** O T Sweetpotatoes **pic

I dug my sweetpotatoes , sat .. and got over 240 lbs ..
QUESTION : How can I store them .. I don't have a cold place to keep them ..
my wife and I made some into fries .. and freeze them .. and think we will freeze some in chucks ...
was wondering if theres other ways to keep sweetpotatoes ..
I got pictures .. hope they come up

THANKS for ANY advice ....
mark

Where are you located??? If you are far enough south that the ground does not freeze then just make a dirt mound with them in the middle. Just mound up some dirt then place your patatoes on top of it and cover them over with more dirt. The mound keeps the moisture out of them. If you are farther north where the ground freezes then you need a cellar. I have kept potatoes in my garage over winter(North-East Iowa). Just when spring came I had to move them before it got too warm. My garage never freezes.

I live in Central Iowa ...

THANKS for the idea ... in the garage ...

my garage will freeze .. after a long time of cold ...

but if I make a insulate box ... that would help ...

mark

Sweet potatoes cannot be stored the same way as Irish potatoes. Sweet potatoes DO NOT like getting a chill. First thing to do after harvesting is let them cure in an area which is warm (like 80 plus degrees) and rather humid for about a week to ten days. After this time curing, keep them in a cool (about 55 degrees) and dry (ie low humidity) room. They should keep several months when treated this way, depending upon the variety. We grow sweets every year and do not have a problem storing them through the winter. Very small sweet potatoes will usually shrivel up from losing moisture and should be used fairly quickly. Larger ones, like in your pics will keep for quite a while if done right.

You do of course need to dig them BEFORE frost, or the injury to the foliage will transmit to the roots and they will spoil easily and taste dreadful. Just ask me how I know! LOL!

In the late winter or early spring they will start to try to sprout. You can set some in a warm area under some kind of a grow light (we use fluorescent lights suspended just above the plants) and let the sprouts grow. Don't put them on the windowsill if it is chilly outside. Even if it is warm in the sun, they will be harmed by any chilly drafts. Again, BTDT. If you set them in a basin of water so that the water comes up a little way on the sprouts, they will develop roots and be ready to snap off and plant out. It takes a couple of months from setting them to sprout until they get big enough to plant, so start early. By the way, those sprouts, unlike irish potatoes, are completely edible.

I hope this helps. I googled up a quick link about storing them, if you like.

Christopher
Storing sweet potatoes

Home Depot sells this foam board in 3 inch thickness, for insulation... Can you dig a shallow pit, line it with teh foam, plastic line the foam, then layer them in level, put foam overtop, plastic barrier and then cover with dirt? I hear you guys out that way get a frostline 36 inches deep! I'm not a fan of that... That is WAY too cold for me.


At any rate, I would think that any type of insulation, even wheat straw 12 inches thick, would be better than nothing...

I always put them up in the cellar, but it stays 45-55 degrees year round, so that doesn't help you. I did store seed potatoes outdoors in teh manner I describe, and had nice fertillity the next year. I couldn't have knocked them up better if I did it myself.

No basement? Ours keep real good in the basement - it's not a finished basement, so it's a little cooler than living space. We are still using sweet potatoes from the 2010 crop, stored on shelves in the basement. I remember old timers keeping them in the crawlspace under the house. One old guy had ropes with pullies fixed to the joists and rigged to wooden boxes so he could pull a rope to get the boxes far under the house, and other ropes to pull them back to the crawl space opening.

We used to try to keep them in an outside cellar, but they'd spoil around January - too damp and cool, I guess.

Nice crop, and looks like a good old Wheel Horse in the background.

Paul

I think the insulated box in the garage would work. My wife was raised on a tomato/sweet potato truck farm. They had a non-heated WELL INSULATED 'potato house' where the thousands of bushels they grew each year were stored until they were 'cured' and then sold a pick-up truck load at a time through the Winter. Winter lows around 'here' are typically 0° F or higher. The potatoes never froze.

On a related note - have a couple sweet potato plants in the garden. Personally, I don"t eat them. Just not my favorite. However, the youngest boy likes them, so we planted a couple.

How do you know when to dig them up?

Thanks

Tony

Tony - you can dig them any time before they get frosted. If they get frosted, you can cut the tops off immediately and save them. It's best to dig them a week or so before the frost though - they should lie in the sun to dry before putting them in storage. Leave the dirt on them - they keep better.

Hi Mark, That's a nice crop of sweet potatoes.
I plowed and tilled the garden this morning. I sowed rye for a cover crop. More rain is headed this way from a storm called Rina. You need to keep those potatoes somewhere where it doesn't get below freezing and where it's not too warm.
My wife said her parents kept them in a closet in an old house on the farm without any central heat. Freezing a lot them may be a good idea. You could canned some. You may be able to sell a few. Hal

I see I'm not the only one that reuses the Tidy Cat cat litter buckets. Hhal

When I grew a lot of Kennebec spuds I used an old freezer buried in the ground to keep them. They never froze. Hal

Like El Toro uses his old freezer out side you could get one for inside your garage. That way you would have a lid and it would be well protected from mice. I have several old chest type freezers that I use to store grass seed and left over seed corn in. They where free for hauling them off twenty years ago.