Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: DHM on August 23, 2018, 05:26
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Hi, next year I'm going the plant the following potatoes, I was just wondering how long these would last in hessian sacks please?
Red Duke of York
Nicola
Kestrel
Pink Fir Apple
King Edward
Maris Piper
Online research so far has drawn a blank, just saying 'will last for months' (what's that then, 2 or 12?!)
Also if anyone knows of a variety that stores for an extremely long time, longer than those above, I could amend my plan!
Cheers dudes. (",)
DHM
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That is a real 'how long is a piece of string' question :lol:
If you get the storage conditions right, potatoes can hold right through the winter, but spring warmth makes them shoot. A dry, cool cellar would be perfect but I only have a shed, so I keep a close eye and eat them up early spring. Hessian is fine if the storage is perfectly dark. I find paper sacks better in my shed.
Red Duke of York and Nicola are earlies, so are usually eaten as new potatoes. Kestrel is a 2nd early, but will make an early main crop if left to grow. They store well. The others are later croppers and will store :)
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Cool. Tbh it was only the last 3 I intended to store as the 1st earlies will go into summer salads and early roasts. The Red Dukes never as long in our house!
So the last 3 could store unti jan or feb then do you reckon?
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Yes you should be OK to January/February. They need to stay cool, but not freeze, dry and as dark as you can get it.
As I said, I use paper sacks (foraged from work, but ask at the veg section of most shops and they can get you potato sacks their stock has come in), fleece if needed in very cold weather as a double wrap and keep checking them. Rotten potatoes spread the mould to others, so you need to pick these out and bin them regularly :)
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I buy brown paper potato bags from a local farm shop. I store the spuds in my garage and once a week I empty one sack and check for any damaged ones which I chuck away. I was eating spuds until end of February.😀
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I have had them last through to April/May but they soften and they need the shoots rubbing off. Still usable though. I tend to leave the Mains longer.