Storing spuds, hope I've done it right.

[QuizMaster]

I decided to dig up most of my spuds yesterday (Maris Piper - Homebase's best).
The plants are dying: the branches are all black and hanging down. Is that the blight or just part of the life-cycle?

Anyway, I dug them up and they look fine. (Question: looks fine = is fine?)

Having no other way of storing them, I put them in a cardboard box, lined with newspaper, and with sheets of newspaper between ever layer.
I put the box in room we seldom use, which fits the description of "cool and dry".

Will this be ok? I don't have any of those big paper sacks, or a fancy-ass sand pit thingy.

[prison break fan]

Sounds like blight to me, as long as you have got rid of the haulms, spuds will be fine. Storage is fine! I scrounged my paper sacks from the supermarket - the dreaded t....s, see, the are good for somethings!

[richyboy]

We dug our spuds on the weekend as well. Managed to invest in some hessian sacks earlier in the year and they have been size sorted (from big as yer head - to small as your thumb) dried, brushed-off and then stored in the sacks in the larder (nice and cool there, but dry too!).

Have never had a crop big enough to store before - is this ok?

[Millymollymandy]

Both your storage methods sound fine to me - I am but an amateur who stores hers in paper feed sacks in a cupboard or under the stairs. Just try to keep them as dark as possible and in a few months give them a check over in case any are rotting. Also they might start sprouting so you can rub off the sprouts at the same time.

[lsm1066]

Sounds good to me too. I put mine in a bucket and keep them in the pantry. Cool, dry and dark. They do start to sprout but usually after about 3 months, by which time they're mostly used up anyway.

Lynne

ps. I was in my tomato patch yesterday and noticed what I thought was more belladonna (I have loads of it). Turned out my 9 year old had planted a couple of potatoes in there to see how they would do. The answer is, they're doing just fine. Apparently he pulled the soil aside with his hands, dropped a glassful of water in the hole, dropped a sprouting spud in and covered it up. Whoever said growing your own food was hard work?