Help! How do I store potatoes?

tessie_bear

hi....i keep pots in a cotton bag or in a paper sack in a dark kitchen cupboard....i got a half sack from farm shop and they have started to sprout....there are 4 of us ....i think u might be pushing it to keep a sack going for 2 months if only 2 eating them....u could mash some and freeze....share with family....i suppose it depends how much cheaper they work out...it might be as cost effective to buy and waste a few iyswim
hth

Dr_DiNg_DoNg

Trinny wrote: »

Hi All

I am really tempted to buy a sack of potatos this month rather than buying small bags in Mr T's.

Can anyone tell me how to keep them from going off / sprouting / going mouldy.

I dont want to fork out for a bag and then end up throwing them away - there are just 2 of us so the bag needs to last about 2 months

Thanks for your help in advance

Trin

They need to be kept dark, cool and dry. The darkness stops them going green, a Hessian sack will let them breath and keep dry, and maybe the garage for a cool place.

Penelope_Penguin

Trinny wrote: »

Can anyone tell me how to keep them from going off / sprouting / going mouldy.

I dont want to fork out for a bag and then end up throwing them away - there are just 2 of us so the bag needs to last about 2 months

We grow our own potatoes, harvest them in Autumn and they last well into the new year Brown sack in a cool shed works for us.

We have an existing thread on this exact subject, so I'll add this thread so that you can browse other ideas.

Penny. x

thriftlady_2

I really wouldn't bother at this time of the year. The kind of spuds sold in large sacks are maincrop. They will have been harvested last autumn and will sprout very quickly at this time of the year and be soft. Unless you are positive that they are first earlies (harvested April- July) then they will be well past their best. Do you know what variety the spuds you want to buy are? The name will tell you when they are likely to have been harvested.

laurel7172

Do sacks of potatoes store OK in the garage during the winter? Also, what about mice? The garage isn't overrrun with them (eek) but we're near woodland and they appear within hours if anything tasty (like lawn or birdseed) gets left in there. Would I have to store the potatoes in a plastic bin (like I do the seed)?

allydowd

http://www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_foods/Storing_the_Surplus_Potatoes_and_Root_Vegetables.php

missychrissy

I keep my potatoes in an old filing cabinet in the garage. They keep for ages and the odd ones that sprout I plant in large plant pots. I've been self sufficient in spuds this way for several months now.

Beaker99

Yes, my parents used to (and still do) buy the half hundred-weight paper bags of potatoes, keep them in the cool/dark and they'll last all winter easily - If you buy potatoes up to April/May this is all the shops have done with theirs! - as for plastic bins, be very careful with plastic, as the last thing you want potatoes to do is sweat.

brownhandbag

cardboard boxes work just as good as paper sacks and stack nicely

Jadek

I had a bit of a search but couldn't find anything that gave me a clear answer so I'm sorry if this gets asked a lot!

Anyway, I'm thinking of buying some potatoes in bulk from a farm shop but am unsure of how to store them.

I live in a flat on the top floor of a Victorian house which at the moment with the bitterly cold weather can get quite chilly. In ways of storage space we only really have the kitchen cupboards and a small loft like storage space which is full of things like the ironing board. We also seem to get the odd mouse, apprently it's common in the area and my mother tells me they like to climb up pipes so I think that's where they're coming from (I've contacted the landlord numerous times and we seem to have an ongoing battle about this - they say they'll send the maintenance guy round but then they don't - but that's another story!).

So anyway the only place I can think to store a sack of potatoes would be in one of the kitchen cupboards (one of the ones a mouse definitley couldn't get into!) Would this be my best option and if not could anyone give me some advice on the best way to do this? And also the best type of storage containers for potatoes?