Bumper sweet potato crop up north

[catjac1975]

What is your secret to storage for that long? We lost ALL of them 2 winters ago and about 2/3 last winter.

I am still getting the hang of storage. They need to be dug and cured. The best year I had was last year.I left them out in the sun for a week or so. I kept them in a huge metal bowl in my greenhouse. This is not what is recommended but it worked for me. The worst year I had was when I put them in the fridge-molded and rotted quickly. There are some old posts on curing from an expert-I will try to find them.

 

[PhilaGardener]

I dig mine late in the season, let them air dry and then put them in a closed box that I place in a car parked in full sun all day long for about a week. That's the closest I could come to the heat and humidity that most folks recommend (and pretty similar to Catjac's greenhouse treatment). Then I just store them at room temperature in the dark and they last over a year (if I don't eat them first!)

 

[Carol Dee]

Are we talking sweet potatoes or white and red ? I do not have any sweets to store. But can not keep the regular potatoes. Help
@catjac1975 @PhilaGardener @so lucky anyone....

 

[buckabucka]

Regular potatoes need a cool/cold place without light. I don't wash mine, but wipe off excess soil and put them in paper bags in the coldest room of the basement. If they were hit by blight, they will quickly rot.

Sweet potatoes I heat-treat in very opaque black plastic garbage bags in the south window, sometimes misting with water if it is very dry. Storage of sweets is tricky for me. 55 -60 degrees is perfect, but our basement eventually gets a lot colder than that, even in the slightly warmer room, while upstairs is too hot. The perfect place seems to be in the kiln at school (in a heated room, but vented to the outside). I have very few this year, so I may be smuggling them in.

 

[catjac1975]

White potatoes are easy for me. I put them in a metal trash can and layer them with hay. They keep all winter. I do not wash or dry them. Dig and store. They go in my cellar which has a dirt floor and stays cool but does not freeze.

 

[catjac1975]

I dig mine late in the season, let them air dry and then put them in a closed box that I place in a car parked in full sun all day long for about a week. That's the closest I could come to the heat and humidity that most folks recommend (and pretty similar to Catjac's greenhouse treatment). Then I just store them at room temperature in the dark and they last over a year (if I don't eat them first!)

Wow I thought they had to be cool, so I guess I did do it right.

 

[digitS']

I don't have the best place for Irish potatoes. (I'll call them that. Hey, would you prefer me to call them Idaho potatoes?? I'm always looking for how I might be related to the Irish. The best guess now is the Riley who married the Indian girl(s) .)

Anywho, I have that one basement room with a dirt floor. Food storage was its obvious purpose but the original owner must not have thought that someone would put a natural gas furnace right around the corner from it ...

Too warm for my early harvest and it's likely, too dry. Onions seem to do really well, dahlias in peatmoss, squash might be okay ... spuds, I get past New Year's, is all.

Steve

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i'd love to do sweet potatoes one of these years. good to know how well they've done for others on here in cold areas. a friend of my DH was growing them this year too and he is about 30 minutes north of us on about 21 acres of land. i didn't get to hear how his harvest went but i'm sure it was decent.

when i found the tomato story for @digitS' thread i found this interesting article out of UNH! http://colsa.unh.edu/aes/sweetpotato

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I am trying to figure out when to dig mine. The vines are still green and looking great ( I think this is my first go round with sweet potatoes. Do I have to wait until they die down???? It has been really hot and dry this year but I kept them watered. Do I have to wait for a frost?

 

[Ridgerunner]

They'll keep growing until they die. In the tropics they are a perennial, with people eating the leaves. I've never tried that.

You absolutely want them dug before a frost. They are very sensitive to freezing. If it frosts on them the tops die immediately and the frost travels into the potato, causing it to rot. The will not store at all if the frost gets into them. If you are stuck where you cannot dig them before a frost, at least cut the tops off of them before the frost. That helps some.

I generally watch the weather reports and wait until a few days before a frost is possible before I dig mine, but I'm up for gall bladder surgery in a few days and don't know when I'll be able to dig them, so I went ahead and got it done.

Cattle, horses, and pigs really love sweet potato vines, but don't give them so much that they get sick, especially horses.