Homesteading Forum banner

Storing 'Taters

2K views 23 replies 14 participants last post by  Bellyman 
#1 ·
Okay- I have dehydrated a bushel and a half- I plan on dehydrating another 2 bushel-***Thank you ELKHOUND :buds:*** that leaves us with 3 possibly 4 bushel-
I am thinking moving boxes- layer alternately straw/taters.....
what do you think?
or would shredded paper work? so I don't have to buy straw?

I have russet /red and yellow taters
 
#2 ·
i have never seen taters stored in any materials.....they need to be in a container with plenty of airflow..my favorite are the old milk crates.second is regular bushel baskets.

one thing is be sure and give a visual and sniff test ever so often during storage time.

old apple crates too....but them things are getting rare.i might have bandsawmill guy saw some thing material and make a few.
 
#6 ·
okay- so boxes- just keep smellin'?

well just look over them a bit but if you get a off smell of rotten tater ya gotta be diggin cause theres a bad one that needs culling...sometimes its just starting...other times...a big glob of gaggin matter...lol
 
#9 ·
the slightest bit of sunlight will slowly turn them green too. you will be amazed and how little light it takes and how fast. so if its not total dark you need to cover...even a window with heavy shade can turn taters green in my experience.
 
#10 ·
be sure and keep in dark too.
And as close to 35-40 degrees and high humidity as you can get. Also, do not store with apples unless you have a real good flow of air. Ethylene gas given off by apples will cause potatoes to sprout.

We dug the last couple rows out of the garden yesterday, and let them dry a bit on old window screens before picking over them to pull out any bad looking ones....bug bites, rotten spots, damage by plowing, etc. Those ( two 5 gallon buckets) got peeled around the bad spots, and the results were 7 1/2gallon jars + 4 quart jars of canned potatoes that were not fit to store in the root cellar. The rest go in there in the morning.

This time of year, here, the root cellar is running about 60 degrees. Nights are in the mid 40 range this week, so I open the door and run a fan to pull cooler air in now, cooling it as much as possible. During the winter, I run a real small fan at night to pull in cold outside air (two vents in cellar), plus move ethylene out (we do store apples there too). I can get the temp down to low 40's eventually, but thats about the best I can do.

By the way, the best storing potatoes I've found are Yukon Gold ( slightly yellow ). They FAR outlast the Kennebec (white) we used to always grow. They are still very firm in late February when the others have sprouted and gone "rubbery".

Like Elkhound, we use old milk crates for the potatoes. Make good containers, as they don't rot and have lots of holes for air flow.

Tonights canning:

 
#12 ·
okay- so I am going with all the awesome advice and taking the shredding from work home- to layer in with the taters- to put in boxes- with holes and an old sheet covering them! LOL
 
#15 ·
Just read, I think in MEN or Backwood home where they stored their potatoes in sand in what looked like coal buckets. Check it out. Of course never use white sand. Jklady

I saw that too- it was MEN-
but Dh thinks that would be too heavy-
 
#19 ·
And as close to 35-40 degrees and high humidity as you can get. Also, do not store with apples unless you have a real good flow of air. Ethylene gas given off by apples will cause potatoes to sprout.

We dug the last couple rows out of the garden yesterday, and let them dry a bit on old window screens before picking over them to pull out any bad looking ones....bug bites, rotten spots, damage by plowing, etc. Those ( two 5 gallon buckets) got peeled around the bad spots, and the results were 7 1/2gallon jars + 4 quart jars of canned potatoes that were not fit to store in the root cellar. The rest go in there in the morning.

This time of year, here, the root cellar is running about 60 degrees. Nights are in the mid 40 range this week, so I open the door and run a fan to pull cooler air in now, cooling it as much as possible. During the winter, I run a real small fan at night to pull in cold outside air (two vents in cellar), plus move ethylene out (we do store apples there too). I can get the temp down to low 40's eventually, but thats about the best I can do.

By the way, the best storing potatoes I've found are Yukon Gold ( slightly yellow ). They FAR outlast the Kennebec (white) we used to always grow. They are still very firm in late February when the others have sprouted and gone "rubbery".

Like Elkhound, we use old milk crates for the potatoes. Make good containers, as they don't rot and have lots of holes for air flow.

Tonights canning:

I thought canning anything but juice in half-gallons was a no-no.
 
#21 ·
Does everyone here store Sweet taters just like they store regular potatoes?
I have most of my white potatoes in an old fridge in the barn. Temp set at 40 degrees.

I dug my sweet potatoes on 9-23 and put them on tables to cure in the barn.

I used these guidelines

When it gets a little cooler all of them will go in my crawl space. It's at 65 degrees and 63% humidity right now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 7thswan
#23 ·
I ran across something interesting the other day when I was researching spring houses and ice houses...potato houses. Apparently, in the old days they had potato houses where they stored sweet potatoes.

Wikipedia says they're usually two-story buildings, but the ones I saw were small like a shed type structure. There were also apple houses. They were both said to have been used to store apples, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. I thought that was really interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_house

Sorry if this is thread drift, lol, but it jogged my memory and might be useful to someone. :)
 
#24 ·
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I used to make wooden crates. I even had some nice homemade jigs for various sizes including bushel and half bushel sizes. I also had a nice supply of 5/4 planks that I rip sawed for stock.

It's one of the things on my "to do" list when I finally have a wood shop again. I think I have one half bushel crate left and I sure could use some more of them.

Not sure if they would be a good seller at something like a farmers market. (??) They're really not hard to make once you get a system and a rhythm going. And you can make them whatever size you want, and out of whatever kind of wood you want, too.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top