am sprouting them. I kept reading that they needed to be "certified seed potatoes" or something like that. The one I kept aside do seem to be happily sprouting.

Crelatia - I did plant them on 4/13. I dusted them first with a sulfur/cornstarch mix (I was worried that the pure sulfur powder I have would be too strong). There was a lot of rain and some very cold nights, so hopefully they are ok. I think they should start to show some growth above-ground any day now, but they may have been delayed by the weather. I'm just waiting now!

I got my seed potatoes from a local nursery. I just called around different nurseries, and found the one that had the variety I wanted (Kennebec).

I have also heard all about how when planting potatoes they should be "certified", and I have some speculation about that, but I'm not an experienced nor highly educated gardener (yet! I'd like to be, one day) so my opinions are not of much value. I will say, even though people say most commercial potatoes are treated to prevent sprouting, I have never seen a grocery store potato that DIDN'T sprout after some time, given the chance lol. But I think the risk of disease is far too costly to take the chance.

Temp is in the 70s and ground is warm enough but the stupid nursery did not mail the plants they think they are my mother. I purchased potatoes and sweet potatoes from them.

Ronigers will send your seed potatoes when YOU want them.

They changed their name to something like Potato Garden.

Last year I had a strange thing happen, I believe, by being too impatient to get the potatoes in the ground. I pre-spouted mine in late Feb, and had them in the ground by the 1st week of April. I mulched the bed with straw. They popped up, I hilled and mulched with more straw to protected their tender little green shoots. When a frost danger was issued, I ran out and covered the bed with a blanket. I watered, I hand picked bugs, I hilled, I admired. Oh they were so lush and pretty and healthy...but guess what it got me? Oh, I had tons of potatoes under there, but I wasn't able to eat them, because I had started so early, that the new potatoes I had just grown, also began to grow, so by September I had a whole new batch of potatoes growing like mad....and no tubers to dig and store.

The point of my story is, I think what happened, is I started too early and moddle coddled a very care-free plant too much. Now I know that I have to wait until mid-april. Cut the spud, toss it in the ground and let it do it's thing until fall. So, mine have been in the ground for two weeks, and I don't have any shoots showing yet. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, I will start to see the shoots, and it will be right on schedule to avoid any hard freezes and yet they will be off to a good 'late' start.

So I say, better get them in the ground now.

I would plan potatoes abour a month before the last frost date. So by the time they come up, danger of frost is passed. If not, then wach out and check the forcasts. In such cases you need to cover them(by straw, leaves, blankets.. whatever). Growing potatoe is cooler locations, is not a big challeng, it is in the south with hot summers that the soil temperature will reach and exceed 70F. So, you have to plant as eraly as possible and harvest before the heat wave hits. In Atl. GA, , I would plant in March and harvest in july

I kept reading that they needed to be "certified seed potatoes" or something like that.

The difference is that certified seed potatoes are specifically grown in sterile soil to ensure they are as close to 100% disease free as possible.

I generally find that its a waste of money for anyone but major planters (actual farmers doing acres of plants) to bother with them. Potatoes you buy in the grocery store will be very unlikely to be diseased (and most of the diseases that matter you could see just by looking at the malformed tuber), and they will grow just fine.

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That said, yeah, plant now. A potato will only die if the tuber freezes pretty much solid. Assuming you're planting the normal 6-8 inches deep, it will basically never freeze that hard anywhere south of the arctic circle. While it may grow up and then have the top die back due to freezing, the tubers will be safe and will just sit there happily waiting on warmer weather.

They are just now starting to sprout above the ground! So exciting :-)

(can you tell I'm a new gardener? LOL)