The potato conundrum

I am facing a confusing problem growing potatoes and would like to hear from other growers especially people in zone 6 or higher.

When I grow my potatoes, being fall planted the previous year or in spring time as recommended, saved seeds or store bought certified seeds, short seasoned or long seasoned,  they all produce and die back in late June, sometimes in early July. Yield is acceptable (4-6 yield to seed ratio), but not super high. I dig them up and store inside the house at 72F in the dark. They don't have a long shelf life and start to sprout in October to November.  Left over potatoes in the ground sprout even earlier in September and don't have enough time to produce.

It seems the whole cycle is off for several months. My question is how to delay my potato harvest or increase the shelf life so I don't need to keep buying seeds in the spring? Is there a link to certain element or environmental factors?

So far I either 1) plant the sprouted buds in the ground to overwinter, or 2) give the June potatoes a cold treatment and replant in summer for a second crop. The latter ones will need freeze protection but they are promising to yield spuds for next year.

How do people in warmer region schedule the potato planting?

With mixed results, I plant a late crop of potatoes to be harvested in November.  The mixed results come from an occasional very hard freeze in early November….and occasional very hot weather in Sept.  

One thing that jumps out at me is the 72º storage temp ....that's a bit on the warm-side of things, in my opinion.

I generally hear they should be stored around 45-55º with high humidity & good air-flow. Not exactly an easy thing to achieve and I imagine you'd be doing that if you had the option.

I store mine in the basement (approx 60-65º) and they will usually last me until February before they start sprouting & getting dried-out.

Knocking the sprouts off might buy you some extra storage time (if you don't intend on planting them, that is).

Curious as to why your plants are maturing so early, though. I had two 'patches' this year: there were those I planted in the spring and another that were 'volunteers' in the compost/hugelkultur pile. Those I planted died back in late July while the compost pile potatoes kept growing until mid September. Perhaps it has something to do with a nutriant deficiency and/or lack of water stressing them out (same story for my summer squash plants).

John F Dean wrote:With mixed results, I plant a late crop of potatoes to be harvested in November.  The mixed results come from an occasional very hard freeze in early November….and occasional very hot weather in Sept.  

Hey John. When do you plant them for the fall crop?

White potatoes don't like heat.  They usually only grow all summer in the north or other cool-summer climates.  Wherever I've lived (usually zones 7-9) they are a spring crop, and they mature by early to mid summer no matter how or where or when I plant them.  In addition, saving one's own seed from one year to the next is a challenge....you simply must keep them cold, i.e. at refrigerator temperature, once their intrinsic dormancy elapses (usually after 2 or 3 months (mine are starting to sprout now after harvest in July).  Otherwise you must get new potatoes to plant each year.

Hi Pete, you are spot on.

1) for storage temperature, I read somewhere that a period of cold storage will break the dormancy so I put the spuds in the fridge from 6/22 to 7/22 and brought them back at room temperature afterwards. These sprouted in a month to be planted. If they were keep cold I think that should extend the dormancy but fridge space is limited.

2) early maturity. I am guessing that has to do with our weather pattern. April and May are the rainier months and no matter how many organic matters I put down, they dissappear in June when it suddenly gets hot and dry. I will try slowing down the release of nutrients by dealing with placement and C:National next year. Maybe add soil amendment for potential deficiency too.

3) what to do with the spuds? Last year they held up to early December and the ground was cold. This year we have a warmer than usual fall season. Are the spuds still safe to eat or feed the animals since I can't plant a lot.

May,   Did I perhaps see elsewhere in a different thread that you are in Missouri?...  Although the following is from the Extension service at the University of Missouri-Columbia and clearly is referencing large, chemically-intensive potato production, I was intrigued to read that there is commercial potato production within the state.  Perhaps if you get a chance to contact either a grower or someone in the extension service, you may be able to get some 6b/Missouri-specific advice regarding the basics of potato production there.  No need to take the advice on the use of chemical treatment as you hopefully can find permie solutions here for disease and/or storage issues.  Good luck!

https://ipmdata.ipmcenters.org/documents/cropprofiles/MOpotato.pdf

Is it a big problem if the stored potatoes sprout too early? My experience is no. I had a bag of stored potatoes forgotten for many months in the basement. The sprouts were literally 10 feet long and the potatoes all withered up. I planted the whole bag, far more than I needed. I dug shallow trenches and spread the long sprouts out along them. They grew very well and my wife still complains 15 years later about the year we had 200 Lbs. of potatoes in a huge pile on the basement floor.

I store them in paper grocery bags in the basement. We run a dehumidifier so it is consistently cool and dry.

I've got this issue big time. Our winters are getting so mild that potatoes will keep growing happily right through them. Until a -3 frost hits them like it did last month. But I always miss the little ones when I dig them and then I end up with plants everywhere, mostly bearing runty little spuds that are barely worth the trouble to collect...except if I don't then there will be a thicket of even smaller ones next time around.

I guess it's a good problem to have, because they play well with most other crops so I just plant over them. Storing them long term never works very well for us because we don't have a good root cellar yet and they sprout prematurely in mild conditions. I could try a bin under the house during the winter if I find something rat proof.

Hi Joylynn,

I put them in in late August.. The exact date depends upon the weather and my memory.   If the weather is running hot, I might put planting off to early Sept.  The challenge is to avoid the hard freeze that often comes about the second week of November.  So, I am sure of 60 days …which is not enough time.  But, if the end of August is a little cooler and the hard November freeze holds off, then I am looking at a possible 80 days or more.  Of course, the freeze normally does not damage the potatoes that are in the ground, but it does destroy the foliage which  pretty well ends the growth.  Of course, I try to put the usual blankets and plastic over the plants when hard frost warnings (as opposed to freeze) are out (we are on a hill and the garden is near a large pond).  But that does little good if the temp drops to 10f.  The good news is if anything survives that first hard freeze, it is often good to Thanksgiving or so.  Prolonged real winter weather doesn’t usually hit until around Christmas.

Thanks John. We're a bit south of you, but your dates are very similar to ours. My potatoes died off early this spring. I have a few that surprised me by sprouting, must be a couple, three  weeks ago. I really don't know how I missed them. Yay fall crop!

Looks like I'll try it out on purpose next fall.

I just get new ones in Jan. and sprout them and plant in early March.  They're usually dying off and ready for harvest in July, and then mystery baby ones try to grow after that and don't really go anywhere and don't really produce, but that's fine.

I have three batches of potatoes this year:

The one harvested in June and sprouted in October were stored in a cool dark place throughout the winter. The sprouts were one foot long so I planted those after frost threat. They quickly grew roots and leaves.

I had small amount of August-planted potatoes after first killing freeze and stored the same way. They just started to eyes developing buds by spring time. I planted those last week but they will come up the latest.

I also buried green store bought spuds in March and they are the most advanced.

Conclusion: plant potatoes whatever way and they will be just fine.