How To Store Seed Potatoes

If you have ever grown potatoes, you probably know that your yield is directly propotional to the quality of the seed potatoes you plant. We have grown potatoes the no dig way, grown potatoes in upside down buckets and even grown potatoes in old tires but we always make sure that we store our seed potatoes properly every year.

You can select your seed potatoes from your harvest, however to maintain their quality and prevent the transfer of diseases from one season to the next, storage is very important. Remember one pound of seed potatoes can produce up to 15 pounds of ‘fresh’ potatoes.

Storing Seed Potatoes Properly
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Here’s What You’ll Need:

  • seed potatoes
  • barrel or crate
  • straw
  • packing peanuts
  • newspaper
  • root cellar (optional)

Before you store your seed potatoes, try to select only healthy ones with a good number of eyes and skin with zero to no damage at all. Then the next thing you need to do is identify a nice dry, dark and cool place. The ideal temperature for storing seed potatoes between 35 to 40 degrees F. We have a small root cellar, that is where we store ours, but a small garage or shed should work too.

With your location picked, you should prepare your storage container placing straw or packing peanuts loosely around the interior. The air within should be able to circulate, freely. Each potato has to be wrapped in a double layer of newspaper and then placed into the container. Not much fun but it has to done. Also make sure none of them touch, before placing your container away for storage.

You can follow step by step instructions on eHow, here…

How To Store Seed Potatoes

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